I dont exactly know what it is but every once in a while I harvest a deer that will weigh more heavily on me than the others. I am very serious about the taking of life and feel all of it should leave its mark upon you. I harvested a doe tonight with my old browning cobra1 my first with that bow and for some reason I am remorsefull of my decision to harvest her. I dont have a reason or explanation. I had no reservation before the shot. It was the momment that I came upun her in the stillness that I realized it. I am ever so thankfull of my harvest and am happy for sure but for now I think I will spend some time with this feeling in honor of that little doe. Would love to hear some of the other thoughts on this.
What you feel is inside of you because of who you are.
I hear ya...
Some hunters never feel a thing, but I have always felt a certain "seriousness" when walking up to a deer I 've just killed, even while feeling satisfaction or elation if its a big buck. How anyone couldn't be affected by the finality of killing something, I 'll never know.
But I choose to take responsibility for the meat I eat, so its a necessary part of the activity/philosophy I stand by. And I enjoy hunting.
A lot of hunters feel what you feel. Only a few dare express it.
Joshua
Congrats on your harvest..I don't believe in killing any creature for the sole purpose of killing it... if im not eating it or making use of it ..then its free to roam in my book. Do what makes " you " feel best. In my book you took a critter with a stickbow and you should be proud of your accomplishments..
I feel it on every deer I kill! Sometimes I don't shoot because I don't feel right killing "that deer". That being said I don't care what deer gives me the opportunity with a bow, i'll fling an arrow in it's general direction. I still need to get my first with a bow.
I killed a nub buck that was wounded last year, it bothered me to kill that deer even though it was probably the best thing for it, still bothered me.
As I have gotten older I feel the post harvest sorrow more and more. I certainly have passed on animals just because I did not want to shoot them even though I could have. But that said each new hunting season brings the yearning to go afield and enjoy the hunt again.
Different things for different hunters - no right or wrong. Personally the day I ever start feeling remorse or sorrow will be the last day I hunt. I don't need to look for negatives - they can find you on their own.
Im agree with elkken on this one.
Yep, Ken nailed it for me as well.
A.S. What are doing up so early your not going hunting are you. :biglaugh:
parcher,
I agree with Joshua & elkken. The taking of any life is serious and should be treated as such.
I think many of us can strongly relate to your emotions, parcher. As elkken said, sometimes I just watch the deer feed around my blind and I let them pass...can't seem to will myself to shoot them. And other times, I feel that strong desire to either fill my freezer or fill the freezer of someone else and I aim and shoot without reservation. On every occasion, however, that my action leads to the death of an animal, I feel a wash of both gratefulness and remorse. I honor the animal with my silence and a prayer, thanking God for the opportunity to be a full participant in the cycle of life and for the ability to truly apprecaite the life that was given.
Claudia
Great post! Couldn't agree more.
Check the signature...
I used to teach Biology in an earlier life. All life forms depend on some other life form loosing its life for it's own survival. There is no getting around that. I could go to the store and get my meat but hunting with a bow makes if more real, personal and honest. When my wife kills an animal she almost always cries afterward. She is a nurturer by nature so killing is alien to her but she recognizes and accepts the hypocrisy of those who eat meat and look down on hunters. The feelings we all feel are part of being human, the urge to kill and the sorrow of having taken a life that often follows. We can choose to kill our own meat or we can have someone do it for us. There is no getting around the fact that we are all part of the circle of life and in order for us/me to survive something else must die for our/my own survival.
The other side of the coin is remembering how an animal will die if it dies a "natural" death. Hit by a car, starving to death in a harsh winter, being killed by another predator, becoming sick and being unable to fend for itself, getting old, loosing one's teeth and not being able to forage, feed or whatever. Nature's way of killing is not always kind and not always swift. Death by any well placed arrow is extremely less cruel than what nature has in store for them and even much more humane than what the meat industry has in store for the poor animal's remains we see in the market.
MY point is that the way we have to survive was set up that way by our Creator.....life comes from death.....or, conversely ...from death comes life. In our society and culture we have a choice as to whether we want to be directly involved in our own survival by farming, gardening or hunting ourselves, or by letting someone else do the "dirty work" of the killing, butchering, etc., for us.
This Thanksgiving, Laura and I will celebrate and give thanks that day by cooking and eating the first wild turkey I have killled with my bow. The meal will have much more personal sentiments involved than if we went out to eat or if we bought a Butterball. We know the meat will be organic, we know how hard it was to killl (took more years than I care to think about) and the bird actually performed its ultimate role as a prey species and mine as a predator.
There are always mixed feelings when we take an animal, but gratitude trumps them all.
