As sport hunters (sport as opposed to professional or commercial), we are involved in a pretty unusual activity. We kill living things for recreation. Oh sure, we eat most of them, and we justify the others in some way or other, but when it comes right down to it, we’re not hunting because we have to. We hunt because we want to.

While many hunters don’t think about it all that hard, our pastime carries a pretty big burden of responsibility and ethics. We take a lot of it for granted, of course, but things get sticky when the questions get harder. Justification becomes rationalization becomes empty rhetoric…

Where’s the line? At what point do we separate real, conscientious and ethical behavior from pretentiousness? I’ve explored this before, I guess, but this time I think I’m coming at it from another angle, driven in significant part by recent email “conversations” and blog commentaries.

First, some thoughts. See if you agree.

We owe the animals a quick, clean death.
  • This means we use a weapon that will kill efficiently. Whether it’s choosing an appropriate caliber of firearm, or making sure to use proper broadheads, we need to be sure that our weapon is reasonably humane under normal circumstances.
  • It also means we become proficient with our chosen weapons, and maintain that proficiency. It’s never enough just to point a gun or bow at your quarry and hope for the best. If you don’t know where your shot will go with high confidence, you have no business shooting at live animals.
  • It means we follow-up and finish the job when we can. It’s worth an extra bullet for the coup d’grace on an animal, even when it’s obviously dying. Learn to place a blade properly (and safely), and use it when a bow-shot animal is slow to expire. Club a dying bird, or wring its neck. Hell, as barbaric as it may look, even stomping a wounded bird’s head is better than letting it flap and struggle. Ending the animal’s suffering is more important than the trophy. A qualified taxidermist can fix a bullet hole, or even a stab wound.
We owe wildlife a healthy ecosystem.
  • This means, among other things, that we take steps to minimize our negative impacts on habitat. It might take restrictions on motorized access to sensitive areas, or it could include the elimination of unnatural food sources that concentrate wildlife activity in small areas or disrupt migration patterns.
  • It certainly means we don’t participate in the spread of non-native or invasive species, such as wild hogs or game fish.
  • It means we balance our desires against the better health of the resource. Manage how much we take to preserve or control populations. Manage the way we take to protect non-targeted individuals. Manage when we take to protect or preserve natural behaviors such as breeding and migration. Some of this is legislated, and some of it is not. We should not need a law to tell us what is right.
We owe a clean and healthy ecosystem to other outdoors users, as well as to the wildlife itself.
  • This includes simple things that are too often overlooked, such as cleaning up behind ourselves (and others). “Litter” is not always an environmentally destructive substance, but at the least it’s unsightly to other users of the habitat. Some of it can be a hazard to wildlife as well, particularly certain plastic products, cigarette butts, and chemical products like insect repellent or gun cleaning solvents. But policing our area can be such a simple thing if everyone would do it, that it just makes it the greater shame when we don’t bother.
We owe other people a safe place to recreate.
  • This means we study and practice safety in ever aspect of our sport, whether it’s driving to the hunting grounds or shooting our weapons. There is no reason anyone should be afraid to share the woods or wetlands with hunters. We should do everything in our power to ensure that is the case.

That’s a lot of stuff, and I know there’s more. But the fact is, even when most of us try, none of us is perfect. For example, we still miss the carefully planned shot, and lose wounded game. And we sometimes forget ourselves, get wrapped up in excitement, and let some basic rules get away from us. We fail to pick up our empties, or to cover our crap. We do things when we know better, and don’t do things when we know we should.

But the biggest sin is giving lip service to all of these things and failing to live up to our own measure. If you’re going to demand perfection, shouldn’t you be perfect first? If not, how perfect is perfect enough? How fallible are we allowed to be? How fallible do we allow others to be? 

Where is the line between hunter and hypocrite?

It becomes a bit of a philosophical quagmire, I suppose, and I’m not so sure I’m not up to my own hips in this one.

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