Is Hunting Racist?

[Guest guest]

http://www.counterpunch.org/overton09062007.html

September 6, 2007

 

Is Hunting Racist?

Bang Bang, Shoot Shoot

By KELLY OVERTON

 

It's autumn, the time of year when millions of Americans renew their

love affair with guns and head for the woods in a preemptive strike

in their war against wildlife. Hunters justify this slaughter by

claiming to reduce incidents of human/animal conflict. They tell us

they must kill to protect Americans from automobile/deer collisions ­

and save animals from certain starvation. They would have us believe

that hunting is not only good for people, but also good for the

animals they kill. Yet in reality, hunting is neither useful nor

necessary. It is an environmentally and socially destructive practice

historically grounded in racial injustice.

 

There is no truth to the myth that hunting reduces human/animal

conflict. In fact, automobile/deer collisions actually increase

during hunting season as deer are flushed from forests and onto

roadways. The presence of wildlife in our yards, cities, and highways

is due not to an increase in the number of animals, but to a

staggering decrease in wilderness. We live in a culture that has

accepted hunting for so many generations that we can no longer see

the forest through the disappearing trees. The animals are not

invading our territory ­ we have increasingly invaded theirs. It is

our society's constant destruction of wilderness that causes

human/animal conflict. In an age of water shortages and global

warming our natural resources merit a sophisticated ecosystem

protection policy ­ a policy in which humane wildlife management is

one important aspect.

 

The tragic histories of the passenger pigeon and the American buffalo

show us that hunters are sometimes the last to realize the delicate

nature of animal populations. Hunting is not an effective method of

wildlife management; the " need " to hunt on an annual basis is proof

itself of hunting's ineffectiveness. Hunters' claims of

conservationism are necessary because admitting that you enjoy

killing is a less than flattering attribute. Hunters make the cruel

choice to shoot animals instead of skeet or targets. And cruel it is.

 

There is nothing as heartbreaking as the sight of a bird shot from

flight or witnessing a gunned down deer's last moments - the blood,

the panicked breathing, the struggle, the recognition of what is

happening, and the animal's visible desire to survive.

 

While some people may view hunting as a harmless cultural tradition,

in fact, hunting is a stubborn holdover from our country's racist

past. While many still consider it an annual rite of passage for

white children to stalk through rural communities with loaded guns,

it is a crime for a minority child to possess a gun in his urban

neighborhood. A gun remains a traditional right for many boys in

white, rural America, a tradition that would get a Latino boy killed

or imprisoned in our cities. That we allow, even encourage, one

segment of our population to run amuck with guns, while imprisoning

others, is blatantly racist.

 

In a year when many cities are struggling with a disturbing

reemergence of gun violence, America must rethink the continued

glorification of guns and killing. The cruel reality of hunting blurs

the message we deliver to our children about guns and violence in

this country. We cannot simultaneously discourage gun violence and

encourage hunting. Both cruelty and compassion are contagious, and it

is our responsibility to plant the seeds of a compassionate culture

for future generations. Children who learn to empathize with animals

are much more likely to become empathetic adults. There is nothing

good that comes from the murder of vulnerable creatures. Hunting

teaches it is acceptable, even admirable, to kill a defenseless

creature. Hunting is the opposite of caring.

 

We should celebrate when our children plant their first tree or spend

their first day volunteering at a homeless shelter ­ not when they gun

down their first animal. By abandoning hunting in favor of state-of-

the-art methods of ecosystem management we can save two birds without

picking up a single stone. We can forever improve the quality of life

for both humans and animals while teaching our children a crucial

lesson about compassion, mercy, and living in harmony with all of the

earth's creatures.

 

Kelly Overton is Executive Director of People Protecting Animals &

Their Habitats. Email: KhoPhaNgan