Smithhammer wrote: [quote=trapperDave]just because others partake, does not mean you have to. Dont worry about what BillyBob hunts with, how he hunts or what he chooses to shoot. Do your own thing.
Normally, Dave, I’d agree. But what worries me is how the general public perceives this sort of ‘hunting’ (and I’m using the term very generously). And I’m not talking about the PETA-heads, who we’re never going to win over anyway, I’m just talking about regular people who see this sort of thing and find it offensive – folks who might otherwise, if presented with a view of respectful, ethical hunting, be won over to our understanding. It doesn’t take many videos of deer walking up to a feeder and being blown away to sway a great deal of public sentiment away from hunting in general.
I think that the hunting community can continue to honor a diversity of perspectives/approaches without giving in to something like baiting. Something which I’m the first to admit that I am judgmental about. I think it’s lame.Exactly….well said. I don’t see it as simply a “hunter” issue. The issue of baiting (or canned hunts, etc.) affects us all in non-hunters’ eyes….whether we choose to participate or not. I am all for individual rights, including my right to disagree with something that may affect something I love.:D
I interact with non-hunters on a myriad of wildlife/ecology issues. Regardless of what many baiting proponents would have us believe, the issue does give us a big black eye among non-hunters. They are the ones that matter….the anti’s minds are already made up.
I’m not interested in sugar coating what we do, or in bowing down to overly sensitive (read: ecologically detached) folks, but I am adamant about hunting remaining honest, ethical, and fair. If we can manage this, then we also maintain the moral and philosophical, (as well as scientific) high ground.
