Bachman In Narnia? The Lion, the Witch, and the African Lady.

Remember this: In the Narnia Chronicles, Aslan is tied on a mound, clipped  and sacrificed in Edmund's stead. The children watch from afar as the White Witch mocks Aslan and slays him with her knife.


Recently, I read the exploits of Melissa Bachman's African lion hunt. This story is making the rounds, but I  could swear this is not a new picture. There is also this lady that wants her banded from hunting in Africa ever again. 5000+signers...... Am I suffering Deja vu?

Let us look at the facts. Bachman entered Africa, went to the Maroi Conservancy, shot a lion during an African government approved legal lion hunt. Took some photos and posted on Twitter. Outrage ensued. Enter enraged African woman that wants Bachman banned from hunting in Africa. Petition ensues. Online drama commences. Bachman shuts down and goes into the Bachman Witness Protection program.

Here I say to you, in my personal opinion that I in no way share the same mentality of Bachman. I do not like or dislike Bachman. I don't condone or judge the way she lives her life which is her's to live for fair or foul. I do not ever desire to hunt African wildlife---ever. My life and hers are two totally different landscapes with different consequences. I see Bachman's life as entitled and excessive, but like Marilyn Monroe, she has built a hunting persona that is displayed to the world. Whether that is the real person; viewers will never know because she is after all a television personality. I don't understand why, as a woman, she gets more refuse than the men thrown at her.

Marilyn Monroe became entrapped in a persona of her own making to please the populace and made her way in Hollywood, at the expense of her life quality. This eventuated in her suicide due to the personal and public pressures from herself and other people. Bachman is no different. On one hand, she is tormenting herself, satisfying the reputation and relationships in the hunting community, trying to be strong and take it like a woman, fight for what she believes, and stand against a legion of people en masse that want to crush her for their belief and that she is a total, vile creature that kills, kills, kills. I bet if they had a wooden pyre and a match you'd see people stomping around crying, "Let the witch burn". This I find very disturbing. We are suppose to live in a civilized society, yet there are online words that indicate threat of bodily harm, rape, and aggression towards Bachman that is unprecedented. If I went by the posted words of others, they are guilty of something just as insane as what they accuse Bachman of doing. Both are in the wrong to some capacity yet are oblivious to the  fault in the self, or others.

This is a good example of unintelligent drivel from a person that is looking for a few post hits.
http://bentrovatowhippingboy.wordpress.com/2013/11/17/an-open-letter-to-melissa-bachman/

What this person is typing is more like two steps from showing up at her house to sexually accost her or rape her dead body after a couple of people have made the rounds with her. Truly what is wrong with people? This and the behavior online of people shows in the deep recesses of peoples' hearts they feel vindicated at threatening another person even before there is a trial. Just on Peter Allison's Facebook page people are lining up on it saying they are going to or want to kill this woman. One woman has so many haters. Just one woman mind you not 100,000. 1: (some odds) is insanity by insanity standards yet there it is. The world police at its worst.

Our world has become nothing more than an online lynch mob aimed at ruining the life of one unimportant person that is the size of a flea on this huge world. Yes, Bachman in the eyes of the universe is a flea as is everyone else. Yet there are people that spend all day long trying to eradicate her like HIV with plenty of researching and online forays. I can only imagine that energy fueling some impoverished country. Threatening this lady into conforming is not what those that try to enforce this aggressive threatening behavior would want done to them. Yet they feel impervious to the implications of bad societal behavior because they feel justified.  Must be nice to stand outside of the body and judge the acts of another when poor decisions and judgments are made every day by less than saintly people. Here I am not so much defending Bachman outright but don't throw stones at glass houses unless you are going to proclaim yourself the Second Coming and bring on the Rapture.

What is this trouble that follows Bachman?

The trouble with Bachman is she has the means to finance hunts, kills the animals then displays the footage as entertainment. This can be taken as a waste of life in order to make a show otherwise why are you taping it to show on television?  Every move she makes is to support her employ and way of life but at what cost? Her problems come from the way in which she chooses to drive her constructed persona without consideration for how the public at large would receive the imagery or her attitude about the way she kills. It is never unheard of that a person can lose site of their audience especially when there is an unintended audience. When it comes to viewers that are totally against Bachman,  there is a clear clash of worldview both on a personal, spiritual, and international scale.

I was conversing with an artist about his work and the work of a man he was enamored with. Both artists' work is considerably different in context, tone, and subject matter. The latter artist,  I found to have rich colors, but very repulsive imagery that made me think painful hidden thoughts and fear from within my psyche. The artist I was speaking to used soft tonal colors with imagery that was slightly scary but displayed in a way to take away the fear. After all,  art is made to bring out the emotion in your hidden consciousness or subconscious. It conveyed that for me,  art could either be accepted or rejected based on the image the artists painted and the general mind of the viewer. The viewer will either cry that the work hits a chord in your soul, or run from it like a blazing building; never to look upon again.

This is the case with Bachman. If she were a work of art you would either have a happy crier or a shrieking banshee. Unfortunately, the banshee lived in Africa and couldn't live with the image of that dead lion. This also brings up the point that as children we see stories on television, read books, or make up things in our minds. The Chronicles of Narnia by now is an embedded set of images in the minds of people. As well as the symbolic image of a lion as a king on a banner, C.S. Lewis's metaphor for God, or a dying species. People that are not into hunting or have an aversion to it could possibly see Bachman as the White Witch looming over the dead body of a lion called Aslan on the mound while she mockingly smiles over the destruction of the beast which is the same as the image a reader could get from C. S. Lewis's book or the made for television movie back in the day. (Not the movie set currently). When Bachman killed that lion I don't think she could imagine that someone somewhere in the world could see the contrasting imagery of two separate events; one real,  the other a bit of fiction but so eerily similar. Yet, the emotion of how the event is absorbed makes all the difference in the world to how the consequence will develop. Bachman is being turned into a cold-hearted pariah that kills for mindless killing sake, even if that may not be what she is in truth. There are people that would argue, "If it sqwaks like a chicken....." Last time I looked, Bachman doesn't have superpowers. She is a human being, with failings, and one day could change her whole worldview. No one knows if she might, in her old age, decide her perspective on the way she lived her life was right for her or wrong. That is Bachman's road.

