There Has To Be An Enemy - Hunt Fair Chase

It’s hard not to be preoccupied with the siege against hunters and hunting being put forth by the anti-hunter establishment. Their rhetoric and outright lies have gone on unchecked for too long. But lets be realistic about two things.

Just as we, the hunting community, need to up our game and not stand idly by while these groups vie for social change with their lies, misinformation, and junk science, we should also not stand idly by thinking they are our only problem. How much ammunition are we as sportsmen leaving around for them to pick up and use against us?

The anti-hunter agenda is to portray hunters as social outcast, bloodsport thugs looking for thrills at the expense of defenseless animals and who celebrate over a lifeless carcass with chest-thumping, dancing and high-fives. Have you seen anything on television or the Internet lately that would support such ridiculous claims? It could be that putting something as personal as hunting on televisions and making it appear to be only about who kills what is the worst thing we could have done for hunting, especially when it seems the entertainment factor is who can do the best death dance for the camera, something our youth now emulate as being the norm.

As hunters, we are respectful on many levels, with the game, the land we hunt on, and each other. This includes operating under the notion of, “Don’t mess with the other guy.” Our nature of just going about our own business and shying away from calling out how others go about their business may just be our own Achilles’ heal.

If we must believe there has to be an enemy, then we must too believe that these marauders will pick up what scraps we leave for them. We best stop making their job any easier.

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