I am writing in response to Paul Sassone’s recent anti-hunting column titled “Hunting not a fair fight.” I welcome an intelligent discussion on the ethics of hunting in modern society. Unfortunately, Mr. Sassone’s piece is one of the most poorly crafted arguments on the topic I have encountered.
Either Mr. Sassone is completely ignorant on the topic of hunting, or laziness as a writer led him to write a truly embarrassing piece of journalism. I do not have the space in this letter to provide a full description to the non-hunter of the motivations and ethics of hunting. However, I will make two very quick comments in response to his piece.
To Mr. Sassone’s assertion that hunting is not a sport; no one has ever claimed or desired for hunting to be a “fair fight.” It is not a fight at all. However, in ethical, fair-chase hunting, the animal has a sporting chance of evading the hunter. There are no high fences or electronic tracking devices. Just the wits and physical abilities of the hunter versus the finely evolved capabilities of the prey.
If Mr. Sassone thinks hunting is so easy, maybe he should join me the next time I’m tracking elk at 10,000 feet in the Rockies for five days with a 50-pound pack on my back. He wouldn’t make it one hour in the mountains. As someone who has competed in ultra-marathons and other extreme endurance events, I can easily say hunting in the mountains is the most demanding physical and mental endeavor I have ever attempted.
Second, Mr. Sassone attempts to somehow distinguish the meat-eating non-hunter as more ethical than the meat-eating hunter. How is outsourcing your killing to the factory farm ethical? Hunting has allowed me and my family to enjoy organic, free-range, humanely harvested meat of animals that spent a free life in the wild and who have been scientifically managed by wildlife professionals to ensure a sustainable population. Mr. Sassone would have us believe that the individual who has never set foot in the forest and eats animals that are slaughtered after spending short miserable lives standing in their own feces is more ethical.
Ryan Harvey
Libertyville