FOXSYLVANIA

–Sigh…another deer hunting season in Pennsylvania begins, a strange and uncomfortable time to be a furry or an animal lover.  This is a big hunting state, with a hunting culture so strong that they actually close schools for it.  Children as young as twelve are taken hunting, with the first deer kill being regarded as a rite of passage.  Pictures of grinning hunters holding aloft the lifeless heads of their prey will be published in the local papers, as if the hunters had done something laudable.  The language employed descriptive of the hunt usually even avoids the word “kill,” referring instead to an animal “harvested,” as if they were a head of cabbage.  You might see a slaughtered animal strapped to a passing car.  I once attended an activity at a professor’s house where he had an eviscerated deer strapped to a tree; I almost lost my lunch.

Hunters are not doing anything illegal here, although hunting is outlawed in some countries. I accept that hunting is a long-standing tradition and one which is unlikely to change in these parts in the foreseeable future.  It might be appreciated, however, if pictures of deliberately-slain animals were not published in such family-oriented publications as the local newspaper in deference to the sensitivities of those who do not share enthusiasm for such blood sports…