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Passing Along Our Heritage

by George Stamps :: Featured: August, 2003

In the course of growing up I was fortunate to have grandparents and parents who encouraged my love of the great outdoors. Some of my earliest memories are of spending the night at my grandfathers so he and I could get up before daylight and chase the many bushytails that populated the woods on his farm.

I progressed as I got older to carrying a single shot 410 and listening to Queen and Princess putting the heat on Mr. Cottontail with my father. These were accepted rites of manhood and every boy in the county was encouraged to spend as much time possible in the outdoors.

As I grew older and progressed to manhood with a wife and children of my own I noticed a disturbing trend: No longer was it an accepted fact of life that a boy would learn to hunt and fish and as a matter of fact we now had people who discouraged it to the point of even shaming someone who admitted to being a sportsman. The animal rights movement was starting to spread and unfortunately sportsmen sat by too long and did nothing to combat it and we actually started losing ground, both literally and figuratively. For too many years we had the attitude that it doesn't affect me just because at that moment the animal rights members were attacking a particular segment of hunting in which we didn't happen to participate. That attitude along with the tendency to underestimate what we were dealing with cost hunters and fishermen dearly. By the time we as sportsmen woke up we were behind in the fight to retain what should be a God given right and while we have never been outnumbered by the anti's our lack of unity almost dealt a death blow to certain types of hunting and fishing. It is a well known fact that organizations like PETA intend to stamp out every type of hunting and fishing so if we lose one battle and allow them to ban hunting of any one type we will be on the way to losing the war. If every sportsman were required to show proof of belonging to an organization that is fighting to protect our rights before they could purchase a hunting license then the funds raised would insure that the anti's wouldn't stand a chance of defeating the sportsmen of this country. Another area that sportsmen need to be cognizant of is the need to police ourselves. If a person stops at a local convenience store and has a deer or a limit of rabbits in the back of the pickup for the public to see he is severely hurting himself and his fellow sportsmen. That mother with small children are not going to see the game and think of a pleasant day spent in the field they are going to see that somebody killed Bambi or Thumper and his whole family. It is a simple matter to cover up game and take the time to wash the blood off your hands and present all sportsmen in a positive light. Watching what you say can also help our cause too many times you hear a someone say "Yeah I hit one but lost him" when referring to wounded game. Things like this are nothing to boast of and certainly will not help convert somebody to our side or at least get them to support our rights when election day comes around. In conclusion if we are going to pass along our heritage to our sons and daughters we need to be mindful of what we do and say at all times.

How are you going to look your children and grandchildren in the eye and say you did nothing while the animal rights people took their right to chase the hounds or cast a bass plug away?