Are you helping or hindering the hunter stereotype?
Heidi Esau
I did not grow up in a hunting family. My Dad is a grain farmer and the .22 only came out when there were a few too many magpies or squirrels around. Truth be told, I never had much of an opinion on hunters until I started dating and later marrying one. Shortly after I met Troy, he took me out on my first hunt, and I've been hunting ever since. That being said, I've made some observations over the past 10 years on the stereotypes people have of hunters, and a lot of them are negative.
I'll meet someone in a social situation and we'll hit it off, but as soon as it comes out that I'm a hunter, the mood changes. How could you kill innocent animals? So, you just drive around and shoot whatever you see? Or on the other hand, I'll find out they too claim to be 'hunters', but they really only go out one weekend of the year, in rifle season, to blast whatever animal they see that is legal, or possibly illegal, to shoot. Do you see what I'm getting at here? What I believe hunting to be, and what so many others believe hunting to be is worlds apart. Why is this?
Unfortunately, where I live, I don't blame people for their negative opinion of hunters, heck, I have a negative opinion of a lot of supposed 'hunters'. This fall I was sitting a tree stand on our own property, not far off a mile road. Far enough that I wasn't easily seen from the road (despite being fully decked out in blaze orange), but close enough that I could pretty easily see the road from my perch up in the tree. It wasn't too long and a truck drove suspiciously slowly down the road. And then again. And then again. On the third slow pass, the door popped open and a rifle appeared and took a shot, not directly at me, but in my general direction, and certainly much too close for comfort. The fact that it is completely illegal and downright dangerous doesn't escape me either. Situations like this make me mad. They make my husband mad. And they make all responsible hunters mad. Not only do people like this make hunting dangerous, but they also are the reason that there are so many negative stereotypes surrounding the hunting industry.
It's not uncommon to hear stories of people shooting the wrong animals, or in the worst-case scenario, people. These things just shouldn't happen if you are actually hunting legally and ethically. Even if it is technically legal shooting light, you should never take a shot if you are not 110% sure of your target. There are many days I have packed it in early, because I know I would no longer be confident to make a great shot for an ethical takedown. Always take the time to know what is beyond your target so you are never putting someone’s life at risk. The stories like this that make the news just fuel the fire for non-hunters, and while I agree that they are terrible, they are also tainting the hunting industry for all those that take every precaution and take so much pride in the sport.
What I'm saying is, if you claim to be a hunter, please think about your actions. Are they fueling or creating the negative stereotypes, or are they fighting those negatives to create a better view of our way of life
