My 17-year-old nephew shot his first buck on Saturday. He was using a muzzleloader.
While I hate to see the animals take a bullet, I also know that if they weren't hunted we would have no alfalfa left for the cattle.
The meat won't go to waste and so the deer won't have died for naught.
The nephew shot it in front of my house. I saw him kill it, as did his parents and one of his friends.
I am thankful he dropped it with one shot. It died instantly and there was no worry about having a wounded animal roaming the place.
This is not my favorite past time but I do recognize the importance of it to the hunters and the ecosystem, etc. But this is the time of the year when I wish I could afford a second house at the beach or something!
It is a mixed bag, isn't it...I don't want to watch/look when they're killed, but they certainly need their population controlled! Glad like you there was no suffering with your nephew's get.
ReplyDeleteOnce wolves were eliminated from the eco-system, humans had to take their place, perhaps not so successfully. Not only do deer eat alfalfa, but they harm the regeneration of forests by eating the seedlings. From what I remember of the statistics from last year, the deer population in Southwest Virginia actually increased, even with the thousands of deer taken by hunters. Better to be killed by a deer hunter than a car or a pack of coyotes.
ReplyDeleteI saw something disturbing for three days around the corner from my home. Someone had gutted a deer and left what was remaining of it on the grass behind the shopping plaza. It was beyond disturbing. I called the cops who told me that if I didn't see anyone gut it then that might not be the case. Uh, yeah, the poor thing had rigamortis and was missing it's hind quarters,and looked butchered. No animal other than a human could do what I saw. They wouldn't send anyone to clean it up and I had to wait until Monday before VDOT would come. What's wrong with people? I could understand someone killed it perhaps for food but why discard it like that in a highly trafficked area one block away from an elementary school?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I call bringing home the bacon.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with the need for control of the deer population here in SW Virginia. But to gutt one and leave the mess behind is just crude, rude and nasty. Takes all kinds to make the world go round but we could certainly use a few less of those types of people. I sometimes wish my hubby were a hunter so we could have some of that venison in our freezer. Oh well....
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