I began to think of this situation and knew there were some truths about this.

Bachman was getting unprecedented advertising for her show and her life,  Ergo, she does shut down all avenues to her and her websites upon public outrage every time she throws a flaming hunting cocktail via the trophy photo. These online trophy photos are displayed because the poster knows it is going to cause controversy and aims the attention at them. (Let us not forget how Miley Cyrus completely distracted the world from the Syrian debacle and the Blurred Lines of Alan Thicke's Beetlejuice pants). It is a truth when negative situations go down your colleagues act like they don't know you and the instigator hopes the shitstorm will blow over. (Sorry Russia...I cuss therefore I am.......very truthful.) In the long run, I don't see how this is going to hurt Bachman even though she was ousted off NatGeo for the Alaskan show. I am sure there are hunters out there wanting to hold her up on their shoulders while proclaiming she is the best example of what a female hunter should be. That is second to the women that are all but nude while holding a gun. Wait a minute? Maybe Bachman is second, because male hunters like the fantasy gun-toting huntress with the big bazingas and a piece of string up the crack. Hard call that one.

I considered the lone African animal activist on the grassy knoll.This Scarlett O'Hara type drama that unfolds via the animal activists does absolutely nothing for the animals. It just feeds more online wars, donation requests from hunting and animal activism so both sides can tell you how it feeds the economy. Hell this could be no more than a publicity stunt. I guess the one where the hunter shot the elephant on NBC wasn't working out so well so they moved on to a female. Bachman for some time has pissed people off and intends to do it. The lion is dead. There is a legion of animal activists feeling surges of power as they mount their online armies to fight against one lone woman.

I am more mystified by the behavior of all involved. If Bachman shoots an animal legally what is there to say? If you stop Bachman from going to Africa then everyone else that is going there to shoot an animal dead shouldn't be allowed on African soil. Is Bachman so important or threatening that as one woman, she must be punished or eradicated off the face of the African landscape. I guess for a hardcore extreme huntress there has to be a hard-assed animal activist with the idea to punish Bachman to the worst extreme possible--African Hunting Outcast. I conclude that the African lady against Bachman is of the same mentality; both want to exert control over the living and the dead.

As far as lions, I believe if you are going to conserve the species make a better plan. Spend time on that idea. Do the work and stop standing around an imaginary fire pissing on it with poor aim. People need to spend time on the things that matter that actually make a difference for the positive. If you don't want hunters killing lions, go to your government, speak to them, lobby, do what you have to do; spend time on that. Learn about conservation and get a job doing the work. Make the world a better place and become the thing that is right in the world. I do not believe in killing off numbers of animals to extinction. Nor do I believe that if you aren't going to put it in your mouth and eat it, don't kill it. I do believe that I can wake up in the morning and do something right like plant a bunch of trees, breed fish in a pond,  raise froglets, understand my world, when people in the world don't understand me, and encourage more life than what I take. Being dirt poor will do that to you and the myth of the Welfare Queen is a blatant lie.

Don't waste time on one unimportant  person when there are millions that deserve a foot up and not their face in the dirt. People cruising the internet looking for people to crush do not seem to be people out to uplift anyone. If you are tearing a person down that is all you are doing; tearing them down. You will not stop at one because people back up to the buffet of life and shove as much to eat in their little pie holes as they can stand, vomit, then shove some more.

5000+ people trying to stomp down one woman is not what is right in the world either. There are countries with people fighting disease, poverty, political, racial, and life injustices yet 5000+ people spend time trying to step on one piss ant.

I was thinking on this article as I walked down a dirt road today that seemed endless, but alone I tread. Sometimes you have to meditate and go it alone. The world is a cruel, hard place with lots of judges, and very little justice. On you must walk.

Written by: W. Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

.....................I am Killing a Woman.

Remember this: You are not going to read this in Field & Stream.

I went to the doctor's office for an ear infection. When I walked in there was this man I knew that I really don't care for. Like some relationships the wife got in an accident, got a pay out and divorced him. Undoubtedly there is some unresolved issues there. I was sitting in an exam room minding my own business when I hear the loud public conversation between the nurse and this man about deer hunting. In brief this was what it was about:

Man X states to the nurse he has been hunting. He brags he has been shooting anything that moves with a hit number of four. The nurse tells him just make sure it has horns. He tells her that every time he shoots a deer he imagines he is shooting and killing a woman.

With this being said, this could have been a woman. Fair is fair. It just happened to be a man on this day.  Why I am the one that hears this is beyond me? I was reading a book where the tendency to have homicidal fantasies was pretty close on female and male parts.

I sat in the exam room disturbed. I have been in the same area hunting with this man. What if he decided to cap me and call it an accident because I am of no importance?  I told my dad and I don't think he believed me, but my dad is always taking other peoples' sides. This goes to show you, when you are standing beside a stranger, you have no idea what kind of person they are, what their thoughts are,  and if they are a good enough pretender,  can try to pull the wool over your eyes if opportunity presents itself.

I assumed  this whole attitude was from a life crisis that wasn't dealt with appropriately. I wondered about the attitude of people to put a gender into a box and judge everyone accordingly, just because they have a vagina. Here this man's wife had harmed him in his mind, he didn't deal with it in a healthy way, if he dealt with it at all, and now he was punishing everything female, human and animal. Of course when you have couples issues, each individual is only dwelling on the 'me' of the situation. That is probably how they got there in the first place; lack of consideration for the other and no compromise. (I exclude people that are truly evil and torment their spouse because that is a whole separate beast.)

