Hunting Hunters, As Described by Merriam Webster's Essay

Hunting

Hunters, as described by Merriam Webster's New Dictionary, are individuals who hunt game. In previous generations (and currently in some areas around the world) hunters were held in high esteem as the members of society who were able to search out, track, find, kill and bring home meat for the family (or tribe). In today's more modern society, hunters in the traditional sense are more likely to hunt game for sport as the primary purpose rather than to fill the family freezer with meat; not that such actions are not a secondary consideration, they certainly are, but they are not now considered as the primary purpose for hunting.

If putting food on the table was the primary concern, most hunters could do much better by visiting the local supermarket, at least in Texas that is. A recent report determined that "the most expensive meat a Texas hunter will eat all year is not a dry-aged strip steak from Pappas Bros. But the hindquarter of the old buck he shot" (Meyer, 2011, p. 120). Between big business and ardent environmentalists the sport of hunting has become one of the most expensive pastimes man can enjoy.

Secondarily, it seems as if the sport of hunting is not only more expensive than it ever was, it is not as conducive to America's lifestyle as in previous generations. One recent study found that "intervening factors occurring in the time interval between youth and adulthood serve to reduce or eliminate the influence of childhood residence and source of introduction, and that at different points of the life and work cycles certain variables recede and others emerge as influences on participation" (Sofranko, Nolan, 2009, p. 426).

The study determined that the work-related influences were some of the strongest in intervening between the desire to hunt, and the ability (or time available) to do so.

In other words, American hunters are busy hunting profit in the workplace rather than animals in the wild. Other influences on today's hunters include environmentalists who denigrate hunting and who work at putting policies into place that will slow and stop the sport of hunting from continuing as an American pastime.Many of these environmentalists believe that they are saving the planet, keeping the environment pristine and doing their part to assist Mother Nature in her global duties. However, these same environmentalists oftentimes bring about worse scenarios than the hunters could ever imagine; take for example the America's geese population.

A number of studies have shown that the North American geese population has grown dramatically over the past decade (Fredrickson, Hearn, Mitchell, Sigfusson, Swann, Fox, 2004; p. 315) and that this is primarily due to the fact that there are many more laws protecting the species today, than in years past. The problem many environmentalists now face is the troublesome aspects of so many geese in areas where they are becoming nuisances. If the only problem concerning these geese were the messes they continually left behind, it probably would not be that big of a problem. However, these geese are causing problems in agriculture as well. The geese have to eat, and many times they are eating produce meant for human or cattle consumption. Of course, geese are big birds, and as such leave plenty of messes behind that can cause the degeneration of parks and other public areas.

Additionally, the geese are good eating (how can one forget the big goose hanging in store at the end of the Christmas Carol?) and yet are not being hunted as the food source that they obviously are.

Many environmentalists hypocritically announce that there are other food sources that can be used. One recent article extolled the virtues….....