(Photo is an excerpt from the article)
Hunters
are believed to be in constant contact with the game they seek and
are perceived to have many successful hunting trips. The definition
of a successful hunt is the killing of an animal or two. It was
illuminating to discover that this 39 year old man's father had
killed less than six large animals because “killing isn't a synonym
for hunting; it's sometimes a part of it.” Although, when I first
read the description of MacCharles' hunting record I thought that
either he is lying or he is a bad hunter!
Hunters rarely
speak of their pastime as the conversation around hunting can quickly
become heated. Hunters should speak about their complicated,
confusing, and intricate relationship with killing as doing so may
prevent the rest of society from quickly glamorizing or villainizing
them. MacCharles states that “the silence of many food hunters has
left a vocal minority casting a shadow over our lifestyle that is
tough to dispel.” MacCharles's relationship to killing is not as
simple as kill then eat. He has a harder time justifying the
consumption of a small bird, whose body can only feed one or two
people than larger game that can feed many. This is an interesting
position and really describes the complicated views that hunters
possess. This voice is lost when individuals such as MacCharles are
not given a voice to describe their motivation regarding hunting.
