If you are a hunter, I’m sure you’re appreciation of the natural world is second to none; you tend to notice things other people miss.  In your travels you have seen things that most animal rights groups will never lay their eye’s on:  A fawn traveling with its mother; an owl’s look-right-through-you stare;  a sunrise lighting a blanket of fresh snow.

We hunters and outdoorsmen (and women) have an appreciation for nature that is second to none.  We also have a deep respect for the quarry we pursue:  Whitetail Deer, turkeys, pheasant, Canadian geese, and squirrels.  The list could go on and on.

With this deep appreciation and connection with nature that we have, I often find myself stumbling over my words when I try to explain to a non-hunter how I can kill a Whitetail one day, and help to rehabilitate or free an animal the next.  On the surface it does seem like quite a contradiction, but when you look deeper I think it becomes crystal clear.

Holly started this line of thinking for me yesterday.  Whenever she gets a chance she tries to down a few ducks to fill the freezer.  And despite those efforts, and her love of cooked duck, she still found herself helping a robin that had flown into her window.

In her post she was trying to wrap her mind around why she was doing what she was doing, and it got me thinking about the same thing.  How can we as hunters, with our deep appreciation for nature, and especially the animals within it, kill one minute, and turn around the next and help a suffering animal?  It is a hard concept to explain to an anti, or even a non-hunter for that matter, but I’m going to give it a try.

I think it comes down to two important concepts:  fairness and compassion.  I think the compassion to help wounded animals comes from our deep appreciation for them.  I also think our need to hunt comes from – not only our bellies, and years of evolution – but also from our compassion for the quarry as well.  How can one not be appreciative of the life of an animal, when they are involved so intimately with its death?

The other part of this complex equation has to do with fairness.  And while I tend to hate the word “fair”, because I think it gets overused -  in this instance it fits perfectly.  We are not blood thirsty killers like the anti’s go out of their way to portray – and that is where fairness comes into the picture.  We do ultimately kill in order to eat, and to feel alive, but we like to do it on a level playing field – and an animal suffering or an animal in distress doesn’t fit that mold.  I think that is why myself, Holly, and many other hunters out there have helped to save a bird, stopped for ducks to cross the street, or slowed down so we didn’t hit a squirrel.

We ultimately want to provide food for the table – that is no secret.  But we want to do it in a fair forum; on a level playing field.  That is what helps to please the hunter within; not thoughtless killing.

Are we walking contradictions?  I guess from the outside looking in, we could initially be perceived that way.  But ultimately – by the way of the arrow, or the gun – we have developed a love of nature, and for the animals within it,  that far outclasses any animal rights or environmentalist group out there.

I’ll continue to chase turkeys, ultimately trying to put them on the grill.  And I will continue to chase the elusive Whitetail through his home that I will never know as intimately as he or she does.  And because of my love of animals, and my intimate knowledge of them, and appreciation for them, I will wait for the ducks to cross, help the wounded Woodcock I stumbled across, and smile at the sight of a fawn with its mother.

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