I don't either. If it was there'd presumably be an awful lot more people who did it! eyebrow I think the other answers given by the people who hunt make much more sense.OE2X:
Why hunt?
- Thread starter Supernal
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dumpsterDiver
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Why Hunt?
It is a lot cheaper (and usually easier) than UW photography.....
It is a lot cheaper (and usually easier) than UW photography.....
I think fishing and spearfishing is fun and challenging. Never been hunting for land animals though, maybe one day.
OP
Supernal
Contributor
OE2X:
Well said. I think we lost something when we stopped honouring the animals (and plants) that gave their lives.
I don't hunt, but when I eat the herbs and vegetables that I grow in my garden, I remember to thank the earth for life.
And perhaps hunting is more honest than getting an amorphous, nameless piece of meat from the supermarket?
OP
Supernal
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I guess shopping brings out the ancestral "gathering" instinct in us!
airsix
Contributor
This is a very interesting thread and I thank the moderators for letting the discussion open up a bit.
OE2X, you are quite a writer. I hope you write a book some day. I'd like to read it. I think I experience similar feelings to what you have expressed. I hope it's alright to offer my perspective. I have not yet hunted underwater but I look forward to experiencing it probably later this year.
I am a falconer (no SNL jokes please). While I very much dislike killing and never enjoy seeing a life end there are other distinct and possitive experiences that are part of a hunt. We all know that each life is sustained through the sacrifice of another life. The grass dies to feed the cow, which dies to feed the man, who dies and feeds the grass... But man, modern man, has sort of broken the food chain - not litterally, but it has been obscured from view. We don't 'actively participate' in the process like our ancestors did. It's like we are a link removed from the chain. When you hunt you graft yourself back into the chain - or rather your perception of the chain is enhanced and you see it more clearly. You feel it. For those minutes or hours you feel like you are a participant, not a spectator - Like someone watching dancers and is suddenly led onto the floor and for a few minutes is part of something grand. That may sound petty - like a cheap thrill that only the unsophisticated would endulge in. I can't expect anyone to understand it until they have experienced it. And the experience - the one I'm talking about anyway, is not about killing.
Some of my fondest memories in nature are hunting with Buddy - a Red Tailed hawk. He was trapped as a juvenile, trained for 4 weeks, and from that time forward flown free several times a week. We hunted together for two years. He was then released back into the wild (in superb health and physical condition) and was doing very well the last time I saw him about 3 months after release. Okay, the memories... We would hunt rabbits together. I hated seeing rabbits die. They are cute and soft and harmless. But Buddy was a hawk that likes to eat rabbits so we hunted rabbits together. Hawks can't ferret rabbits out of holes in the ground, turn over pallets or kick brush. They've got a pretty rough life trying to find a meal because meals make themselves scarse when a hawk comes around. So Buddy would follow me around the field. He'd watch me (yes, like a hawk) and when I flushed a rabbit he'd take flight. If the rabbit put into cover Buddy would call me over to the spot and I'd try to flush the bunny again. It was truely remarkable to be trusted by a wild animal and be allowed to work as a team in the pursuit of a meal (although I never ate the rabbits - I let Buddy keep them all to himself). Sooner or later he'd catch his meal. We'd both be pretty tired by that point so I'd hike over to where the hunt ended and lay down in the grass next to Buddy while he dressed his meal and ate. I was sad to see the bunny slip away - losing what was frequently a spectacular race for it's life, but so many other things were there to be experienced. Possitive things. Laying in the grass staring up at the sky inches away from this wild animal that was alowing me to participate in it's existence - like nature's back-stage pass - was just amazing. And the thrill was not in killing - not in seeing a life end, but rather in seeing the handoff - the continuation of life as it necessarily passed from one to another.
I've experienced the same feelings to a lesser degree hunting with a gun or bow. Something clicks in the primal recesses of the mind when you take your place in the food chain. When you chase food something wakes up in you. It's not bad, or evil, or mean. More than anything I believe it is an awareness, and it is an awareness that has the ability to foster greater appreciation for life - not a disregard for it.
-Ben M.
OE2X, you are quite a writer. I hope you write a book some day. I'd like to read it. I think I experience similar feelings to what you have expressed. I hope it's alright to offer my perspective. I have not yet hunted underwater but I look forward to experiencing it probably later this year.
