The Joy of Posing With Dead Animals

I had it all written out: a stinging denunciation of hunting and hunters, complete with my usual jabs at Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin for their hunting follies. But thankfully, my blog instincts directed me to delay publishing my passionate and acerbic article and reflect on it a bit.

And I'm glad I did. Hunting is largely a cultural phenomenon, with its followers often rooted in it due to their family's participation as well as their local community's attitude toward it. So hurling insults at hunters isn't really something I want to do. Besides, I wonder which culturally rooted activities I am currently involved with will be frowned upon (or even condemned) by a future, more "enlightened" society.

Still, that being said, I always find it more than a little disconcerting whenever I run across one of those hunting magazines and find a hunter proudly posing on the cover with an animal he (or she) just killed (usually a deer). The animal is made to look alive, with its eyes open and its expression often a smile. As if to commemorate its first (and last) meeting with its biggest and bestest new buddy (who just ended its one chance at life)!

So that preceding little tidbit will have to be the only sarcasm left from the scrapped article to hurl at hunters. I just wish they would be careful out there with their weapons, especially considering that there are others who are not hunters and would like to go hiking through the wilderness without enduring the hazard of being shot by accident.