Sprawl Is Killing Hunting

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Hello Bonnie:
First, I want to apologize for the statements of some, but I do agree with the hunters side. Second, I hunt. I love it. My daddy hunted, my sons hunt. We eat what we take. I summer in East Hampton, NY we see deer a lot. The deer in the suburbs are habituated by human contact. Try that in Naples, NY and you would not get the same reaction. I spent several seasons learning how to hunt before I got my first deer.
I used to work next to a poultry plant. The chickens going there are hosed how? It is the avian equivalent of a concentration camp. They do what... live a few months and bam, we kill them, cut them up, and then eat them. We pay the people to do our killing and butchering for us. Do you condemn these working class people because they kill you dinner. So if you wear leather, east meat, wear lipstick, use modern drugs or vaccines, have a pig heat valve implant, or use insulin, estrogen some animal died in the process. Life ai
Now imagine you are an 8 year dairy cow, who is past prime milk age. She has lived for years in one barn, one field. One day she gets a truck ride, meets a ton of new cows, all of then equally nervous and jerky, as she is. Then she walks up a ramp and some guy shoots a bolt into your head. That is modern agriculture. Sorry, but that is the reality. The bolt is so much better than a sledge hammer.
Will you accept the American icon, the wolf roaming East Hampton to reduce the herd eating the shrubs? Would you like a puma in your backyard? I would love bear in my backyard. As a kid, we watched them at the town dump. Wait till one eats some poodle and everybody gets upset.
Big game hunting is a recent human activity. It is only in the last 40,000-20,000 years ago that we got smart enough, technologically astute and organized suitably to take big animals. It is a very sensual experience. Are you surprised by that. Every sound. It requires a new education. How do you track? How do you manage the wind, so your scent doesn't spook the animal? You learn patience. How do move quietly? How do you handle the sight of the animal? How do you shoot? How do you butcher it? Do you have the stomach to do that? I
I have taken (killed) deer with rifle, muzzle loading rifle, shotgun and, yes, bow. I had the “joy” of getting them out of the woods. Heck, I would try a spear and an attelotal if the game laws would allow me.
Besides, why should the plants die? They are alive too. They make their own food. We just steal it from them or take the animals that eat them. Or is it that you only care about cute, cuddly, mammals.
But the kill isn’t the high point of thing. As every deer hunter knows: “When the buck drops, the fun stops”. If you ever desire to try hunting shoot me an e-mail. Please forgive my fellow hunters their emotional responses. Hunting for many is a passion.
By way of closing, I’m a 58 year old woman. I own the land I hunt on and it has been part of our family life for generations.

Antonia Gilligan of NJ 3:34PM April 07, 2009

B.Erbe , please check yourself at the door, do a little research ( Not including...Oh honey look at the deer eating our shrubs! Get the laptop,I need to express some bleeding heart for something this week and I'm fresh out of other uneducated ideas....). If you don't get a small chuckle out of this Bon Bon, at least read the other posts, you've got some intelligent people out there explaining this for you. They might be willing to help you write something accurate.... and not just opinionated.....Thanks for your time....NRA American Hunter PS If you shouted and clapped at me, I would run away as well........

Dan Swan of NY 8:12PM January 20, 2009

Ms. Erbe I know from experience that hunting is not easy. I have been hunting for 14 years without taking a single animal. This year was my first year to take a deer. And as for an easy shot…. I guess it was easy if you call a 410 yard shot up hill across a large canyon through the bushes and trees an easy shot.
When you stated “the claim that it is challenging is bunk.” you only factored in taking a shot at a deer standing still directly in front of you. You didn’t factor in the other things that go into hunting. You forgot that most states have hunting laws in place that must be followed. So shooting the deer standing there in your back yard is illegal. In my state you first must be drawn for a tag which is a challenge in and of its self. Then you need to locate the game in an area that is hundreds, even thousands of square miles, where the average deer population is 1.2 to 2.4 deer per square kilometer. Then you have to be more than a quater of a mile from a road, building, or water hole. Now don’t forget getting up at 3 am every morning and going out in below freezing temperatures where you sit all day looking for a buck, because in my state you can only shoot a buck (a doe is illegal to take). Usually you walk a mile or more through very rough desert terrain, up and down canyon walls, amongst sticker bushes, and cacti. If you are lucky there is no rain, snow, or heavy wind. After all this you might be lucky enough to find the one legal deer in that area. But you still need to be able to shoot 200, 300 yards or more, and take the deer with a single humane shot. Now that you know the truth, you have my personal invitation to come to my home state and prove to everyone how easy big game hunting is.
As for your statement its "mainly entertainment for rural folk”, nothing could be further from the truth. I started hunting 14 years ago. Now all my friends hunt, including many of their wives and children. All of us live in the middle of Phoenix, AZ. a city of millions. That doesn’t sound so rural to me. What about you? Our annual hunting trip is something everyone looks forward to each fall. On our trip we spend time together, play cards, eat great food, sit around the camp fire and share stories, and lastly we hunt. I wouldn’t trade this time for anything.
It is obvious to me that you have never hunted. That is OK by me. I will never put anyone down for not hunting; just as I expect others to not put me down for doing so. Furthermore, it is obvious that you wrote this article based on your own personal beliefs rather than real facts.