My reasoning behind this is how hunting can become a violent outlet for germinating psychological problems and how the hunter can cross that blurred line of right and wrong to become something much darker.   Also the blanketing of a group through a form of internal resentment without justification to the punishment that is doled out to innocent victims. The person hurts so they hurt others. This doesn't seem to make sense as it causes more suffering to a greater variety of people and things. You could consider this the bubonic plague of pain because it spread all over the Europe of our life, killing everything in its path until you find a cure. The cure is coming to terms with  yourself for your failings, vulnerabilities, and schemes you've concocted to foil other people through manipulation and lies.

People in bad relationships do not seek the help they need to overcome issues. Most people are afraid to go to a therapist because someone might call them crazy. Trust me when I say if you kill someone they are going to call you crazy anyway. You whole memory on Earth will be tarnished. Is that a way for people to exit the world? In the negative?  They would rather tell a friend or minister that is not bound by law to spread their drama. Yet the whole community finds out and each party, depending on who is in the right or wrong, loves to get the sympathy for the tragedy while the other is the villain. Once your break-up is old news, no one cares anymore and they move on. The problem is in your mind, you don't. You stay in this horrible festering place of darkness that bleeds out into everything thing around  you from your perspective.

In consideration of the man's behavior,  I wondered how it could be contrasted with another sort of situation. I then thought that this could be applied to the behavior of people who hunt on social media.  In this excerpt you have an imaginary social situation:

"we asked subjects to imagine the same scenario: that they were at a party and that a classmate they knew spilled a drink on them and failed to apologize. Their choices were to (1) hit the person (2) insult the person to his or her face (3) push the person or (4) get in person's face (all forms of direct aggression); or to (5) talk behind the person's back, (7) try to exclude the person from a social group, or (8) make up a lie about the person (all four being forms of indirect aggression)." (Kenrick 33)

Sounds vaguely familiar. In this day and age you would think people would have learned by now that violence doesn't solve all problems. It just causes more.

I would say to the hunter or huntress sitting in the stand with a gun pointing towards a target: If you are holding a gun and seeing a person that you think you hate, put it down and find some help. There are therapists available or counselors to help you work through your problem.  Don't trust anyone else to keep your secrets because the first time you piss them off they are going to tattle it all in good time. This will only make you feel more betrayed. Betrayal drives a lot of murders along with obsessive thoughts of ownership or possessions.

Here is a personal story as to the natural of potential toxic relationships.

I went on a horseback riding trip with a older man I thought was a friend. His designs weren't that way. I blamed it on the moon.  He was very possessive and like to crowd you. One day when we were riding in the moonlight he told me how he tried to load a young horse into a trailer. The horse wouldn't buge. Horses tend to be claustrophobic and depending on the color of the trailer interior or if there is a panel will not load without the smarts of the loader. Some horses will even scramble at full speed in a horse trailer. You don't want to traumatize the animal or cause it to harm itself because I have seem horses flip over in a paneled two horse trailer to land on its back upside down. Very dangerous stuff. This man told me he got a whip and beat the horse until it couldn't stand and was tied to the trailer. I was just quiet. I knew right then being a friend with him just wouldn't work because he would probably get mad one day and do the same to me. Sure enough when I tried to separate myself from him he started showing up to my job. One of the older ladies that worked with me told me to stay away from him because I didn't need someone violent or unstable that couldn't be counted on. Who wants to have to wake up every morning, wet their finger and see which way the wind is blowing?

This is an example of a calling card of a potential toxic or bad relationship. Heed it. I can imagine when the obsessive person doesn't get their way and wants the 'animal to mind' they are capable of anything. I am glad I escaped with no more than the stank eye. That is the worrisome thing. You have someone sitting in their house visualizing heinous things in their head that are accumulation of memories where these images re-enforce anger that turns into pure out murderous hate. The other person that these emotions are directed at never see it coming or know it but don't want to believe their life is in peril.

Don't get me wrong,  there are people that wave the old red flag in peoples' face causing their own demise. This kind of person is  living in Delusional City. They have no concept their lives are in danger, the things they do can cause other people to get killed, and think they know the other person so well that it can't possibly happen. These types of people go right back for more punishment. I call them Dumb As A Rock. The person thus shows up somewhere packing a murderous fury that ends in a string of connected lives being destroyed and all for naught. The man above did come to my work out the blue angry and I wasn't even in a relationship with him. I had only been on less than three outings and I am sure I couldn't make that big of an impression on him. He could have been thinking of doing me harm and I wouldn't have even known it. We are not gifted with telekinesis or Sookie Stackhouse-like powers.

Given the situation above, anything can happen. When it comes to hunting and having a weapon, once again, if you visualize killing someone that you are temporarily mad at, stop, put the gun down, and go find help. I say this because, when you start developing distorted rationale your life becomes hindered for the negative in all kinds of ways.  These feelings are temporary if you decide not to hold onto them. Most people can't let go of the past. Not that you should forget a wrong done you but don't let someone repeat it again. Shame on you the second time. You don't have to be violent or punish the next person for someone else's crimes against your heart.

Remember not to pick the same person over and over. The habit is to pick a person that is familiar but not exactly the same. You're only getting the person from your past relationship and you will try to do the same things thereby committing the same errors. Its human habit. Be still inside yourself and learn from  your mistakes. If you have to make more mistakes make sure the whole situation and person is different. Get out the relationship rut. Learn to communicate and stop being a selfish  "I am right all the time" douche. You are in control of your mind, actions and thought. Blaming someone else continuously doesn't get you off the hook. Above all else,  move on. Become the nomad of love for love's sake until you find that fruitful valley to settle down. Don't settle; you'll only become angry, cheated, and miserly.

Rethink your thought process and question what is passing through your mind. Test, challenge the thoughts to see if there is proof. If not,  think something positive to counter the bad thought. You have the power in  you to do that. The bad thought doesn't control you. You really do have a choice.

The other mindsets to counter this killing image is: you will lose your life or the freedom to live your life. People that kill others tend to kill themselves, once they realize acting on this behavior has caused their life to be ruined with jail, guilt, and public condemnation to name a few. If you kill someone and hide the body,  you'll always be looking over your shoulder.

