Reprinted from my Future of Hunting July 2009 column on Bowhunting.net
I hear it all the time. "The antis aren’t winning this fight." "We really aren’t losing much hunting." "I got three deer last year, what’s the problem?"
From some perspectives that might be true. But when you look at the big picture, it is not pretty. When I was a kid, growing up in Johnstown, PA, most of my buddies had beagle dogs for rabbit hunting. Mine was named "Grumpy." Not the prettiest name, but he ran rabbits.
How many kids do you know today that have rabbit beagle dogs? My guess is that most will not know any. And if a kid does have a beagle dog and uses it to hunt rabbits, he can’t really tell that to teachers or other students in school. He’d be burned at the stake.
When I was a kid, the way one got into hunting was via small game. Rabbits . . . some, but squirrel hunting was got us going. My first shotgun was a 20 gauge, single shot, for squirrels. I’ll bet that of the 50 or so guys who graduated from high school in my class in 1958, 35 of them hunted squirrels. Ask around today. It’s rare to find kids who squirrel hunt.
So, you say that the kids are deer hunting at an early age now. That’s true, but nowhere near as many kids, as a percentage of the kid population, that hunted squirrels or had beagles. Not even close.
Tonight I was watching a hunting show on the Sportsmans Channel and Gene Wensel did a little interview on the changing values in society. It was excellent, as it usually is when Gene talks. He noted that the very first gun we got when we were kids was a BB gun. I think I got mine when I was nine years old. Yes, we plinked at birds and chipmunks, but we did little damage. Gene noted that today, when a kid crawls up to get a BB shot at a little bird, the guy next door comes out on his porch and gets all upset, tells the kids parents they are raising a monster etc, because he is killing little birds.
Two points. First, the kid rarely shoots a bird, even though he tries. Second point made by Gene was that the neighbors cat kills one hundred times more birds than the kid with the BB gun, but the neighbor doesn’t get it. He never will. You could pile all the dead birds his cat kills on his porch and show him, and he still wouldn’t get it. And that’s my point. Society and the values of society have changed. Thirty years ago I wrote about the "changing" values. But today, they have changed. (I know, they are continuing to change, but relative to the future of hunting, all the changing up to this point just may be enough to do us in).
People no longer relate to the death of animals. People no longer live next to someone who hunts. People no longer know anyone who hunts. OK, I know that you do. But in the city, where over 75 percent of our population lives, people do not know anyone, nor do they relate to hunting. Consider this. The values that people want for their kids, are easily gotten by having them go to the woods to hike, fish, hunt, camp, canoe, whatever. But all these activities are on the decline. Why? Several reasons. One is that parents are afraid of the woods; they really are.
What do adults see happening in the woods? The adults do not go there, so they only know the woods from what they see on television. The woods are where the bad guys put bodies after they molest the child. It’s true. The woods are where joggers get attacked. The woods are where mountain lions chase bikers. The woods are just scary places that you should fear . . . so, being the good parents that they are, they won’t let their children go there.
How about the shooting sports. Shooting bows is great fun for kids. What’s the first question parents ask when they hear that their kids may shoot bows in the public schools in the National Archery in the Schools Program? Is it safe? Of course it’s safe, there has never been one accident, but . . . is it safe? For some parents, you show them the data, no accidents, and they still ask the same question. They just can’t believe that shooting anything can be done safely.
So, even though the values a hunting kid can learn from hunting are what every kid should have, it isn’t happening. Patience, being responsible, being prompt, being safe, being responsible, learning to help friends, learning to appreciate wildlife and nature, being responsible, learning to do things, and did I mention, being responsible.
Do I see this lack of appreciation for the values of hunting for kids changing? Do you?