I am a falconer (no SNL jokes please). While I very much dislike killing and never enjoy seeing a life end there are other distinct and possitive experiences that are part of a hunt. We all know that each life is sustained through the sacrifice of another life. The grass dies to feed the cow, which dies to feed the man, who dies and feeds the grass... But man, modern man, has sort of broken the food chain - not litterally, but it has been obscured from view. We don't 'actively participate' in the process like our ancestors did. It's like we are a link removed from the chain. When you hunt you graft yourself back into the chain - or rather your perception of the chain is enhanced and you see it more clearly. You feel it. For those minutes or hours you feel like you are a participant, not a spectator - Like someone watching dancers and is suddenly led onto the floor and for a few minutes is part of something grand. That may sound petty - like a cheap thrill that only the unsophisticated would endulge in. I can't expect anyone to understand it until they have experienced it. And the experience - the one I'm talking about anyway, is not about killing.
Some of my fondest memories in nature are hunting with Buddy - a Red Tailed hawk. He was trapped as a juvenile, trained for 4 weeks, and from that time forward flown free several times a week. We hunted together for two years. He was then released back into the wild (in superb health and physical condition) and was doing very well the last time I saw him about 3 months after release. Okay, the memories... We would hunt rabbits together. I hated seeing rabbits die. They are cute and soft and harmless. But Buddy was a hawk that likes to eat rabbits so we hunted rabbits together. Hawks can't ferret rabbits out of holes in the ground, turn over pallets or kick brush. They've got a pretty rough life trying to find a meal because meals make themselves scarse when a hawk comes around. So Buddy would follow me around the field. He'd watch me (yes, like a hawk) and when I flushed a rabbit he'd take flight. If the rabbit put into cover Buddy would call me over to the spot and I'd try to flush the bunny again. It was truely remarkable to be trusted by a wild animal and be allowed to work as a team in the pursuit of a meal (although I never ate the rabbits - I let Buddy keep them all to himself). Sooner or later he'd catch his meal. We'd both be pretty tired by that point so I'd hike over to where the hunt ended and lay down in the grass next to Buddy while he dressed his meal and ate. I was sad to see the bunny slip away - losing what was frequently a spectacular race for it's life, but so many other things were there to be experienced. Possitive things. Laying in the grass staring up at the sky inches away from this wild animal that was alowing me to participate in it's existence - like nature's back-stage pass - was just amazing. And the thrill was not in killing - not in seeing a life end, but rather in seeing the handoff - the continuation of life as it necessarily passed from one to another.
I've experienced the same feelings to a lesser degree hunting with a gun or bow. Something clicks in the primal recesses of the mind when you take your place in the food chain. When you chase food something wakes up in you. It's not bad, or evil, or mean. More than anything I believe it is an awareness, and it is an awareness that has the ability to foster greater appreciation for life - not a disregard for it.
-Ben M.
Ben,
I must say that I'm honored that you like my writing style. Not sure that I have what it takes for a book, but thank you very much for your high praise.
Now in turn allow me to praise your writing. Its style is very visual and lyrical. Prose such as yours are not only hard to achieve, but also hard to convey the visual nuances that you are able to. I found myself close to smelling the fresh grass that you lay upon in the field... Very eloquent indeed.
I think you sum up many of my thoughts in your final sentences where you state:
I must say that I'm honored that you like my writing style. Not sure that I have what it takes for a book, but thank you very much for your high praise.
Now in turn allow me to praise your writing. Its style is very visual and lyrical. Prose such as yours are not only hard to achieve, but also hard to convey the visual nuances that you are able to. I found myself close to smelling the fresh grass that you lay upon in the field... Very eloquent indeed.
I think you sum up many of my thoughts in your final sentences where you state:
airsix:
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"the primal recesses of the brain" are triggered by hormones.
I guess I am going to have to do some research if I am going to get into it with Kim again.... sigh.
And estrogen makes "people like me" to prefer you to just drag it home after it's dead.
I actually had a world-known physician in La Jolla, Ca, tell me that he has been correlating how people dress with their hormone panels for years. Fascinating.
I guess I am going to have to do some research if I am going to get into it with Kim again.... sigh.
And estrogen makes "people like me" to prefer you to just drag it home after it's dead.
I actually had a world-known physician in La Jolla, Ca, tell me that he has been correlating how people dress with their hormone panels for years. Fascinating.
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