OK, so I spend a good bit of time trying to defend hunters and our actions, both on this site and off of it. I work hard to explain to non-hunters that there’s so much more to hunting than killing stuff, and that most hunters actually live by a pretty strict sense of ethics. I talk and write about the idea that the negative crap we read in the papers or see on the TV news represents the anomalies in the sport… the poachers and scofflaws are the exceptions, not the norm.
But there are times when I just want to throw up my hands and say, “the hell with it.”
Today was one of those times.
Someone sent me an email containing this article from the Seattle Times.
In summary, the State opened a special archery elk season in order to reduce the population of elk in a relatively small area. The animals had been wreaking havoc on local farms and residential properties.
According to the article, word got out about a herd of elk feeding on a private pasture and several hunters (over a dozen by some reports) gathered and tried to surround the herd. It’s not clear in the article if there was some kind of barrier penning the animals in, but regardless, things apparently turned ugly fast. When everything was done, seven elk were dead, and non-hunting observers (as well as many hunters) were crying foul.
The details are really fuzzy, and I try real hard to keep my mind open to the possibility that I’m not going to get an objective picture from “eyewitnesses” and news reporters. But this is the kind of thing I read.
Walter Gillespie, 82, of Sedro-Woolley, agreed. “I think it was an atrocity,” he said. “It’s not a sportsman’s way.”
He said the hunt wasn’t fair, with the elk penned up and hunters coming from both sides of the herd.
Gillespie said the worst part wasn’t the elk that died and were hauled away.
“How many more were shot … ” he said. “That’s what bugs me. If one didn’t fall down, they’d shoot another one. The whole thing was like a comedy — a bad, bad comedy.”
The consistency in some of what I read leads me to think there’s at least signficant truth to the reports of folks shooting indiscriminately and wounding animals without following up, and that bugs me more than the fact that they apparently cornered the animals before the shooting started.
The article does point out, more than once, that the game wardens were on hand, and while they didn’t approve of the activities, no laws were broken. But the public spectacle was pretty harsh, handing us one more big, PR black-eye.
Of course, several folks have been quick to point out that this hunt was meant to reduce the population, as if this explanation justifies the behavior. I do agree that population reduction justifies certain hunting methods that we might not otherwise care for, but I don’t think there’s any good excuse for the scenario described in this article.
Mugs
Sad thing is that, thanks to the HSUS, that’s what most of the non-hunting public thinks happens on high-fence ranches. They don’t get that such a spectacle horrifies most of us. Probably including some of the momos who got caught up in this.