I used to teach Biology in an earlier life. All life forms depend on some other life form loosing its life for it's own survival. There is no getting around that. I could go to the store and get my meat but hunting with a bow makes if more real, personal and honest. When my wife kills an animal she almost always cries afterward. She is a nurturer by nature so killing is alien to her but she recognizes and accepts the hypocrisy of those who eat meat and look down on hunters. The feelings we all feel are part of being human, the urge to kill and the sorrow of having taken a life that often follows. We can choose to kill our own meat or we can have someone do it for us. There is no getting around the fact that we are all part of the circle of life and in order for us/me to survive something else must die for our/my own survival.
The other side of the coin is remembering how an animal will die if it dies a "natural" death. Hit by a car, starving to death in a harsh winter, being killed by another predator, becoming sick and being unable to fend for itself, getting old, loosing one's teeth and not being able to forage, feed or whatever. Nature's way of killing is not always kind and not always swift. Death by any well placed arrow is extremely less cruel than what nature has in store for them and even much more humane than what the meat industry has in store for the poor animal's remains we see in the market.
MY point is that the way we have to survive was set up that way by our Creator.....life comes from death.....or, conversely ...from death comes life. In our society and culture we have a choice as to whether we want to be directly involved in our own survival by farming, gardening or hunting ourselves, or by letting someone else do the "dirty work" of the killing, butchering, etc., for us.
This Thanksgiving, Laura and I will celebrate and give thanks that day by cooking and eating the first wild turkey I have killled with my bow. The meal will have much more personal sentiments involved than if we went out to eat or if we bought a Butterball. We know the meat will be organic, we know how hard it was to killl (took more years than I care to think about) and the bird actually performed its ultimate role as a prey species.
There are always mixed feelings when we take an animal, but gratitude trumps them all.
I hope I would be concerned if I didn't feel some remorse at the loss of life. I'm not positive the feelings I have has anything to do with my killing it. I have experienced similar sad feelings at the sight of deer killed on the roads, maybe even a little more for those because I have the added feelings of those as mostly wasted meat. I say mostly wasted because some of it will provide a meal for other meat eaters.
I am very grateful for all that is provided to me by my "Maker".
God bless,Mudd
pharcher,
I appreciate your posting greatly. I ahve felt this all too often, some times more than others, bucks and does both. Celebrate your humanity man!
Thank God you you feel this way, you do not take killing lightly. I know one think that has helped me is every time I take a deer, I talk to it. I know it sounds silly, but I live in the timber and I feel a deep connection to it. I thank the deer for its body and I promise it I will do all in my power to use it to help my family. I Try to respect hte deer in all I do. I put leaves, or alphalpha, ect fromt he spot it died deep in its mouth as a last meal gesture. I make sure I butcher it as completely as I am able.
I know it sounds weird, but you are correct, at times it can be hard on the soul.
Bob.
You have a true hunters heart. JMO
It's called being human. We all justify what we do in our own way. There are days when I've had deer within 5 yards, yet I don't shoot. Something inside tells me when it's o.k. When I know what that is, I'll tell ya. I will tell you that there is a small prayer said over the animal when I do take one.
I believe everyone's desire or need to take an animal diminishes over time, but the memory of the hunt never will. A good example is to watch any of those hunting videos with Michael Waddell. Very few people get as worked up over an animal as that guy, but over the years, I've seen his focus change a little bit. He seems to take more joy in spending time with family and friends afield now. He still gets fired up, but he gets more fired up about his kids or wife having a sucessful hunt, than he does about his own. I think he had the most fun of his life taking his dad on an elk hunt. His dad didn't get one that year, but you could see how happy he was to have him along.
The journey is the destination.
Your Feelings Prove that You HAVE a HEART , and I agree "Every Kill should remain with You" out of Respect for the Hunt AND the Animal. It takes a Pretty Jaded & Cold Individual to NOT have even a "Pang" for the Kill. "NOT" a "Guilt-Trip" but just a "Pang of Remorse". :thumbsup:
Makes YOU Human, and Bless You for Saying So!! You are Not Alone My Friend. :archer: :goldtooth:
Grew up on a farm - we and my extended family butchered something about every weekend. Never felt a bit of remorse, sadness, etc - it was just part of what we did to provide food. I doubt our ancestors ever felt these things either - most probably would feel joy at the kil cause it meant they would eat. Never knew this meant I was unhuman, jaded and cold.
My family and friends don't seem to see me that way.
I do respect others feeling differently - unless they fail to return that respect.
I'm 43 years old and have been hunting since I was a kid. Can't say I ever felt the slightest bit of what you'd call remorse in harvesting an animal. FWIW, I am a compassionate person. I have a wife and two daughters who probably have made me a more sensitive person than I might have been but still, no remorse whatsoever in taking a deer. Infact it's proabaly just the opposite. I feel a strong sense of accomplishment and the sense that I fulfilled the role of a predator.