If you go to jail, all you will see is other people that could kill you and have to think about  the freedom and life you lost. If you kill someone, you can't reanimate them to right a wrong. Dead is dead. If you believe in religion, you will be damned to infernal Hells, pits of fire, and eternal torture. How is that for scary?

Say it once more with feeling....Hell fire.

On the other hand, you can forgive yourself, forget the other person, move on and find nirvana in life.
You can hunt because you're not in jail. You can eat deer meat because you didn't commit suicide in lieu of murder. You get to drink coffee on some mountainside while glassing for mountain goats. Why ruin your life? The person is not worth a wasted life. There is a more worthy person that will love and tolerate you.  If you throw down bad relationship habits and get brave to learn from other people, a licensed therapist or God forbide you pick up a book and read it; life will change. You are not the only person in the world to ever have their heart broken. Nor are  you  the only one that could ever think about doing someone in. It's the execution of that desire that will ruin you. Don't do it. Hunt another day when your mind is right.

With that being said, it is my hope that hunters and huntresses leave the relationship problems in the therapist office where they belong, and not in the deer stand.

Otherwise, the other option is be happy with yourself. You are whole, in control, and don't have to sully your good life because of a bad person. They can buy a one way ticket to Forget You.
Don't ruin your life because of a couple of  bad apples. The worms and ground get them in the end.

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Copyright © 2026 All Rights Reserved.


Literature Cited:

Kenrick, Douglas. T. Sex Murder and the Meaning of Life. New York, NY: Basic Books. (2011). pp. 33

A Sad Tale of Woe.

For those that know me, this is not behind my house. I caught it while out walking. Why? Because my truck always breaks down and I have my camera with me. I am good friends with Pat and Turner.

Remember this: For every story with photos of some great hunting experience there is a sad Tale of Woe.

Hunting season with guns did not start until Sep. 15. On the 14th, I stood by a white plastic chemical silo with a .308 scoping some deer that popped out the woods. I knew the law so I couldn't shoot them. I just wanted to get a better look at them. The gun was empty. The next day the herd was back but the neighbor going to church ran them back into the woods. Enter today.....

I used a shower curtain and two bottles of spray paint to make a hunting stand blind. I crawled up and put it in the tree. I later went to work on this effigy mask you see which is only the frame because I have yet to finish it. I worked on it most of the evening because I really wasn't doing it out of a plan I just started playing with materials constructing it. I sat under the car port weaving away on this thing, unconsciously. The light was just lovely outside because it had rained earlier and a blue butterfly landed by me and moved its wings. I was just so peaceful and thought positively. I know what the mask is for. My dad came and went. I worked on a green house we were constructing. My dad left again. I went out into the field and made this makeshift blind out of tobacco burlap, a metal grate and two aluminum tobacco barn rods. I put a chair there too. I figured they wouldn't be walking that way but I was up wind. There had been shooting all day in the woods, forestry work of some kind, nosy and noisy neighbors. The fact I would later be sitting in a combined corn field breathing God knows what didn't help either. I sat down behind the blind with a book and waited.

I heard my dad come up. I always realize that when I am hunting the general direction of where I project the deer will walk out goes contrary to the place I am actually watching. I had told my father earlier that the deer were using my horses as a cover or shield to get across the field without taking a bullet. My dad said, "You have to give them credit for being smart." I thought I saw a shadow moving slowly through the grass. I looked again because it was some ways from me. I figured it to be a smaller deer. I took the scope and followed along the grass around it because I had seen some dark shadows at the edge of the woods. I scoped it out some more. I then finally landed on a grey shadow slowly moving. Once it stood up straight with the long neck. The only thing I could see was the front half of it. It looked like a person standing there with a tight crown on its head. This buck filled up the scope cross hairs. If I shot immediately that would be the only time I would see the buck alive. The buck was just so beautiful and stupidly reminded me of Thrainduil, the Elven King. For a brief moment I wanted to see him alive. Blame it on the Spyglass. I wasn't sure if he was the one I had been stalking since 2009 but he always shoves his horns up in the bushes so you can't tell if he is a buck or a doe. I then thought let me consider the location of my horses. They were to the left of him which he was walking up on them slowly. Right when I thought he would come out for me to get a shot in the right place (because I abhor gut shots) he stops in the grass.  My finger is on the trigger and then I hear a shot ring out. I am surprised that I didn't flinch and tap the trigger firing my own gun.  I worry my horses will bolt into the line of travel of my bullet. I am thinking to my self....no...no...no...don't shoot again. (Okay maybe I was cursing like a sailor inwardly at the stupidity that my ears were hearing.) Then a second shot rings out. I watched the buck in the scope which is really a small circle of area as it stood in the grass looking in the direction of the gun play. I thought, "Saint Hooks Magoric, am I going to have to rush a shot?"  I didn't see the deer hit as if by projectile force but then turned its rabbit tail towards me and I had to watch it walk off into the woods. I was enjoying a full on anxiety attack which is brought on by feeling cornered for time, rushed, or pressured. Pitifully repeating no..no...no...no. I am a strong woman that is not afraid to say....hell yes...I was about to cry. (Okay I admit I am crying now as I write this.)

Situations like this remind me of a dam with one little pivotal pebble that plugs all that raw energy at bay. Some douche comes along and knocks that rock loose and yonder she blows. Every poisonous issue you have will come to the surface and having a therapist there dressed in camo besides you probably will not help you through your emotional ordeal. I argue a couch to lay on as you spill your guts or soul in a corn field.

I also thought I have healed more than I have killed. I thought at one point that if I kill this deer I kill myself. I have a conscience. Given that I have to do something distasteful because last year I didn't have deer meat and I felt it. People do not care if you are without food. If I have to go contrary to my nature and kill something to eat as supplemental food you can imagine what I have to battle with when I hunt. I also pondered the idea that if I had longer moments of seeing them alive I would not want to kill the animals but then I would be upset with the fact or resentful that I have to do something in order to survive. Sometimes you really have to look at the reasons people are doing things. The options in your mind may not be an option to them.

In retrospect for two shots fired.....no deer at all.

