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| Tiny Kaileigh and my Nonno circa early 90's. |
Since I was a kid, hunting and fishing (and eventually trapping) became a normal part of life. In the summers we'd go fishing at the cottage - I would get chewed alive sitting on the dock with the dogs watching that stupid little Snoopy bobber (and there were a few versions of Snoopy as I learned to actually cast) float until a pike got bored enough. At the cottage it was totally common to have eggs, bacon and pan friend pickerel for breakfast - something I've been a fan of since I was a kid. The fall was partridge and moose hunting if we were lucky enough to get tag (we never were). Most recently came the addition of trapping which took up the later part of fall and straight through the winter.
I made the choice to get my gun and hunting license when I was 12 (the earliest you could) because hunting was something I found important. After missing about 20 birds, many tears (and a few tantrums) and finally one very badly bodied bird (as per the direction of my mother - I feel like her exact words were "just hit the fucking thing") I got the hang of it and have been hooked ever since. Trapping has come along as a passion of mine, stemming from hunting, in the past few years.
Hunting gets a really shitty name. A lot of people view it as a bunch of blood thirsty heathens running around the bush shooting off shotguns all willy nilly. I was always brought up and taught that you respect what you kill, you take only what you need and you don't waste anything. I have to be really honest - I get really excited come fall and winter because I know that my really tight budget isn't going to get a bit of a break because I can put some meat in my freezer without buying it. Not only that but in a world of over processed meat and meat products I feel better knowing that my food never saw the inside of a commercial barn and I cleaned and prepared it myself.
Now I've been called cruel for hunting by both people who eat meat and who don't. I always bring up the fact that (to my meat eating friends) that unlike the chicken, beef and pork they buy in the store my dinner had the chance to run away. More often than not that's exactly what ends up happening. I think that I've gone home skunked as often as I've gone home after catching something.
Regardless of your views on hunting, fishing and trapping and it's cruelty these are my top five (5) reasons I will always hunt, trap and fish.
1. It puts food in my freezer.
I don't have the luxury of a having a huge budget to play with. Hunting at it's very core started from a necessity to provide food - it's still no exception. It makes me really happy knowing that come fall I will be able to supplement my meat purchases with meat I've shot. This holds true for trapping as well. Many people just assume I see a cute, fuzzy creature and think of it in terms of a fur coat - nope. I am just as happy to utilize all of the animals that are trapped as well.
On top of that I can guarantee that the dinner that I shoot is free range, organic and hasn't been near a commercial meat farm.
There is not too many things in the world that make you feel small. It's less so the act of hunting/fishing and trapping but more the time that I spend doing these things that puts things into perspective for me. There's something completely different about unplugging and going off the grid for an entire day.
When you're in the middle of the bush with just a shotgun and a dog a lot of things get put into perspective and it truly is a major part of what keeps me grounded. It's also one of those precious few moments when I can actually think, or not think depending on my mood and just be somewhere.
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| Also I can bring puppies along... |
3. Conservation
I get a lot of shit for this being one of the main reasons that I hunt and trap - a lot of people thinks it's total bullshit. Here's why hunting and trapping are so important to conservation:
- I help maintain the populations of predators on my trap line by trapping a certain amount of them per year. If we're having a low rabbit (prey) year then I know to take more animals that year, or at least try to. This means that throughout the winter there will be less strain on the prey populations and come spring there will be more of them to reproduce and rebuild those numbers.
- I remove animals from areas that they will not survive through the winter. I know that a young beaver who builds a house in a pond isn't going to survive the winter. There is no feed bed and the water will freeze solid and he'll end up either starving to death or freezing to death. These are the animals that I humanely trap and kill instead of letting them slowly wither away and die over time.
- I am committed to be part of the solution - not the problem. Over-trapping and over-hunting can cause extreme damage to an ecosystem, but so can suddenly stopping taking any animals from an area. There's a balance in these systems and like it or not we are a part of these systems.
4. I like to know what's going on with these animal populations
It's one thing to read studies and reports written by people, it's another thing to actually see if with your own eyes.
I know when we're having a really bad rabbit year on my trapline. I know when we've had a really great hatch of partridge through the spring and summer. I know when we're going to start to have issues with wolf populations because a pack is getting larger than it should.
A huge example of this was the giant explosion of the lynx population in Timmins. For years local trappers were asking to extend the lynx quota from 6 to 8-10 for the year because rabbit populations were decreasing and the lynx kept growing. The MNR would not allow the increase of a lynx quota and finally two years ago Timmins began having major nuisance lynx issues. This was because the yearlings were starving through the winter because there was not enough food. This is something that we're still feeling the effects from and proves totally that you can't manage wildlife solely sitting behind a desk or in an airplane.
5. I will totally be okay in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
Seriously guys.
It could be a thing ;)
