Wildlife "harvesting"
Today we are inundated with what many people consider to be politically correct terms. These are words that are substituted for the real word we want to use but feel that others might find objectionable. Euphuisms that tend to conceal what we really are saying in a cloak of benignity. We all use them and hypocritically ridicule others when they do the same we are doing.
One of the most commonly used and presumably accepted politically correct terms regarding hunting and for that matter fishing of animals is "harvesting". Today we don't hunt, trap, or fish, we…harvest! What does that mean? When I was young and went hunting, trapping and fishing, I took along something, gun, traps, rod and reel, that would hopefully kill an animal. I did not bring along a spade or a rake. My aim was to kill it, take its life away, not pull it out of the ground. To read the hunting and fishing literature today is like reading a garden magazine. So many of such and such animal were harvested this year, the crop looks good for the harvest season. Our harvest goals are….
What happened? How did we go from acknowledging that we actually went out to purposely kill an animal, supposedly to eat, to treating the whole operation as if it were a stroll through the garden looking for the ripest melon or tomato? Are modern hunters ashamed of what they do? Are they trying to hide the fact of what they do, shoot, trap, hook…kill animals? If so, why? If as they say and I still somewhat believe, hunting, humans acting as predators, is a respectable activity. We as with other predators evolved to feed upon other animals. Though the fact of modern day living reduces, even eliminates our need to kill wild animals for food, doing so occasionally does not violate any laws of nature. There are no retirement homes in nature and either an animal falls to a predator, possibly human, dies of hunger, or disease. No wild animal dies of old age.
Note, I am not delving into the whole issue of whether or not we as modern humans need to kill, that is another subject entirely. What I am arguing here is that if the "side" that advocates we have the "right" to hunt to kill animals, admits it! Why are they so ashamed of what they do that they hide behind, tolerate the use of such a demeaning term…harvesting. Animals are not melons, they are not corn, they are animals and if we want to use them, we need to kill them! And we need to admit that is what we are doing!
It seems the epitome of hypocrisy for a hunter to brandish his gun, strut around bragging about the xxx animal he is going to or has…harvested! Why do they do that? Are they trying to make killing of animals sound less horrendous to those who don't hunt? For whatever reason, they have opted for the politically correct term that makes what they do sound no more malevolent than the ladies garden club where they "harvest" flowers, fruits, and vegetable. Oh nooo, we are not killing, we are harvesting, those deer, that makes it alright.
This hypocrisy has to stop. If hunters, trappers, fishermen, cannot openly admit that what they do is kill animals and continue to hide behind the skirts of gardeners, then they have no "right" to hunt. Come on you big bwana hunters, admit it and let the chips fall where they may. Be proud of what you do or put your guns, traps, fishing poles away and go harvest some real fruits and vegetables! Anyone who harvests wildlife does not deserve to be out in the wild.
It is my hope that one of the words retired this new year is the ridiculous use of harvest to sanctify, justify, nullify hunting for what it is…killing animals. Once we do that, then we can all honestly discuss not the right but the need to do so.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment