We must pass on traditions and ethics to the next generation
I went to Dr Cobb’s Hunting lecture today, “Ethics in Modern Hunting: Distinguishing Virtues from Vices”, at the Wildlife Center on Centennial Campus at NC State. I found it very thought provoking. He presented it from his perspective and not from his position with NCWRC or the agency itself. This made for an interesting time because almost right off he dove into one of the biggest gray areas in the hunting rules for many of the Tar Heel state hunters what is “Take”.
Definition of Take To take is defined as all operations
during, immediately preparatory and immediately subsequent
to an attempt, whether successful or not, to capture, kill,
pursue, hunt or otherwise harm or reduce to possession
any fisheries resource or wildlife resource.
This a pretty wide open and vague definition that makes much of it subjective to the individuals involved. When one attempts to comply with other wildlife laws and rules they can directly conflict with the “Take’. He used the example of tracking a wounded deer after legal hunting time. Technically that is part of the take and could easily be seen as illegal, however on the other hand wanton waste of game is also illegal so you really in a pickle in the literal interpretation. Most of us will do the ethical thing and retrieve our game and I would hope enforcement would look at the totality of the situation and allow the retrieval of the animal. Dr. Cobb suggested that he was confident that he could successfully argue that in court if he found himself in that situation, me I don’t want to be in that situation. I would further hope that NCWRC would put some effort into cleaning some of the issues around the definition up.
He talked a lot about the vices and the virtues of hunting and the impact they have on both us as hunters as well as the non hunting public. I’m not going to list down the vices and virtues he talked about but I believe the same lists could be used to describe many other areas of our lives besides just hunting.
I think one of the key concepts he really tried to drive home was that the Non Hunting Population is the majority and their influence on hunting and what is and what will be allowed in the future is really controlled by them. We really need to educate the non hunters around us as well as mentor more folks into the outdoor community.
There was so much more that he talked about and it was really very thought provoking. I suspect the rest of this deer season I have some things to mull over as I sit in my tree. Dr. Cobb did a great job; to bad it was not better attended. There are a number of these free lectures offered throughout the year at Centennial Campus Center for Wildlife Education that if you get a chance you should check them out.
