Managing Our Hunting Image – Spin Control, Defense, and Activism
I’m not sure if it’s because most hunting seasons are over this time of year, or maybe it’s the election year… or maybe there’s just an odd alignment in the stars right now… but boy the talk about hunters’ image, anti-hunting assaults on our culture, positive reinforcement for good ethics, and defending our sport’s future have really been rolling of late.
I’ve had my say in the comments sections of many of these discussions, and in at least a couple of cases it’s been quite lengthy… so I’ll save you the headache here. You can go read them yourself if you like by clicking the links you just saw. And of course you can just drop in any time to visit with Moose at Moose Droppings Blog, Kristine at Hunt Smart, Think Safety, or Arthur at Simply Outdoors.
But today, thanks to the Hunting Pressure blog, I took a little trip over to the Waldo County Citizen’s Village Soup column to read an interesting new take… making hunting into a politically correct sport. I guess the idea is to promote wild game as an environmentally responsible, healthy and humane alternative to factory meat. Of course, us hunters already know that to be the case, but the author of the piece, Ken Bailey, provides some thoughts as to how we might leverage that knowledge with the growing trend toward localism (eating food from local sources to alleviate the environmental pressure of factory farming and transportation). Interesting ideas, at the very least, and worth a read.
I’m heading over there now to read that article. It would be funny to throw the humane aspect of eating wild caught animals at the PETA folks. Ha!
February 7th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
He refers to venison as “free-range, grass-fed, organic, locally produced, locally harvested, sustainable, native, low-stress, low-impact, humanely slaughtered meat.”
That was priceless! Thanks for pointing me to such a good article. Now, if the idea would only fly with the Environmentalists…it seems this would put them in quite the conundrum…
February 7th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I’ve seen this idea proposed before and I’ve always thought it was kind of a good one. It doesn’t say anything that isn’t true, it just places the facts in a new context. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing it happen.
February 7th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Phillip,
For some reason I can’t get to the article this morning, but I just wanted to say thanks for the link and thanks for stopping by the site.
I appreciate your thoughts on the subject. I also put a reply back to you over there so I won’t write it again here, but thanks again for stopping and I appreciate the insight.
February 8th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Thanks all.
Kris, I have actually worked with and spent a lot of time with “environmentalists”. You’d be surprised how supportive many of them are toward hunting as a management tool. The fact that wild game is also a healthy alternative to farm-raised meats is just the icing on the cake to them.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:06 am