I felt one of two ways. Someone had died and I couldn't get the moments back. I was holding someone's hand and they were slipping to their death as I watched their exit. This was a horrible feeling. Probably not as bad as a deer laying on the ground dying bleeding out though so why am I complaining....self centeredness I would presume.

After I got up I seriously wanted to take the gun and my hunting license and put them on the truck; vowing never to pick up a gun or hunt a deer. Maybe stomp them in the dust? I was just disgusted that my experiences that should have been good were ruined by men. On the other hand I know the golden rule of deer hunting:

if you disrespect the deer family your hunting will be cursed for unnumbered days.

After this episode I vaguely remember profanity and the speaking in tongues of gypsy curses.
At one point I couldn't talk I just used hand signals.

Now I have relapsed and do not want the company of men right now. Should I blame all men for the actions of one? Like Joan Wilder I am all out of Kleenexes.

My mother says to me, "Just go hunting tomorrow."

~Written by W Harley Bloodworth~

Courtesy of the AOFH

ps....if I really put down all the particulars you might have to get some movie popcorn and a chair.

John Muir: Hunting by Proxy and Bromance.

Remember this: Bromance can conquer chasms. By proxy hunting exists.

I was reading several articles of late that spoke of John Muir being against hunting as part of the anti-hunting sentiment. I wondered as I had read Muir’s work before that this wasn’t necessarily true. I wondered if there was  confusion between complete outright derision to hunting on Muir’s part by modern day causes, or if it was Muir’s derision to mass killing of animals and destruction of landscapes in the time period that he lived that brought about his anguish; yet someone was using it for fodder out of context for their rhetoric??

The article was entitled circa 2006, Saluting John Muir’s Anti-Hunting Philosophy with commentary by Paul Watson. Personally, I don’t believe in over-exploitation of huge animals that reproduce slowly. One has to have common sense with that, especially at the rate of pollutants being delivered unceremoniously in the ocean. Watson’s indicated he has resigned from the Sierra Club and points the witch hunting finger at its members accusingly with claims of corruption by evolving into a crass hunting society. The quote that stood out the most to me was this one:

“Yet, who is more respectful of John Muir, I who respect John Muir’s love of nature or Carlson who has no business insulting John Muir with his sport hunting perversion?” (Watson 2006)

Watson goes through quotable after quotable of Muir going with hunting parties and being present during hunts, raging against the murder business but takes part, and goes on to stand in condemnation of hunting itself.  

I pulled out my internet library card and went about the business of looking for the John Muir-Hunting Connection. Did it exist? Could Muir possibly be guilty (by proxy) when it comes to hunting? Yet be excused for this (by proxy) because the arguments against such activities is beyond contempt and pure?

The best place to begin my short-lived search was in John Muir’s own writings. I found the following passages of note:

Exhibit A:

“We stowed our baggage, which was not burdensome, in one end of the canoe, taking a simple store of provisions-flour, beans, bacon, sugar, salt, and a little dried fruit. We were to depend upon our guns, fishhooks, spears, and clamsticks for other diet. As a preliminary to our palaver with the natives we followed the Hudson Bay custom, then firmly established in the North. We took materials for a potlatch, leaf tobacco, rice and sugar. Our Indian crew laid in their own stock of provisions, chiefly dried salmon and seal grease, while our table was to be separated, set out with the white man’s viands.” (Muir 640)

Here we have Muir on one of his many trips, where by way of by proxy, food that was to be eaten was either gathered up before hand, or hunted/gathered at later dates during the trip. Did he take part or did he just enjoy the spoils of the hunter/gatherer moment by proxy? He is not guilty, that we know of by physically participating in hunting, but he is enjoying the spoils of hunting itself through another’s endeavor. Is he torn by concern for the way the animal is going to die before he eats it?

Exhibit B:

“It was a never-to-be-forgotten banquet. We were seated on the lower platform with our feet towards the fire, and before Muir and me were placed huge washbowls of blue Hudson Bay ware. Before each of our native attendants was placed a great carved wooden trough, holding about as much as the washbowls.  We had learned enough of Indian etiquette to know that at each course our respective vessels were to be filled full of food, and we were expected to carry off what we could not devour. It was indeed a “feast of fat things.” The first course was what, for the Indian, takes place of bread among the whites-dried salmon. It was served, a whole wash-bowlful for each of us, with a dressing of seal grease. Muir and I adroitly maneuvered so as to get our salmon and seal-grease served separately; for our stomachs had not been sufficiently trained to endure that rancid grease. This course finished, what was left was dumped into receptacles in our canoe and guarded from the dogs by young men especially appointed for that purpose. Our washbowls were cleansed and the second course brought on. This consisted of the back fat of the deer, great, long hunks of it, served with a gravy of seal grease. The third course was little Russian potatoes about the size of walnuts, dished out to us, a wash-bowl, with a dressing of seal grease. The final course was the only berry then in season, the long fleshy apple of the wild rose mellowed with frost, served to us in the usual quantity with the invariable sauce of seal grease.

“Mon, mon!” said Muir aside to me, “I’m fashed we’ll be floppin’ aboot I’ the sea, whiles, we’ flipers an’ forked tails.”

When we had partaken of as much of this feast of fat things as our civilized stomachs would stand, it was suddenly announced that we were about to receive a visit from the great chief of the Chilcats and the Chilcoots, old Chief Shathitch (Hard-to-Kill). “ (Muir 644-45)

Once again we see that Muir is participating in a great feast that is the product of some sort of hunting and gathering. It would seem by the “Mon, mon” (Muir 645) comment that Muir is enjoying the delicacies of the hunted flesh of animals. Stomach’s full, but where is the condemnation? Could this be a sort of hypocrisy, and if so, why is it that today’s writers are not embracing the good and bad of things instead of weeding out offending moments in others own handwriting to further the modern day cause? Where did his condemnation for the slaughter of animals go? If you read the rest of the passage you find all are belly full and drowsy but having to fight to stay awake because they have to visit with the Chief. Upon reading into his writings, it becomes clear that when Muir wanted something he was not above deception to get his foot in the door. Muir is, after all, human with equal parts fault and accountability. Even in his writings you can see where he approached indigent peoples through a guise of bringing ‘a orderly spiritual way through missionary work’ when he really wanted access to the area to do his studying of it. Muir would later go back after using deception and call the indigent people of one place ‘dirty’ behind their backs after the indigents natives accepted him as friend. This group he treated with a different opinion because they were not seen as cultured or probably smart enough to see through his deceptions. 

