Two years ago, it was small. Just a glimmer of an idea. Nothing more than a flicker of movement, caught out of the corner of my mind’s eye. Bold one moment, it would dash into full view like a blustery red squirrel. Furtive the next moment, it would skitter off into the mental underbrush. (I [...]
Posts Tagged ‘ethics’
Portrait of an unexpected hunter
The photographs, projected onto a screen in front of the room, were astonishing. A bobcat crouching in thick cover. A cougar staring intently, its head dusted in snow. A black bear on its hind feet, marking a white birch. And the words that went with them—spoken by wildlife biologist, conservationist, photographer, and tracker Sue Morse—were [...]
Porcupines, plywood, and interspecies peace
Last summer, when a mother bear and three cubs raided our apple trees at dawn, Cath and I watched, spellbound. Some broken branches and a few dozen apples were no great loss—nothing compared to the privilege of watching bruins in our front yard. In winter, when red squirrels pilfered sunflower seeds from the bird feeders, [...]
Hunting with Gandhi
In college, studying Mahatma Gandhi’s moral and political philosophy, I was impressed by the twin commitments of his lifelong quest for truth. On the one hand, he lived according to what he saw as the truth, which must, he wrote, “be my beacon, my shield and buckler.” On the other hand, he had the humility [...]
Ceremony for a meal
Kneeling beside my first deer, I had no words. I just sat there stunned, my hand on his shoulder, uncertain whether I would ever hunt again. Finally, I whispered something clumsy: half gratitude, half apology. The next year, when my second deer dropped in his tracks, I was shaken but less shocked. I spoke my [...]
When hunters ruin the hunt
He loved the woods, the animals, and the hunt. What he didn’t count on were the hunters. Following his boyhood dream, he earned his license as a Registered Maine Guide and landed a job with an outfitter. Then came the group of hunters who returned to camp bragging about how they had chased a moose [...]
Monkeys, venison, and the sentience of dinner
Was that the faint sound of steps? Of hooves crunching dry leaves under the thin blanket of snow? Seated on the ground, I shifted to the right and half-raised my .54 caliber caplock. Moments later, I saw deer some forty yards off, walking toward me among the pines. Two, three, four of them. I brought [...]
Hunting and heresy: A skirmish with Ortega y Gasset
If my pristine hardcover copy of Meditations on Hunting was a paperback, it would be heavily marked up. Here and there, a sentence would be underlined, noting my emphatic agreement. Mostly, though, the margins would be crammed with question marks, exclamation points, and words of protest. This little book, written in 1942 by Spanish philosopher [...]
The good, the bad, and the hungry
Two weeks ago, I got an email from Michelle Scheuermann, a spokesperson for The Sportsman Channel. Hunt.Fish.Feed.—a project Michelle works on, bringing donated game and fish to the hungry—was getting some bad press. She wondered if I would take a look and share my thoughts. Given my journey from veganism to hunting, she thought I [...]
An accidental trophy
Even with the leaves damp and quiet, I heard the buck coming. And even through the branches and brush, I saw enough antler to know he was no off-limits spikehorn. When he stepped around the big hemlock twenty yards away, my rifle was up. In the periphery of my mind, the antlers registered: maybe six [...]