We are all Trophy Hunters, We Just Have Trouble Admitting It.

By Ben Meisner

I usually don’t respond to comments that are made with respect to an editorial I have written. In the case of the issue of hunting bears or as some would say trophy hunting, I must respond.

I am the product of a farm family; I grew up understanding the meaning of trophy hunting and anyone that suggests different simply doesn’t understand.

Humans don’t like to eat old cows; they are turned into hamburger, dog food, or simply dispensed with. We trophy hunt the young ones, the ones that are still tender and young to eat. Have you ever stopped to watch a cow being taken away from its yearling calf?  The calf bawls , and so does the mother, sometimes for days. But then we seem to think that hamburger and steak come from the hamburger machine and cows are dumb animals.

We trophy hunt our chicken. We don’t want to eat an old chicken that has been laying eggs for awhile, no sir we want to trophy hunt the young chickens, and what do we do with the old laying hens, the ones that have been delivering those eggs you eat? Well they may, and I say may depending on where you live, get turned into dog food, but rest assured not all of the chicken is used up.

Now what about those eggs we eat?  Well what a surprise, we keep those chickens in pens so small they can barely turn around, they don’t get to see the light of day, the moon or the sun once in their life, but they are dumb right?  We only want eggs where the yolk is not too dark so that chicken, heaven forbid, cannot be let outside.

But wait you say, you only eat free range chickens, well that’s trophy hunting also.What’s wrong with the old laying hens?  Now you say "I only eat free range chickens"  really, well they may get to wander around the room with the other 5,000 chickens, and yes they are not penned up, but they also will never see the light of day.

Then there are those fish, those salmon that we eat. They after all are dumb as well, and we try to eat only a certain size, trophy hunt them right. But wait again, are you to suggest that a salmon that swims up the Nechako River after being at sea and travelling as much as 10,000 miles, and passing 100’s of rivers only to find his own river isn’t trophy hunting if you catch them along the way or at sea? They after all must have amazing intelligence in order to leave the stream when they are barely 3 inches long and undertake that amazing journey.

Then there are the fellows who say that the guides look at them rather funny when they head down the trails on their ATVs. Of course they may, given the fact that the skunk cabbage,  and green grass, those first sprouts that the trophy bear you are trying to protect need in order to get its system working are being ripped out  by  those  atvs. But that is somehow different.

I grew up on  a farm and  there were lots of occasions at night I cried knowing that a cow, chicken, pig, or turkey that had been my buddy , died yesterday in order that we could live, whether it be to people who trophy hunted the special cuts or not.

I don’t pretend to be perfect. I have hunted and fished my entire life. My contributions to the resource are a matter of record. My heart bled for the calf moose last winter when after people continually let their dogs chase the beast or snow machine harassed it, it finally cracked and fought back.

My heart bleeds when I see a mother bear and her three cubs, "re located” from the city because they have gotten into our garbage on their territory and they must be re located so  not to harm those people who have trophy hunted their favorite green pastures. I understand their fate in most cases and my heart bleeds for them, because no one comes forward to plead on their behalf that someone has taken their ground.  

I have also seen a mother grizzly fight for her life trying to save her cubs from a large male, the one by the way that is very old and past his prime that we call trophies, hoping that the boar will not kill and eat her cubs, so that she will come into heat.

We are all predators; it is just that some of us like to hide behind some fake wall pretending that we are not.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.  

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