There was an incident near Brewer, Maine 10 or 15 years ago that got a lot of media coverage. A woman who had recently moved there "from away" -- New York, I think, which is sort of the ultimate Away to Mainers -- was shot by a hunter while she was in her own back yard. Apparently she was wearing some gloves that were brown on one side and white on the other and the hunter mistook her for a deer, or at least that's what he said. My uncle lives there and said most people in town said she should have known better than to wear those gloves during hunting season. Mind boggling!

I don't know enough Wisconsin hunters to be able to characterize them but do know a Chicago family who have a getaway place in Sturgeon Bay. It's out in the woods, lots of acreage. Chester said several times they have gone up during or soon after deer hunting season and found deer carcasses on their property, despite No Trespassing signs posted all over the place. The hunters field dress the deer, take the meat, and leave the guts etc. there on the ground. That's pretty crude. Not only is it a disgusting thing to find, it attracts scavenging animals who then hang around.


>When I was 15 and living at Camp Tahosa, CO, I was shot at by two hunters from Texas while standing in my front yard! When out with my family deer hunting in Wisconsin, my uncle was shot in the behind by a hunter from Chicago. While definitely idiots, I wouldn't call them 'beer-swilling good-ole-boys up for a weekend's killin' types...
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>>>Surprisingly, my entire life I have been around hunters in Colorado, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and North Carolina and I never met a beer-swilling good-ole-boys up for a weekend's killin' 'n' bondin' person yet...
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>>That's because you haven't hung around Canadian woodlands. Maybe the better class of hunter stays home in the U.S. while the guys who shoot at anything that moves come up here.
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>>>>>Hunting is one of primary means of controlling the deer population.
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>>>>There are deer galore in the wilds of Scotland, and they need to be culled, but an official, licenced wildlife ranger does it, not some beer-swilling good-ole-boys up for a weekend's killin' 'n' bondin'.
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>>>>>I am curious though - I do understand people's views on the idea of hunting as a 'sport.' I also see how people cannot understand how anyone could hunt their own food when you can buy meat at any grocery store. I will not go into the reasons - for every hunter it is different. I do know MANY families who live on meat all year that they acquired during hunting season though.
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>>>>I CAN understand someone doing it for food, and I agree that it matters not whether it's abbattoir beef or Boondocks venison, but someone getting a buzz out of doing it is not right.
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>>>>A few years ago I saw this docu of some rich, wimp white hunter from England, who was still allowed to go hunting big game in some part of Africa. So full of himself, he made a great deal of saying how one should be respectful of the game one kills ... then a little later one of his henchmen was filmed doing something DISrespectful with the vulva of an antelope they'd just killed. Later they "dissed" another animal they'd killed. All I could think of was "you little hypocritical s**t!"
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>>>>>What I do not understand is when the 'humane' comes into play. Having spent time at a few locations where cattle are processed (there are a few different methods), hunting is much more humane.
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>>>>Assuming Dead-eye Dick manages to shoot it cleanly through the heart, and not have it run off wounded into the bush to die slowly and in pain.
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>>>>>>>>>Now I can shoot a deer and feel a primary sense of joy and excitment instead of guilt. Sure if it is a poor shot and it suffers, I feel bad. But the feeling of a clean shot and quick kill of a deer is definitely one of the top 5 joys in my life.
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>>>>>>>>And that you feel that way doesn't bother you? If you were living in frontier times and killing that deer meant your family would eat for a week instead of going hungry, I can understand the feeling. But in the modern world, how can killing an innocent creature give you joy?
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>>>>>>>>Tamar
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>>>>>>>It's easy to paint deer as innocent little creatures, but they are a pest here. People die from car accidents with deer,
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>>>>>>Er, isn't it that deer die from people running into them? It's not as if the deer flatten the cars.
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>>>>>>>and even if they don't die they can become injured and have their vehicles damaged. Deer eat farmer's crops, and destroy property. They're not something that you have to trek into the wilderness to see.
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>>>>>>And how do you know that the deer you shoot has eaten crops or caused an accident, or will do in future?
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>>>>>>>We also eat the deer we kill. We don't shoot for the joy of killing and let them lay to rot, as often hunters are depicted.
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>>>>>>>No, it doesn't bother me that I feel that way.