When I read the many different Conservation
Officer Tales
these past few months, from “illegal dumping of deer and beaver carcasses” to “illegal bear bait sites,” deer baiting, a “fisher walking down the road with a trap still on its head” and complaint of 16 pheasants “thrown and left in a ditch,” and “people were observed after midnight, illegally shooting deer from the box of a truck while driving,” and many other reports, I asked myself, “What on Earth is happening in Minnesota with hunters’ ethics?”
Wild animals have been hunted and trapped forever, and I am in support of hunting. I come from a long history of small game and deer hunters. However, it really disgusts me to read of the many countless, so-called “hunters,” who have very little respect for hunting laws and regulations, and certainly no respect and compassion for the animals they trap and/or kill.
I highly commend our conservation officers for their tireless dedication and efforts to maintain and enforce hunting, fishing and trapping regulations, and for their good stewardship and concern toward all animals, fish and fowl. I also commend all hunters, fishermen and trappers who do the same. There are good and ethical sportsmen and -women and trappers in our state, but sadly the percentage of unethical sportsmen is growing rapidly.
Tempest (Powell) Benson, a wonderful lady I knew on Saganaga Lake, told me something many years ago that I have never forgotten. Tempest said, “When I’m hunting any animal, and after the shot, I walk up to it and check carefully to see that it is dead, and not suffering, and then I kneel down and say an Ojibwe prayer for the animal’s spirit.”
Let’s all keep in mind, it’s not really about the quantity of the hunt, but the quality.
Judy Leahy
Stillwater, Minn.
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