Day 211

Have you ever watched a hunting show? They're on sometimes on certain networks; basically, cameramen follow around hunters as they track and shoot various animals. Often the host of the show is the hunter being followed around.

What infuriates me is that the hunters always define the value of their prey in terms of beauty. For birds it is plumage, for deer the horns, and so forth. "Wow, what a beautiful buck we have here, just gorgeous." This is said, as the cameraman stands over the corpse, and the hunter points the dead deer's head toward the lens. "Just beautiful."

And I don't doubt the sincerity. I really don't. I just can't for the life of me understand how a person can see something simultaneously as beautiful and as something to be killed for sport. I see beauty in deer as well, but I don't want to shoot them; hell, I don't even want to bother them. The whole idea of hunting for the most beautiful, or majestic creatures raises a basic contradiction in my mind.

Hunting for larger prey is common. Hunters from around the world pay tens of thousands to hunt and kill lions and elephants (even tigers, illegally) in Africa, and polar bears in Alaska and northern Canada. I just don't understand it.

If you want to appreciate the beauty of a creature, just have a good look. Or, if you like shoot at it with a camera. Is that so terribly unsatisfying?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I will NEVER understand it either.
8:45 PM
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