Roosevelt on the other hand was a different kettle of fish. He had power and Muir wanted something from him. When you look at Muir relationship dynamics, he certainly is a capable person to get his opinion across if it’s for the greater good of his mindset. With that being said, I do agree that his desire to keep natural landscape and stop the unregulated killing of animals was a good idea. When we look at a minuscule moment in John Muir’s life you will find that he is like most other people. When he doesn’t want to agree to a compromise then he becomes isolated and resentful of those that do not comply. Power, even if it is indirect can only last as long as the person that it is wielded over.

I wanted to take a closer look at John Muir’s magical weekend with President T. Roosevelt. What can we discover about it?

Exhibit C:

“By a strange fatality Muir’s own letter accounts of what occurred on the trip went from hand to hand until they were lost. There survives a passage in a letter to his wife in which he writes: “I had a perfectly glorious time with the President and the mountains. I never before had a more interesting, hearty, and manly companion.” To his friend Merriam he wrote: “Camping with the President was a memorable experience. I fairly fell in love with him.” Roosevelt, John Muir, the Big Trees, and the lofty summits that make our “Range of Light”—who could think of an association of men and objects more elementally great and more fittingly allied for the public good? In a stenographically reported address delivered by Roosevelt at Sacramento immediately after his return from the mountains, we have a hint of what the communion of these two greatest outdoor men of our time was going to mean for the good of the country.

I have just come from a four days’ rest in Yosemite [he said], and I wish to say a word to you here in the capital city of California about certain of your great natural resources, your forests and your water supply coming from the streams that find their sources among the forests of the mountains…No small part of the prosperity of California in the hotter and drier agricultural regions depends upon the preservation of her water supply, and the water supply cannot be preserved unless the forests are preserved. As regards some of the trees, I want them preserved because they are the only things of their kind in the world. Lying out at night under those giant sequoias was lying in a temple built by no hand of man, a temple grander than any human architect could be any possibility build, and I hope for the preservation of the groves of giant trees simply because it would be a shame to our civilization to let them disappear. They are monuments in themselves.

I ask for the preservation of other forests on grounds of wise and far sighted economic policy. I do not ask that lumbering be stopped…only that the forests be so used that not only shall we here, this generation, get the benefit for the next few years, but that our children and our children’s children shall get the benefit. In California I am impressed by how great the State is, but I am even more impressed by the immensely greater greatness that lies in the future, and I ask that your marvelous natural resources be handed on unimpaired to your posterity. We are not building this country of ours for a day. It is to last through the ages.” (Muir 375-76)

Muir was inspiration and advice to a man in power. With this being said lets look at the dynamic of this relationship. John Muir is about saving natural landscapes and wildlife. President Theodore Roosevelt was about hunting and politics. Both in the truest sense of the word were NATURALIST. Here you could say that John Muir desired something and had to convince the POTUS that saving these areas and wildlife was in the best interest of the public. The POTUS, being a hunter and naturalist, agreed these areas needed to be protected. 

Here you have this strange moment where compromise comes about. One side can’t get completely what they want and the other side decides to bend to reason. In John Muir’s sense he wanted a beautiful place he regarded as God’s Work to be preserved and there for future generations. Who would be the responsible party? There is a big difference in the desire to want to save a place and someone actually having the power to do such a thing or being responsible for this protection over a period of time. President Roosevelt hunted therefore hunting needs a place and wildlife. Hunting also is a wish for people participating to be handed along with the responsibility of these decisions to future generations. The inspiration and advice brought the power to a place where the decision was made to act on the part of responsibility, value of such a thing, and common sense. Over time the President couldn’t give Muir everything he wanted.

I believe one of the reasons this camping trip was so important was because both men met in person and through conversation developed a general sense of sincerity on the part of the other. Bonding and love for something will do that to you even if it’s temporarily. There are several lessons to be learned here. If it had not been for this meeting then John Muir or the President may have rebuked the other based on no evidence to the contrary. What would have happened later if by rebuking one only to find out that the person you turned away was a valued asset to you. Individual discriminations can close off meetings and relationships that serve the greater good because of personal prejudices. Sometimes you have to put your personal problems aside and put your grown-up pants on to move forward with people. Burning bridges and creating chasms only causes one to paint oneself into a corner. Fear will do this as well. If you fear something because you don’t know it then go find out about it. Do not let it stay in the unknown or an obstacle because great things are to be had for all. It just takes meeting and coming to agreeable terms where breaking trust is not an option.

In present day you see a lot of deceptive compromise. Anti-hunters are on one side of the chasm and hunters are on the other. If one compromises too much, the side that received the benefit will only pull for more. On my many trips through conversations on social media there is always the stance that I am completely right while someone else is completely wrong. There is also the punishment doled out because people are not connected on the same level. Just on keyboards, in front of screens, with voices in our heads; angry or accusing, and not present on the issue.

When reading articles, even mine, do not be afraid to write a question in the margins; look for proof or understanding. Don’t be afraid to question it for your own sense of understanding.   Be involved in what you read. Just because someone has some sort of power doesn’t mean they won’t eventually misuse it for their own gain or glory. Of course I am a little nobody typing away in the shadows.

Just remember: John Muir didn’t despise hunting so much that he lost his place at the table.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Paul Watson article here circa 2006:
http://www.seashepherd.org/commentary-and-editorials/2006/04/21/saluting-john-muirs-anti-hunting-philosophy-386

Literature Cited:

Muir, John. The Life and Letters of John Muir. Boston, New York, Chicago: The Houghton Mifflin Company.  (1924). Print. Pg. 640-645

Watson, Paul. Saluting John Muir’s Anti-Hunting Philsophy. April 21, 2006; internet article; http://www.seashepherd.org/commentary-and-editorials/2006/04/21/saluting-john-muirs-anti-hunting-philosophy-386

Primary Product: Artificial Insemination of the Buck.

