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Support the Hunting Tradition

by William Scott :: Featured: October, 2002

As hunters I think that we all support the hunting tradition, or do we. That’s a good question; it makes you stop and think. It did me; I read an article in a club magazine, titled “Don’t call me an Anti”. The article was under members sound-off, The gentleman that wrote it was telling one of the writers that he owed the hunter of Wisconsin an apology for referring that if they did not support dove hunting they were Anti. This gentleman when on to say quote” any time you must kill 25 birds for a meal, it isn’t hunting it’s a slaughter” apparently he does not think too much of dove hunters.

Well, I found myself going back and reading the article again, the more I thought about it, the more it bothers me. I think that we all as hunters, whatever we hunt be it rabbit, birds, deer, bear, etc. We all belong to a Brotherhood of the Hunting Tradition.

As citizens of this Nation, the United States of America, we have rights. We have the right to our opinions, and we can voice these opinions. But just because we have this right, it does not give us the right to take away the rights of another because we don’t agree with them. This works out to the same old argument of hunting against the Anti-Hunting coalition. If you give up a part of the Hunting Tradition like Dove Hunting, it just makes it easier for them to go after another type of hunting and so on, and so on, and so on. That is what the Anti-Hunters want, is to stop hunting all hunting. And then they will go after our right to bear arms.

You as individuals may not like a certain type of hunting. Personally I have never hunted Dove, but on a good day in Rabbit season my group have totaled up 15 to 20 Rabbits. The gentleman in Wisconsin would call that a slaughter, his opinion to me it’s a Wonderful day in the neighborhood day.

All of us the Brotherhood of Hunting, we have to stand up for one another whether we like that type of hunting or not. We as Hunters have to show our support for the other types of hunting, if we don’t then we are Anti –hunting. And we should not ask anyone for an apology, for not supporting him or her, we should offer an apology to him or her for not supporting his or her Tradition. Something to think about gentlemen.

Good Luck to all with Rabbit Hunting this season.

William Scott, Field Writer
Life Member/ North American Hunting Club