Do these ignorant comments on hunting get under your skin?
Most hunters have been on the receiving end of a rude, misinformed, opinionated comment.
Sometimes, hunters might not be able to find the right words to respond to an ignorant comment made about this activity.
Here is a short list of comments that aggravate most hunters, along with some insight to help with your retort.
1. Hunters have an unfair advantage over the animals they hunt.
Anyone making this comment has obviously never seriously hunted. Hunters are out in the environment most familiar to the animals they hunt. The animals have fair advantage over the hunter regardless of the weapon a hunter carries.
Hunting does not mean you are guaranteed an animal. Any avid hunter will attest to its difficulty.
2. Hunting is cruel, inhumane, and the murder of innocent animals.
This comment implies that hunters have malicious intent to cause harm to an animal. This is far from the truth. Hunters make every effort for a fast and efficient kill. There is no malice in hunting.
3. Hunting should be outlawed in every state.
This is simply a misguided way of thinking. Hunting is a wildlife management tool with many regulations in place that consider both hunter and wildlife. Dollars generated by hunting are used for conservation efforts in their state among other programs.
4. Hunters only kill to put a trophy on their wall.
Travis Smola
In a society that is leaning towards a healthier way of living by buying organic items at the grocery store, hunting is the alternative. Hunting offers our tables truly free-range meat and a healthier diet than most.
It is not about the trophy on the wall. Hunters have a deeper respect for the land and the animals that non-hunters simply do not understand.
5. Hunting is a juvenile way for men to beat on their chest and show off their masculinity.
There is not one component to hunting that is juvenile. Hunting is a serious business providing nearly $200 million in federal taxes for wildlife management, habitat conservation and hunter safety education.
Although men do make up the majority of the approximate 13.7 million hunters in the United States, female hunters are on the rise. According to the Census Bureau statistics active female hunters increased by 25 percent between 2006 and 2011.
In a well-managed system, there is nothing damaging about hunting. Non-hunters who make negative, ignorant comments about this activity need to educate themselves on important factors hunting encompasses while hunters need to be able to respond to such remarks.
NEXT: THE BEST RIFLE CALIBER FOR DEER HUNTING: HOW DO YOU DECIDE?
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