Thanks for all your kind words, I grew up watching 2 different reactions, my grandfather who was of native american decent always laid his hand upon the animal in thanks and honored it with a prayer. On the other side of my family my father never expressed any emotion about it. Both men were thankfull and both expressed high moral value and ethics to me. I know that all come will a moment of pause for me, some much more so than others. It is interested to see that there are others that share my point of view some have reminded me of my grandfather (whos method I still practice) and there are a few fellows like my dad. We are all hunters and part of the circle as explaind so kindly in this post. Happy hunting to you guys I am headed to the 53 acre wood lol, my soul needs some soothing as only bow in hand can provide!
I guess if I were to feel that way about a deer that I killed I would also have to feel that way about any steak I ate, chicken sandwich I consumed, or any chunck of ham that I through into a pot of beans. Someone killed them too, right?
Everyone has the right to see their own side and feel what they may. That's what makes this country so great.
But when I start feeling that way, I'll realize that it's my signal to hang it up. JMO.
Certainly no judgement on anyone for what they feel. I'm sure it is right for them. I rarely pass on an animal, unless it may interfere with me harvesting something that I am more interested in. I don't feel regret or guilt after killing a deer, or anything else. The only thing that gets to me sometimes is seeing how much something will struggle to survive and cling to life. It is the time from right after the shot until the kicking is done that I pretty much hate every single time. I guess it just reminds me of what I would be doing in that situation.
I had no soft spot for killing food when I was younger. I grew up on a farm and we killed game plus our own animals to eat. I still kill for food. It is the best way I know to get free range meat with no hormones, antibiotics and whatever they stick in what we buy. If I didn't I wouldn't hunt. I love the hunt, but without the food it is just wouldn't work for me. I would take up a camera or catch and release fish for fun in the outdoors.
I get a little sad now sometimes after a kill due to age and experience. I don't feel it when the freezer needs filling. Once that is mostly done I still hunt. We can always use one more for the year for a better meat supply or to help out some needy relatives, but I start to lose interest in shooting something at times. All the political correct societal subliminal crap that I have been feed for all these years starts to eat at me a little then. I start getting a little sentimental and soft at this time of the season.
In the end animals are for eating. They don't care about you or other animals other than their young for a short while. They don't think about life and death the way we do. They don't care if something dies or if they kill something. They don't care if some other animal dies because they hog the food. Life is hard. Death is hard. A sharp arrow is a great way to die.
There are a few farm folks who posted. I was raised around farm family my whole life. As one friend put it a few years ago, "Country folks know you have to kill it to eat it, whether it's a carrot or a cow!"
That said, (and put pretty well I think) there are times when things are "unsettled" in my life that I just don't have that killer intinct in me. Then there are times when I feel I have to "make meat" for some odd ancesteral reason or another. I understand neither emotion nor it's cause.
Jack London's "Call of the Wild" reminds me of those ancient musings that ebb and flow in my heart and mind, uninvited and unexplained to my intellectual mondern self.
Just go with it. There are times when a cross word with a co-worker or friend leaves me with that same "pit-of-the-stomach" sense of regret, similar to what I've also known taking an animal's life.
While reflecting on your post, I'd hazard to guess that I feel it more for smaller game than for deer. Perhaps it's because I've found that deer far more often outsmart me and elude me regularly, catching that odd tiny motion or just "sensing" my presence in their world and escape before I ever have the chance to decide their fate.
A small creature's life seems so much more in my total control, and therefore, I angst at times over having taken their life.
We as humans come with so many mixed emotions and backgrounds. I find it a blessing to know we'll never truly unravel all the mysteries of our inner selves.
I am definitly not one that enjoys the kill, but I love the woods, the sunrise the sunset and everything that God has blessed me with. I consider the journey alot more important than the destination! That being said, I always feel somthing that I can't exactly put a name to, it's excitment, remorse, fulfillment and so many other words I can't think of!! I'm glad you posted, It's nice to see how other people feel. I do notice, folks that hunt with traditional gear have a differant way of thinking!! Jason
As humans we must be brave. We carry a burden that animals do not.
We have the ability to procure our food without being directly involved in the death of it..."carrot or cow". Something surely dies so that we may live, BUT we CAN seperate ourselves from it for the most part.(if we so choose) I believe, that to some extent, this is a dangerous thing. Some people may tell us, that hunting is wrong, while they have a belly full of beef that someone else killed. They did not see or smell the guts, and blood, so to them, the animal is less DEAD. They feel less responsible...somehow removed from the true cycle of life.
