Is All Hunting Cool with You?

As hunters, we often are reluctant to criticize any parts of hunting in fear of lending support to those who wish to do away with all of hunting. I am very aware that even this small blog can be used as anti-hunting ammo if I say the “wrong” thing. But beyond anything, this blog is meant to take an honest look at fishing and hunting in Pennsylvania and beyond.

Last night, I was channel surfing and saw parts of an episode of a hunting show on The Outdoor Channel. They were bear hunting in California. They were using dogs. I had never witnessed a bear hunt with dogs. Basically, the dogs chase the bear around for awhile, the bear climbs a tree and then the hunter shoots it. What struck me was how little sporting effort the hunter put into the hunt. Sure, the hunter had to keep up with the dogs but when they got up to the bear they were talking in normal voices and had normal movement. No stealth was used.

So, I began wondering by what standard do we judge whether something is included in the sport of hunting or not. I came up with three basic criteria.

1) Is it legal? - In this case, bear hunting with dogs is legal where they were hunting.

2) Does it promote an ethical harvest? - Anti-hunters don’t comprehend that good hunters have as a primary concern an ethical kill without suffering of the animal being harvested. In this case, I have to say that the hunter very effectively and efficiently harvested the bear.

3) Is it sporting? - This is the one that can be very subjective. Sporting, to me, is defined by the degree of skill and technique that needs to be administered by the hunter to harvest the animal. For me, this bear hunt with dogs failed to demonstrate any significant degree of sporting effort by the hunter.

Now, I am not going to California to picket against bear hunting with dogs. There may be a lot of good reasons why they use dogs there to hunt bear. But if anyone would try to introduce it in Pennsylvania, I’m not sure I would support it.

How about other areas of hunting? What about hunting in fenced in pay to hunt preserves? One Pennsylvania hunting web site specifically denounces fenced in deer hunts. How about hunting deer over bait? I predict hunting over bait will be a debate for our entire State in the next 5 years.

The debate on some of these issues can get quite heated and mired in details. They are important debates for us to have, though. The sport of hunting in Pennsylvania will be stronger if we understand what legal, ethical and sporting forms of hunter we support and defend as part of how we enjoy Penn’s Outdoors.

*Picture by Templarion from Flickr.com