When I was younger, I used to go elk or deer hunting every year with my brother in law in New Mexico. One of the enjoyable things about hunting deer or elk with a traditional bow in New Mexico is that, while you may not get an opportunity to shoot a deer or an elk, you would generally have opportunities to shoot a cottontail or a grouse. These taste great when fried up in a skillet at lunch.
One day toward the beginning of the time when we started hunting together, we met for lunch as agreed at his truck. He asked me if I had seen anything, and I said “no, except for a jackrabbit I took a shot at and missed.” He asked me why I had shot at the jackrabbit, since we couldn't eat it. Frankly, the reason I shot at the jackrabbit was because it was there, and I was bored, without giving any thoughts to the ethics of the situation.
He didn't pursue the subject, but what he said made me question my own motives. He wouldn't have shot at a jackrabbit that he didn't intend to eat, and I decided then and there that I wouldn't do that anymore either. I have always appreciated that lesson since then, and have tried to live by that ethic myself. There was a coyote one time that was eyeing my dog pretty closely, and that ethic would have had to bend a little bit if it had ventured within arrow range, but that's another story….
Topic: Cooked my rabbit! (Read 1226 times)