There is no deeper appreciation of our food than to kill it or grow it ourselves. No greater respect.
You carry the burden pharcher, as do many of the people who frequent this site. Carry it with pride, and feel your "hunters heart". :campfire:
Now that I'm well on my way to becoming a "longbeard", I feel a flood of emotions that I never knew when I was young and had no grasp of the value of life. In my humble opinion you are much the better hunter and human for it. Earlier this season I lost a deer. I shot exactly where I was looking on a perfect angling away shot, I just picked the wrong spot! I was stunned when I got down and discovered I'd shot too far back and got stomach on what I thought was surely a double lung hit. I made a perfect shot on a big doe later on that same hunt. Late in the season I had five deer underneath me and let them all walk. I wasted a life and refrained from taking life. Order was restored. My wheelie buddies don't understand me. I don't understand hunters who think the season is a contest to see who can kill the most deer!
Well said. A perfectly natural feeling. I wish more hunters had that kind of respect.
We are the only reasoning predator, and I think what you feel is natural. I would sooner you feel that way, and I am that way myself, than to see you act like some of those mindless zealots on some TV shows that jump in the air, pump their fists and high-five everyone in spitting distance.
There's a fine line on both ends. It has to do with respect...if you don't get it, you just don't get it.
"There's a fine line on both ends. It has to do with respect...if you don't get it, you just don't get it."
That pretty much sums it up right there.
George is right we are a reasoning predator - I do not feel sorrow for killing the animal though? Believe it is life and nature. I do believe one should show the utmost respect as many have said. Give a prayer of thanks to the Lord for the animal/blessing provided. I do realize/feel that when I let an arrow loose I am killing - I want the kill to be clean and quick, no suffering (as all of us). To that end I am highly carefull on shots I take and practice religously(sp?).
We all have our different ways- nothing wrong with any of them.
Great post
J
"There's a Fine Line on Both Ends. It has to do with Respect...If You Dont Get It, Then You just Dont Get It." Well Said WakNStak Il!!
all life is sacred to me / i never go to church cause i don't belive in that ,but i say my prayers of thanks over every kill.i thank the animal for feeding me -------- never remorse.
all predators must kill, my cat feels only pride in her kills (i think)she eats and kills again to eat again, always shows her kill to me just as we show our kills here.theres nothing wrong with killing as long as its done for the reason of survival.
Very thought-provoking topic......something I've discussed time and again with many of my "non-hunter" friends.
After 42+ years of carrying bows and guns into the woods, I have to say that the day I no longer feel a bit of remorse or sadness for ending a creature's life is the day I will no longer hunt.
I agree with all of you that say it has to do with RESPECT.....this is an absolute! I am entirely comfortable with my role as a predator and I fully understand the predator/prey relationship......something inside of me remains sensitive to the outcome of that predator role...taking an animal's life. I hope this remains with me for the remainder of my life. If it doesn't, I will not hunt again.
I admit to having watched the newly crowned tin-pan heros of horn porn hunting TV shows. "Puttin' the smackdown on that monster" seems to me to be an alien mindset or attitude.......then again, maybe its just my age or generation. Something has gotten slightly skewed........!
I grew up in PA farm country and hunting (especially deer hunting) was (and remains) a religion. I believe I was blessed to have a hunting father as a mentor who understood what respect meant. I watched him time and again place his hand on an animal that he had just taken. I'm sure he was giving thanks as well for the opportunity to harvest an animal. Thanks Dad for steering me in the right direction.
I may be at the top of the food chain (well, at least here in the lower 48), but I will always consider the taking of an animal's life as something that demands my sensitivity...as well as my utmost respect.
I am a hunter and I kill game animals. I feel sadness when I end their lives. I cherish and give thanks for every meal they provide. May it always be!
My feelings on this subject.
http://www.youtube.com/user/W8N4FALL#p/u/12/RyGKf9x-ia8
VERY Well Said And That Film Says Volumes About YOU and YOUR Character Friend , and Congrats on the "Meat for the Freezer"!
So many times, I have seen on TV, DVD, and My Own Friends....Doin' the High Five and "TouchDown Dances" with Little to NO Respect for the Life they Just Took.
Then the Knives come out, and they Hack and Laugh and carry on, I must have a Soft Heart, of which I am VERY UnAshamed To Have, The Life that was taken might as well have been a Beetle they just smashed, except they can EAT this one.
It Turns My Stomach truthfully. And YES I am a Hunter, and I Grew Up around the Local "Kill 'Em & Grill 'Em" Crowd. I Didnt Quite Follow Their Leads because I was Usually the Youngster of the Crowd.