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Hellbender Journal Summer/Fall 2001 Dear Snappy, Sorry Snappy, but I think you shot yourself in the foot in a big way with Walt Brasch's article on bobcat hunting. Although I, like many of my fellow hunters, am opposed to the PGC's decision to legalize bobcat hunting, I also loathe propaganda even when it serves a cause that I support. And when it plays on irrational prejudices against my way of life to garner support among those who do not understand the truth of the hunt, it forces me, reluctantly, to the other side of the issue. Given a choice of joining with those who would force us out of our natural, evolved, ecological niche or supporting the bobcat season, my fellow hunters and I will choose the latter. Mr. Brasch's pathetically transparent contempt for hunters does a terrible disservice to his own cause. Sincerely, Reg Darling [Ed. Reply: We felt Mr. BraschÕs commentary brought up some very good points regarding the Pennsylvania bobcat hunt. While ADP opposes bobcat hunting, we do not have a position in opposition to or in support of hunting in general.]
An Open Letter From A Hunter I am a hunter. Most of you who read this are not. Many of you have grave misgivings about hunting - I don't blame you. You have a keenly felt compassion for things non-human that is a good and natural outgrowth of your personal connection to the natural world. You watch the annual flood of orange-clad boorishness and see the detritus of aluminum cans and Ho-Ho wrappers deposited in the woods as the wave recedes. You read about pigeon shoots and "sportsmen" vaporizing prairie dogs with hyper-velocity rifles and you are outraged. But so am I and so are my fellow hunters. The behavior of those people we hunters commonly refer to as "slobs" is a telling commentary on contemporary society, but it is not a sound basis to condemn hunting itself. A relentless onslaught of technology and corporate marketing has weakened hunting's roots in an ancient, symbiotic relationship with the land by shifting the production of its tools from craft to industry and diminishing the need for personal apprenticeship. This is a trend paralleled in virtually every other field of human endeavor. The corruption of hunting into sport goes hand-in-hand with the shift in American agriculture from farming to agribusiness. The project of restoring the integrity of our most ancient and direct participation in the natural world is one of the great unrecognized environmental issues of our time. Hunters are human beings operating within our original, evolved ecological niche - the last vestige of the hunter-gatherer spirit at large on the land. Hunting is the guardian of wildness - the spiritual wildness of human beings, the exquisite, electric wildness of deer, the subtle, pervasive wildness of the forestÉ... Our hearts are the cultural repository of the inner wildness that mirrors the wildness of the land and of the spiritual quietude that comes from getting physical sustenance directly from oneÕs natural role in the Earth's organic harmony. In hunting we honor and actively return to our origins. In doing so, we encounter the unity of our spiritual and physical sustenance with a directness that has nearly vanished from the modern world. We know the price of that sustenance in a way that no browser of supermarkets can ever know. Hunting, in ways that are consistent with our evolved role in forest ecosystems, is as in need of protection and preservation as the Indiana Bat. Hunters who honor their ancient roots by carefully limiting their technological advantage should be thought of as part of the wildlife, along with their brethren the coyotes, foxes, bears, and hawks, rather than as merely a tool for state biologists to wield in their often misguided and /or politically compromised efforts to contain the damage done by the short-sightedness and greed of industrial society. They are among the large predators whose reintroduction would restore ancient, natural balance to wild lands. Their extinction would be as tragic as the extinction of any other species. Hunters and environmentalists tend to regard each other with a confusing mixture of sympathy and fear. If hunters can overcome the political naivete their immersion in simpler, more fundamental realities makes them prone to and if environmentalists can exercise the subtlety of discrimination to see through the modern corruptions of hunting to the meaning of hunting itself; perhaps we can join hands in the forest we so love and become a potent force for its salvation. Hunt hard, have fun, leave no trace, Reg Darling
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