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| Kehoe image |
War is hell, they say. If war, which typically involves two armed sides
knowingly fighting each other, is hell, then what is hunting – which involves one
armed side and one un-armed and unaware side?
And that armed side -- loaded
with firepower and tools to facilitate winning, like bait for the targeted prey
-- is grossly advantaged. The un-armed
side learns the hard way there’s a hunt going on.
Uneven match. Unfair contest. Un-sportsman-like activity. Inhumane. Fiendish.
Welcome to New Jersey’s annual (under
Gov. Chris Christie) black bear hunt, an event that itself has strong partisans
on each side. Led by the Division of Fish
and Wildlife (DFW) and its bear-counting “state biologists” (voices of authority?) mentioned in every
media story about this hunt, one side claims there are too many NJ black bears
and too much risk from them.
The other side, comprised of fervent
hunt-opponents, says the population numbers are inaccurate, the risk is
practically nil and this so-called hunt is nothing but a trophy-gathering
occasion designed to please the hunters’ lobby.
Hunters were limited to archery
through Wednesday of this week. From Thursday-Saturday, muzzle-loading rifles are
also allowed. Starting December 4, the second six-day portion of the bear hunt is
limited to firearms. (This sounds like an effort to give every
wannabe bear-killer a chance – choose your weapons!)
When the hunt got off to a slow start
– that is, fewer bears were slaughtered than last year – hunters blamed the weather
rather than the possibility that NJ bears may have been decimated in
previous hunts. And of course they cited
the need for the hunt: the first hunter to arrive on Monday used a bow and arrow
to kill his third bear in four years -- what a guy, huh? – claiming he was controlling
the population and putting [bear meat] to use in a good way, by cooking it. (Would the bear agree?)
This hunt-horror has been
non-stop and no mercy throughout Christie’s tenure. And we have learned during
her smear campaign against her Democratic opponent for governor that Christie’s
Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno – she of the sneering smile -- favors the hunt.
Do we need to know anything else?
Atwood’s on
target once more
Canadian author, literary critic and poet Margaret Atwood
recently scored again with her 1985 novel, The
Handmaid’s Tale. She’s equally right-on with this poem (bold
face added).
It’s Autumn
It’s autumn. The
nuts patter down.
Beechnuts, acorns,
black walnuts –
tree orphans thrown
to the ground
in their hard
garments.
Don’t go in there,
into the faded orange wood –
it’s filled with angry old men
sneaking around in camouflage gear
pretending no one can see them.
Some of them aren’t even old,
they just have arthritic foreheads,
or else they’re drunk,
but something’s got to suffer
for their grudges, their obscure sorrows:
the more blown-up flesh, the better.
They’ll shoot at any sign of movement –
your dog, your cat, you.
They’ll say you were a fox or skunk,
or duck, or pheasant. Maybe a deer.
They aren’t
hunters, these men.
They have none
of the patience of hunters,
none of the
remorse.
They’re certain
they own everything.
A hunter
knows he borrows.
I remember the long
hours
crouching in the
high marsh grasses –
the grey sky empty,
the water silent,
the hushed colours
of distant trees –
waiting for the
rush of wings,
half-hoping nothing
would happen.
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