Hunting

For all the moral and conservation issues it brings up, hunting seems to be part of the human condition. Like cats, wolves, and some of our other primate cousins, early humans depended on hunting for survival. For them, it was not a matter of sport but necessity. But what about today? Are we above the influence of such brutish, primal instincts, or is it only natural that we follow them?

For indigenous communities, it's understandable that people must kill animals for food, and in third-world countries, the harvest of bushmeat may sometimes be the only means of making money. But what about those people who hunt for sport? Is this morally wrong?

In the past, I would have said yes, but as I learn more, it becomes harder to stick with one opinion. Many of the country's greatest naturalists and conservationists (John James Audubon and Teddy Roosevelt) have been hunters themselves. For them, hunting was not only a sport but a means of connecting to the natural world. Even today, hunting is often used as an excuse to get outdoors and enjoy nature. Contrary to what some liberal anti-hunting groups may think, the fun is not focused on killing an animal, but rather finding it, coming face to face with it, and having those long hours of waiting finally pay off.

I've noticed recently that if you compare hunting and birdwatching, the two are pretty much the same thing minus a gun. Birdwatching, which has only become popularized in the latest half- century, may have actually originated from hunting. Hunters and birders alike stalk their quarry, use the same kind of patience, and perhaps enjoy the same sort of adrenaline rush.

This adrenaline rush, which is almost impossible to describe in words, is probably connected to the same hunting instinct of our predecessors. Leah experiences this exact feeling when she kills her first Bushbuck in the Poisonwood Bible. Sickness mixed with heart-pounding excitement. Sensory overload. It's instinct, I tell you. Hunting may be controversial, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't try to understand it. There are too many kinds of hunting for it to be lumped into the singular category of "bloodsport". Those who say hunting is cruel to animals yet continue to eat hamburgers should visit a factory farm, or at the very least, know where their meat comes from. Like Adah (Poisonwood Bible character) said, "The death of something living is the price of our own survival, and we pay it again and again. We have no choice. It is the one solemn promise every life on earth is born and bound to keep."