Image Still from the Movie Chicken Little.

Remember this: Chicken Little yells, “The sky is falling!”

When I first became familiar with the deed of artificial insemination, it was as a veterinary employee. I knew of the birds and bees but not in the artificial sense. This procedure varied in undertaking and complication, depending on the species, size and disposition of the animal. 

In brief, once a request was made by an owner to artificially inseminate it was either done naturally under supervision, or with frozen or warm caught semen. Frozen semen would be thawed then viewed under a microscope to see if there was sperm motility, even though motility doesn’t determine the outcome of progeny. 

Warm caught semen was collected with a sterile collection tube at the end of a sterilized latex funnel while the doctor masturbates the dog after exposed to a receptive female. 

Once the semen was collected, it was inserted with a plastic pipette into the uterus of the female then the female is made to stand on her head to use gravity at its best for a period of time. As for watching this procedure, while the male doctor got on his knees seemed to be quite emasculating, especially if the staff was all women. I would think as a man you would definitely have to be secure in your manhood. I won’t lie; there was snickering from the female camp.

This also reminded me of the time a Veterinarian I worked for had a sight hound he wanted to breed. The female was inseminated. When the DNA tests were done to verify the father, the report came back the intended was 98% not the father. Lucky for him, the biological donor was a better sire.When you have people that are not licensed or educated in how to perform such procedures all kind of things can ensue i.e. fraud.

I will not get into the details of Artificial Insemination. The goal is to attain quality progeny in numbers in regards to success rates. Genetically speaking, each animal in a litter or birth will be genetically unique unless you are cloning. The idea here is how many babies you can get to capitalize on financially.

The benefit for artificial insemination using deer would be for conservation and restoration if some dire disease, natural catastrophe, or other affected the deer population in a negative way towards extinction. Other benefits are: To influence trophy antlers, improve genetics in a herd while discouraging excessive inbreeding, breeding for quality characteristics of meat by-products, and the knowledge gained by scientific inquiry. 

When you consider the previous article on trophy antlers, you then start to think what about those breeder farms. Bucks and doe are in an isolated environment where the owner is selecting certain genetic lines of meat, antler velvet, by-products, quality hunting specimens, or giving people what people want.

The other night I had a conversation with another female hunter where she said she hunted deer for the meat because of its quality. I then thought without asking her, does she really mean that she prefers free range deer over genetically farmed domesticated deer? 

This is a good question to ask because the international trend right now is the denial of genetically modified crop farming in countries. The outcry is against GMOs. This could eventually happen in deer farming with regulations where deer are over a period of time, altered to keep up with the supply and demand while replacing beef and chicken as dominant food sources. 

This replacement will be based on the knowledge that deer meat (at this time free range animals) are healthier. What happens when the deer are no longer free range? Can they have the same value or meaning to a hunter when they are like Bessie the Cow or Dorothy the Sheep?

When you consider the undesired buck that has been set loose on the farm’s allocated game preserve, you already know this isn’t the choice deer. Choice deer are kept as breeding stock so you are getting second best as it trickles down the deer’s hind leg.

I then asked myself, what would my feelings be when I had to decide on choosing between deer in the wild as a free agent and someone in agriculture deeming the beloved quarry nothing more than a primary product.

I was reading the Updated June 2012 Deer (Venison) Ranching Profile on the AgMRC website where it is disclosed that the main markets are upscale restaurants and processed sausages. Not only is the agriculture industry picking and choosing to get what one Veterinary told me is the cream of the financially consistent influx of product service, but this primary product is being introduced on a plate by a chef that knows how to make the most of quality meat for return service even on a pricey market. I refer here to the restaurant I saw on television that has flavored foam at insane prices because it is advertised as gourmet.  

Just as the selection of meat genetics is driven from the farm to the plate, so is the selection of the person eating the food. By choosing to eat this meat you have been targeted as a resource for money much like the deer is for by-products. Reality of life.

I also read that these farmed deer are disease resistant. If a deer escapes, the farmer must immediately retrieve the deer. Why the hurry? If the deer is disease tolerant then surely it can’t bring a disease back to the herd. Or can it? We could reference indigent people here. Early explorers brought small pox to the indigent people because their genetics was isolated away from having the immunity of their foreign counterparts. Could the reason they are not getting sick is: The deer herds on the farm are isolated away from wild populations and co-mingling?

There was also positive reference on nourishment.

If I lived on a farm as a deer and received nutrition from a source daily, I would be efficient at converting food. 

My experience with my own independent wild herd can be validated through the fact they can strip a four acre plot of everything leaving only the twigs and vines behind. This is apparent when deer like to stay on one plot because that is what they know and all the surrounding plots have been removed of their forage to make way for agriculture. These wild deer do not have a timed feeder to eat from.

We have seen pictures of bucks referred to as monster or franken-deer; these huge massive bucks with overtly trophy racks that seem to be God's gift from heaven only to find out some human pulled out his chemistry set and started up the centrifuge.

I wondered if I could find an example to contrast humans against deer. Could this be a case of questioning whether farmed Super Sires are actual quality bucks, or have impressive physical traits that are short lived because they are going to die by the bullet.

What about the by-products of domesticated deer harvests?

Let’s jump in the AOFH time machine for a jaunt to a not so distant past (12 Dec 1935) in Hitler’s Germany and compare the Nazi Lebensborn Program. This program was birthed due to high abortion rates, declining German births, and promoting Nazi eugenics. 

Here you have the agreement and protocol of persons of unblemished Aryan ancestry could only procreate with racially fit women. Racial experts would examine the medical history and family lineages for certain qualities and breed a racially pure Germany. Maternity homes were run much like deer farms where women are bred to selective sires, be taken care of, to  give birth, and progeny managed through adoption or some other nefarious use.