Kevin of AZ 11:11PM January 16, 2009

Wow you are greatly mistaken. The men women and kids who hunt are not going away. We are not just rural uneducated people who live in the sticks. We are doctors, lawyers, police officers, firemen, cpa's and assembly line workers. We are not just in rural america but everywhere in America. From the turkey hunter in Florida, to the every whitetail hunter from Iowa to south Texas, to the pheasant hunter in Kansas and the mule deer hunter in Montana, the couse deer hunter in Arizona and the duck hunter in Louisiana, the trapper in Pennsylvania and the antelope hunter in New Mexico, WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY! We are everywhere in America, we are of every race, every economic background, in every city and every state, we are democrat and republican, Christian, Catholic, Jewish and atheist. We are every part of America, WE ARE AMERICA! We are not going away!

Nick of TX 12:36PM December 17, 2008

After reading this I realized one thing, a small part of the money I pay for a subscription to US News and World report ends up in the pockets of writers spewing uneducated opinons such as this on. I find this unacceptable and will ensure no more of my money ends up in Bonnie Erbe's purse. The only possible solution is to let my subsription run out and not renew it.

of TX 9:21PM December 16, 2008

You are an idiot. You have no idea what a true american is. The reason Obama got elected is because the majority of the voters are as dumb as you.

America of TX 4:57PM December 15, 2008

If your so happy urban areas are swalloing up rural areas you must be happy to pay $10 for a loaf of bread when all the land to farm is nothing but concreat and houses full cityslickers that think they know it all

charles of TX 12:47AM December 11, 2008

I am a college graduate with a master's degree in engineering. I have been hunting since I was in elementary school. We eat what we kill. We manage our land for the optimum deer population, in close cooperation with our state's wildlife department. We do kill deer, some of them easy shots, some of them very challenging. Does it matter?
I have hit two deer while driving motor vehicles, one when on a motorcycle. It was an unpleasant result of deer overpopulation near a state park where hunting was not allowed.
Please don't hold it against us that we are willing to go out and take care of our own meat collection process rather than delegate it to the people at the meat-packing plant. And more time outdoors participating in hunting and other outdoor activities would be very beneficial to our youth. My teenagers certainly love it and are thriving in school and otherwise. At a minimum, maybe less people would be writing articles demeaning hunting that begin with "I know nothing about hunting."

Dave of TX 4:31AM December 07, 2008

your artical failed to menchon one hunter ? only one farmer. and in what part of dc or ny is the coyote considered an "american icon". i thought the dc icon was a weasel. if people like you would bother to get off their fat asses and go outside once and a while you might understand hunting. but you would rather sit infront of a computor and let vido games raise your kids so they can be misguided into thinking inanimate machines "firearms" bear responsibility for human misbehavior. as far as the country becomming less and less rural, perhapes youve noticed it becomming more and more violent,arent you proud of yourselfs.

john the hunter of FL 9:32PM December 05, 2008

mz erbe, your lack of research shows typical media INCOMPETENCE. if your so concerned about the minimal amount of pain inflicted by ethical hunters, perhaps you should research the treatment of animals in mass-production feedlots and slaughterhouses that feed the world. obviously your interest is not animal suffering but GUNCONTROL, the disarming of the american people in-mass, regardless to the FACT that less than two percent of legal gun owners ever commit a crime. i guess incompetence was the wrong word, in fact manipulation would be correct.

john the hunter of FL 11:18AM December 05, 2008