quote:

Originally posted by zimbabwe:
...killing is the object of hunting and the way you keep score so to speak. To me game animals actuall ARE just objects...

To each his own, of course...but I really do find that quite disgusting. My discussion with my granddaughter upon the occasion of that first kill was intended to insure that she never feels like that. No "mysticism" implied or required, but personally I think you are missing out on a lot.

John

I hear the same thing from local road hunters. Those are poachers. They also add their lack of respect for laws which they don't support. And lack of respect for citizens who don't have enough guts to do what they want to, when they want to.

quote:

Originally posted by zimbabwe:
I really DON't understand it. I don't give 'respect' to a steak everytime I eat one,or a hamburger,or pork chop. I suppose I have no 'right' to feel this way but I certainly do. I'm also not ashamed of my picture sitting on a dead elephant that I made that way. I do generally thank the LORD for what I am about to eat since HE provided it in all ways. But I don't 'respect' the steer that died to provide my steak. I hunt because I like the challenge it presents and killing is the object of hunting and the way you keep score so to speak. To me game animals actuall ARE just objects and I don't hunt to satisfy any mystical purpose.

I have been hunting for over 60 years and have never broken a game law, I don't hunt where posted ,I don't hunt out of season and and have never shot an african game animal the PH didn't designate. I have no idea what a road hunter is so I MIGHT be one. I don't knowingly break ANY laws either those I agree with or those I disagree with. If you choose to give some mystical right or priviledge to a wild animal please feel free to do so, but that is still a belief of yours not mine.I totally enjoyed my safari's you may totally enjoy yours, you have my permission to participate in any rites you may choose.

I've been blooded several times. The first time was in Scotland, on a red stag hunt. After taking a fine highlands stag, my ghillie asked me if it was my first 'beast'. I thought he meant red stag, so I said yes and he smeared some blood on my cheeks. Since I'd taken dozens of animals at that point in my life, including 3 of the big 4, I thought it was a little weird.

The other times I've been blooded had to do with shooting magnum rifles. The last time was hanging on the side of a mountain, using my fore hand to hold onto a tree root so I wouldn't fall down a very steep slope while shooting a mountain goat with my .388. Note to self - Don't shoot your .388 with only one hand, you'll blood yourself again! At least I killed the goat...which then proceeded to pitch off a ledge and free fall for about 400 feet before hitting the rocks. Between the scope cut and losing the trophy to that crash on the rocks, it was a tough hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by zimbabwe:
I personally don't care for the practice and have never chosen to participate. I don't have any particularly feelings about the game animal I have killed any more than I do about the paper target or clay pigeon I shoot. I don't see animals as some noble object that I must respect as I would a human. To me an animal is an animal is an animal. Nothing more nothing less. Some produce better tasting meat than others. In the south where I started hunting the rite was cutting off the shirtail when you killed a deer the first time. As hard as my mother worked to make most of my shirts she would have been flat pissed if I came home with a ruined shirt. They were fairly precious in my family. I was brought up that if you were hungry you went into the backyard ,caught a chicken,wrung it's neck,and prepared and cooked and ate it. End of story. I won't say that all this homage to the hunted is so much BS and if you like it do it just that it ain't for me.

This is Zimbabwe's original post on the issue and although I might not share his same exact feelings, it is a very practical and sensible post.

Nothing and I mean nothing in the last biology class we took or the Sunday School we attended has ever indicated to any of us that game animals or any animal, (up to and including garden slugs,) "present themselves to be killed," or "choose how they want to die,". If given the opportunity to express their opinions, every game animal I've ever taken indicated an absolute desire to make a sucessful escape from my and my firearms vicinity. Life and a long one at that has been the goal of wildlife as I have observed it.

Were a Red Stag to be scient, an Impala to be introspective or a mulie to be cognitive I'd think that rather than have a green sprig stuffed in their mouth as they die they'd prefer to be able to draw a clean fresh breath of air thru that same mouth now being clogged with leaves. Imagine being the buffalo laying on the ground unable to gain their feet and either flee or trample the shit out of the two legged agressors seen approaching and painting each other with the fallen beasts slain blood! That Dugga Boy I am sure would rather have that blood in him rather than artistically smeared elsewhere.

Although I don't have a problem with any of the initiation rites, I have never personally participated and don't intent to. For myself, the taking of game is a sobering event and other than a sincere handshake and some kind of friendly compliment regarding the weather, location, size of trophy, marksmanship, etc,... I am uninterested in applying some kind of spirituality to a moose or kudu that just wanted nothing more that to get thru the rest of the day until I stumbled by.

Thank you Scott King for your understanding. It is appreciated.

I never heard of this blooding ritual until reading this post. I was aware that some Germans put leaves in the dead buck's mouth but I just think that's silly, probably a holdover from worshipping Thor or something. As for cutting off shit tails, I suggest that's a good way to get a punch in the chops.

I respect the animals I hunt and kill and don't need any rituals to do so. If someone else does, that's their business.

In the Zambezi Valley, you're supposed to tie two hairs of an animal's tail together to appease the gods. If it's a hippo, the tail must be thrown in the river. If an elephant, the hunter who shot it must cut off the tail. I respect these customs, not because I'm showing respect to the animals but because I respect my trackers' beliefs.

I first learned about blooding when I read Ruark's the Old Man and the Boy. The message I got from that reading wasn't about killing a deer but a rite of passage from boy to man while in the presence of men. When I lived in the South, blooding was a standard but frequently was more in the line of serious hazing rather than marking passage. I did not get blooded with my first deer. When I shot my first African animal, a springbok, my tracker approached me and asked if it was my first African animal. When I affirmed that it was he applied a streak of blood to my forehead and both sides of my face. He asked that I not remove it until dark in respect for the springbok. I was very honored with that ceremony. It had nothing to do with my religious beliefs.
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