The
September 13, 2012 Idaho Statesman reports that after decades of decline, hunting seems to be coming back again, partly because it is a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment, and because it puts food on the table. But along with hunters who grew up hunting, there are some real surprises showing up, too:
This new breed of hunter/writers are much different critters.
One is Lily Raff McCaulou, who wrote “Call of the Mild.” She was a 20-something, East Coast, city gal who moved to Bend, Ore., and took up hunting.
To call her an unlikely hunter would be an understatement. Her nervous “coming out” as a hunter to her liberal, Washington D.C. parents showed how far she was raised from a traditional hunting family.
But McCaulou’s story is about more than hunting, it’s about crossing the cultural divide between rural and urban and their often-polarized attitudes about wildlife and guns.
She also does what few lifelong hunters are capable of doing — look inward and articulate why she hunts and how she feels when she kills an animal and later eats it.
Another book is “The Beginner’s Guide to Hunting Deer for Food” by Jackson Lander.
Lander writes that he was born into a vegetarian household and “never tasted a cheeseburger until age 10.”
He decided to take up hunting as a way to provide food for his family.
So much of politics and culture is about reaction. You grew up in a Christian home? Why wouldn't you become a Buddhist, or an atheist. Mom and Dad were liberals? Remember the TV show
Family Ties? There were a lot of
Alex Keatons in the 1980s and 1990s. Hunting as a way of distancing yourself from your anti-gun, urban sophistcate parents makes a lot of sense.
Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/09/13/2269526/participation-in-hunting-increases.html#storylink=cpy
Another thing is, hunting for food can actually work. My friend from California killed a bear last year (yes, you can get a bear tag in Cali). The result was a rug and 180 pounds of meat. He asked for most of it put into sousages. But think about it: you can eat that bear for a year, and that assumes eating it every other day. Yes, really, whole year. I had some taste, too. He was only too happy to give it away, says that family cannot stand bear in every other meal anymore :-)
ReplyDelete"Hunting is a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment..."
ReplyDeleteWell, compared to polo...Yachting is also more expensive than hunting...
I'd be terrified to calculate how much I spend annually on hunting, but I am sure a conservative estimate would come out around $50 per pound of game meat...
I really appreciate this line; Hunting as a way of distancing yourself from your anti- Gun, urban sophisticate parents makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDelete