Masa

WHY I STILL HUNT

Masa Takei.

http://www.westernlivingmagazine.com/T/1012.Why-I-Hunt.html

Why did I feel the need to do this? And why do I still do it, again and again? I now live in an area—Haida Gwaii—where the hunting season is nine months long. Since that first deer, I`ve knelt next to a dozen more, along with a handful of grouse and geese. What exactly is it that I enjoy about hunting? "Enjoy" is not quite the right word. I find it satisfying and rewarding.

First, there are the places that we go in search of game. Places that we otherwise would have no reason to visit. The estuaries, the forested slopes, the fog-bound marshes studded with Tim Burtonesque trees. Even the clearcuts, piled with slash or scrubby young second-growth, have something to offer, if only a small stand of old-growth spared from the saw, or the distinctive water-drop call of a raven we`ve come to know in the area. An owl glides past as the moon comes up, or the first frog of the season chirrups out in the bog.

Hunting on foot is neither easy nor efficient and certainly not always fruitful. But every trip out has yielded some sort of reward, even if it`s simply the time spent outdoors, being out for a sunrise or a sunset, or, if we`re lucky, bumping into some adventure, even one with only a lower case "a."

I say "we," since more often than not I`m hunting with others. And that would be the second thing that I appreciate most: the time that I get to spend with friends in a shared purpose. I feel especially lucky to have introduced a handful of friends to their first hunting experiences.

Then, of course, there`s the meat, the ultimate in organic that I`ve worked hard for. As different from store-bought meat as a bleached-out tomato bought in a supermarket is compared to the rich globe pulled off a vine in your backyard. It`s a special feeling to feed yourself and others with what you`ve hunted and gathered.

I`m proud of how I hunt. However, my initial reaction after dropping an animal is still sadness. I still don`t like the killing part. I have passed on as many animals as I`ve killed, even with my sights set squarely on them. This may sound contradictory, but that`s the way it is. I feel a twang of remorse amid the elation of success each time I`ve taken an animal`s life, and I`ve been told that feeling persists in even veteran hunters. But then, I wouldn`t have it any other way.