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By Trevor Oertel
I have listened to and read some wild theories by the anti-hunting animal rightists as to why we hunt.
One of the most active outspoken anti-hunting activists, Eduardo Goncalves, tries to ridicule hunters and finds it abnormal that we enjoy hunting. He goes so far as to claim, without naming them, that some notorious serial killers were trophy hunters – if he is trying to infer that trophy hunters are predisposed to being serial killers I have news for him. Statistical most serial killers weren’t trophy hunters so can we infer non hunters are more predisposed to being serial killers?
One thing all of these anti-hunting activists have in common is the false belief that hunting is about this insatiable need to kill.
The Spanish philosopher & politician Jose Ortega y Gasset (1883 – 1955) in Meditations on Hunting said it best:
“One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted…
If one were to present the sportsman with the death of the animal as a gift he would refuse it. What he is after is having to win it, to conquer the surly brute through his own effort and skill with all the extras that this carries with it: the immersion in the countryside, the healthfulness of the exercise, the distraction from his job.”
A common thread among hunters is the respect and admiration they have for their quarry.
“I do not hunt for the joy of killing but for the joy of living, and the inexpressible pleasure of mingling my life however briefly, with that of a wild creature that I respect, admire and value.’ –John Madson
