Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Bambi


Last week began the season of men (and I suppose some women)in search of Bambi. By "in search of" I mean in search of to kill. Rather than calling it deer hunting, which sounds more civalized, I prefer to refer to it as Bambi killing, which is just plain sad and terrible. Here's the thing: I prefer my meat packaged and at the store. An animal carcas that needs to be hung for the blood to run out and carved with a hack saw by a friend, is not my idea of a good time or something I want to happen anywhere near my house.

In addition, it's not really something I want Timmy to be exposed to. We are talking a about a child that went with Daddy to clean a hit turkey off the street in front of our house; I believe his exact response, after stopping dead in his tracks 50 feet from the turkey was, "Daddy, I'm not liking the turkey that way." This was a turkey that was not bloody, just a turkey that was lying lifeless in the street. Clearly, Timmy knew something wasn't right. Now, having said that, tell me what a 2.5 year old is going to think of a dear carcus hanging in my garage with his mid-section cut open and a bucket of blood underneath him? Pretty sure he's going to know it's just not right.

The hubs thinks me I am being "over the top," and that it is more humane to hunt than what cattle ranchers do. Here's the thing about the more humane comment: I have listen to his dad talk about their hunting trips and discusss the fact that he had to follow a blood trail after having shot a deer and not killing it. Does following a deer to finish it off sound more humane that what cattle farmers probably do? Quite honestly, I don't know how cattle farmers do it, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know. If I knew, I'd probably be a vegetarian. In college, I had to disect a cat for anatomy - it took me at least a year before I was able to eat chicken again. It's just me; I can't help it.

And, on another note, I don't even like venison. I have tried it and it's just not good. I will also mention that this was not a "sport" my hubs saw fit to participate in when we were city dwellers. Now that we are living in the backwoods of NH, he seems to think it's the thing to do. I asked him last night whether or not he was doing this because it was the thing to do or because he was passionate about it. It seems, my blogging friends, that he is passionate about it and has wonderful memories of killing Bambi as a child with his grandfather.

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Let me start with if you want to delete my comment fully feel free to. I've had to deal with similar things and wanted to share.

When I was growing up my father did not hunt, I never even saw a gun in person (not counting on police officers) until I started dating my husband.

On our second date he took me trap shooting, shooting at little clay discs. I found this fun and was pretty good at it.

My husband had grown up with guns, he grew up on a farm and had his first gun when he was 4 and started shooting at rabbits then. He did not have any further opportunity to hunt after he turned 9 because his father died at that time. Now that he is a grown adult he wanted to get back into hunting because it meant so much to him. This did not bother me, as long as I didn't have to be involved, and I refused to have anything to do with cleaning the downed animals or anything - he could do this. He wanted me to get a deer tag so he could get two deers instead of one, but I refused at this. I won't allow one killed in my name, he would have to be satisfied with one.

The problem came is he had his first gun when he was 4 and he couldn't wait for his boy to get his first gun. He decided 6 was a good age. This UPSET me!!! I couldn't picture my little boy with a gun in his hands!!! This can't be okay! This can't be allowed! Well this was very important to my husband and the values he grew up with. How do we work this out? Well I had to think about it for quite a while. I knew that lots of people do not grow up the way I did, they're exposed to their fathers hunting and what not. I happen to think it's okay to hunt as long as its done with sportsmanship. A rule my husband was raised with is you kill it, you eat it, there is no killing just for fun. Anyways I digress. The way I made it okay in my mind for my 6 year old boy was to think about it this way. Right then (it was a year and a half ago) and now we have complete control over his access to his gun and when he is using it and what not. He learns the seriousness of it, yo kill it you eat it "if you shoot your sister are you going to eat her?" (Let me tell you that stops all joking!). And then, when he's 9, 10, 11 when his friends are getting guns and learning he will be, no big deal, I've had one since I was 6 . . . if we waited until he was older it would be novel and what would he do? Maybe even try to sneak it and show it off? This could have been a marriage killer for us.

I wasn't able to go with the firstime my husband took my son to the target range because I just couldn't stand the thought of my son shooting a gun. But I eventually was able to bring myself to go with because my son is so proud of himself because he is a pretty good shot too (just like his mom!) Now my daughter is talking about getting her gun (she turns 6 in 4 months) It's hard when you don't grow up with it like they did.

I know this isn't exactly what you were dealing with, but I just wanted you to let you know others have had to deal with similar and you have to do what you have to do.