I heard someone on the radio today say that a hunter “took” a deer.
(I’m not making this up…I interviewed the guy)
I don’t think he meant that the hunter swindled the deer out of his life savings.
When he says “took,” I realize that this is much kinder to say than “shot in the head and ate,” but it bothers me that even hunters have gotten afraid to just say what it is.
There are t-shirts and bumper stickers out there that say things like, “Fire up the Grill…deer hunting isn’t catch and release!” and “Vegetarian: Old Indian word for Bad Hunter.”
My favorite bumper sticker for the occasion is, “I sit very quietly in the woods so when a deer walks by I can shoot him with my high-powered rifle.”
We take time out for the Real County Music lyric of the day.
People ask me how I do it, And I say, "There's nothin' to it,
You just stand there lookin' cute, And when something moves, you shoot!"
And there's ten stuffed heads in my trophy room right now,
Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a pure-bred Guernsey cow.
I don’t hunt. I’ve never killed an animal (unless you count the goldfish I overfed in daycare when I was five and the occasional "not quite quick enough to dodge my car" squirrel) but I’m sure glad there are people out there doing it. I have compassion for the animals, but they are here for us to eat. At least I think so. And they taste pretty good.
I mean, is there any doubt that they would kill and eat us if they had the opportunity?
