An online religious news service recently featured an article that hunting was really a form of conservation, and the fulfillment of God’s instructions to Adam and Eve to take dominion over the earth. That is an interesting perspective.
For many years the Commercial Record (now part of the Wilcox newspapers) printed a column of local historical events of 25, 50, 75, and 100 years in the past. In 1995, there was a short paragraph from the newspaper of 1895, that stated that for over a decade (i.e. since 1885) no white tail deer had been seen in Allegan County, and they should now be considered extinct and never to be seen again.
Seriously? I shooed a flock of five out of own lawn the other morning, interrupting their breakfast of my lettuce and salad greens, hosta, and a few other vegetarian treats. I have yet to drive out to Ox-Bow School of the Arts, without seeing a dozen or more deer, lurking to one side of the road or the other, or on the road, dashing across the road, or grazing in some meadows. Once in a while a deer or flock of turkey’s darts across the road on the way and from Good Shepherd and my home.
A century and a quarter ago, the newspapers claimed there were no deer in the county. Fifty years ago, from what some of The Olds have told me, there were no wild turkeys. To those two animals, we can add an abundance of squirrels. That is a good thing, but too much of a good thing can become a bad thing.
When the first white settlers began exploring and then moving into this area, they relied on wild game to supplement their food supply. In addition to deer, they hunted turkey, rabbits, ducks, and caught fish from the area rivers and lakes. There was also another food source that no one could begin to imagine would ever become extinct: passenger pigeons. There were billions of them in our country, and they were not the brightest of birds. During the times when they were in our area it was common for men and boys to go out to the stands of oak trees, club them, and take them home for dinner. In some areas, pigeons were shipped to the metropolitan areas to be served as a delicacy at the finest restaurants. By 1917, they were extinct.
The habitat for all of these and other animals was destroyed during the lumbering years and replaced by farms and orchards. Not too many years ago, during the Nixon Administration, the Secretary of Agriculture told farmers they should plow right up to the fence lines on their fields to raise more crops. They did, and the habitat for smaller animals was destroyed. Among the first to go were the ring neck pheasants who nested in the fencerows.
Right now, it is the deer population that is a concern. Their territory is persistently diminished and they have begun venturing into villages and cities. They have come to learn that those are no hunting zones. They can graze their way through someone’s flower garden without fear of being shot. Even if they do not know it, they have allies from other humans who want to protect them. Some, because a deer is ‘so cute,’ and others because the deer were here first and we need to work around them.
I can understand their beliefs, even if I do not agree with them. Their natural predators have been killed off or driven away. Without managed hunting and wildlife management, a surging deer population will invariably lead to some, perhaps quite a few, dying of starvation during the winter months. Crowded together, biologists tell us, also helps spread the hideous Wasting Disease that is a slow death for those infected. Other deer, when crossing a road, are seriously injured, and die a slow death.
All of this is a balance between all the interested parties. a harsh no-hunting policy or law is not the best one, any more than terminating all hunting laws and regulations that ends in a totally open season. One reason is that while some hunters want to put meat in their freezer or help a neighbor in need, or donate meat to charity, others are just plain greedy. Perhaps you have seen old photographs of huge piles of buffalo left to rot, or a large number of field-dressed deer, shot primarily for the pleasure of it.
There has to be a balance.
I have never been hunter. As a boy, my father taught me gun safety and how to shoot to cause as little pain or suffering as possible. Those shooting lessons and target practice became important skills that are easily transferable to many other things we do in life. Learning how to sight a target, patience, self-control, breathing and then holding one’s breath, and how to squeeze a trigger and not jerk it are important in so many ways.
I did come close to being a hunter when I lived in northern Alberta, Canada. Some Woodland Cree friends invited me to go on their annual moose hunt. I agreed and brought along a large bore muzzle loader. To cut to the chase, Sam and Ed spotted a moose and asked if I wanted to take the shot. I told them to do it, instead. They were hunting for meat for the winter; I would have shot for just the bragging rights, and that did not seem right.
I learned more good life lessons while we were on that trip. The two fellows talked at length about how they had learned from their elders who had learned from the ancestors to have the utmost respect for being in the wilderness, gun safety, watching out for one another, and the most important of all: “Only take what you need.”
For them, hunting was an important part of their spirituality.
After they got their moose, I watched them talk to it, thanking him for making it possible for the people to eat, and then treated the carcass with respect as they field dressed it. By nightfall, their families had joined us in several more canoes. They had been behind us by about an hour. All of them set to work preparing every part of the animal to be taken home and used in a respectful and appropriate way.
Later, before the campfire burned out, Ed and Sam reminded everyone around it, that the federal and provincial governments did not want First Nations People hunting big game. One reason was that First Nations peoples did not have to buy a license, nor did they invest money in guides and butchers.
The government wanted to give the people a subsidy or allowance to buy their food at a store. He paused and hideous image of modern life sunk in – a slab of chemically enhanced meat on a styro tray and wrapped in plastic. Then Ed’s brother spoke up, “But we are following the teachings of our ancestors. We pass on the traditions to the young ones here tonight and back at Elizabeth Settlement.” Frankly, I thought the First Nations methods were more civilized and advanced.
Conservation of our land, air, water, and wildlife are essential for the survival of the human race. It is a connection with the past, present, and future, and a true appreciation of the bounty of the land. It was one part wildlife management and one part spirituality.