What makes humans quest for such? Is it money, greed, curiosity, or more?

Let’s look at the crazy mind behind this: Heinrich Himmler-crazed chicken farmer at large. Is it really a short step off the deep end? Himmler was obsessed with his experiments to breed pure white chickens while running a poultry farm before World War II. Himmler’s initial intent as far as we know was: Not to experiment on humans (who knows for sure?) I question this because the Germans were siring blond, blue-eyed children. Ultimately, it was assessed that all this breeding for a pure German race to replace human dogs of war was found to be less than expected. Because Himmler couldn’t directly manipulate the genes, the crap shoot began. 

The outcome was less than desirable specimens that were not considered agents of a Master Race. Undoubtedly the intent was there. I guess when Genetics deviates from making sense to blatant evil schematic depends on the Agenda it is based around. Otherwise, could we assume that all these Caucasian blue-eyed blonde babies were no more than the efforts to get a pure white chicken? Could we say that this is the agenda of Super Sires? Goal-wise, is it to breed a huge buck with enormous scoring antlers for esthetics only?

When you compare and contrast, I am not pointing out that all deer farmers are Lil’ Himmlers. It’s just a weird sense of breeding programs and what the inevitable desired outcome is. I wondered if farmed domesticated deer should be totally taken out of the schematic of hunting because the deer are not wild. They may have come from wild stock but eventually with all things domesticated the physiology of the deer will probably change due to de-evolution or evolution. 

I went to a seminar by Spencer Wells where he reiterated that the human jaw was shorted with the advent of agriculture over a period of time. This could happen to deer. Maybe? You’ll have people promoting this sort of domestication of deer for their own financial gain and not propagation of species, which is being done a lot in the United Kingdom and other places,  if you go by social media articles and conversation.

By the AgMRC’s Updated June 2012 Deer (Venison) Ranching Profile value of livestock was $111 millon because they  are using low numbers at high prices.

As far as business development goes, when the ideology of deer farming being three times as profitable as traditional livestock, you can see where this is being pushed as an option on the plate or elsewhere. 

Deer farming breeds all kinds of deer merchandise. The money train keeps rolling along the tracks. The AgMRc even denotes that farm-raised deer are a livestock operation where deer are considered livestock. If this is true then deer become owned. I thought that was one of Theodore Roosevelt’s ideals is: No person should own wildlife but yet…..here it is. 

I have read in the United Kingdom that estates own wildlife but here no one owns the wildlife running free. Do we want to become like the United Kingdom where the wealthy privileged gets to dictate to the hunter that the wildlife is their property?  Does this ownership drain away the ethos of hunting to some degree by limitation of availability to hunt? Eventually will the wildlife disappear only to be found on farms with a tag in their ear, a laparoscope in their gut, and people seeing the animals as “OPP?” You know what I mean?

On a final note, if you have someone with an agenda that will improve their lifestyle as a part of the economically privileged elite, while they blow scads of smoke up your rear end for their gain by saying how great something is, then you buy into their scheme is this like drinking Snake Oil? Or is Serfdom on the horizon?

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Referenced Internet Links:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1111170/Stolen-Nazis-The-tragic-tale-12-000-blue-eyed-blond-children-taken-SS-create-Aryan-super-race.html

http://theodorerooseveltinthebadlands.com/html/documents/TR_and_conservation.html

The Deer Farm of Dr. Moreau

 

Remember this: Steel has to be tempered to make a sword that is effective in combat, beautiful to behold, lethal and to be passed down; much like ancestral DNA.

 

Most of my life it has been men’s pursuit to get a dream buck with a worthy set of antlers. Back in the day the first question asked was, “How many points?” Now it’s to pull out your measuring tape to get the exact dimensions like you’re planning to build a bird house. Of course the allure of bagging a big buck came with a back story of his ability to subvert the hunter on numerous occasions while screwing over Death until the buck meets his final untimely end. To some hunters it’s the meat not the antlers but the antlers are still there like a crown up the buck's head. History has proven many people have fought and died for or against a crown.

In the past and present bucks were at liberty to breed with the doe of their choice in the wild. If the buck could avoid getting killed to live another season then the antlers picked up more points and size. The present day doe see a different kettle of fish being served with the adjunct of farmed hunting preserves where bucks are used as Super Sires to select herds. What was the nuance of the large antler before these hopefully ‘pre-determined antlers’ came along? What did antlers back in the day represent to the person that hunts? How has this mentality changed or been redefined? Does anyone care as long as they have ‘a monster buck with a nice rack’? Questions. Questions.

Pulling out the old AOFH measuring tape, let’s see if planned antler size through breeding or genetic modification is different or the same as Made-In-The-Wild antlers. Could it all be preference, a sign of the changing times, or just irrelevant in the face of a bullet?

First I would review Made-In-The-Wind antlers:

“Large antlers represent to the hunter the animal’s success in surviving years of threats, including harsh conditions, challenges by conspecific males, and the predatory efforts of previous hunters. The hunter’s sense of being, developed from his exercise of domination, is felt more fully when the victim is himself imbued with power. The victim must be seen as powerful for the hunter to feel manly and alive in his conquest; thus hunters construe it elaborate rules of fair chase to keep the power difference between hunter and hunted from appearing absolute.” (Luke 94)
Do you really see this when applied to farmed deer for food, agritourism, or trophy hunting? No. That buck lives the life of Riley.

Luke contends that it’s a series of events that shapes the ambience of the buck with his antlers as a visible badge of courage and longevity to adversities that come. These adversities being overcome are a testament to the power of the buck for his survival skills. I do think Luke didn’t word the above so well because a victim that is imbued with power will certainly not make a person feel more powerful. Victim is a poor choice of word because bucks are not going to come out with a white flag and declare, “Take my life please.”  Worthy opponent might have been a better option. It would be more substantial if the hunter is working a fenced farm or totally baiting out the deer. Victim screams unsuspecting. Most deer suspect something; if they are wild.  This would bring about the sense of power of the buck being on an equal playing field with the hunter because the squirrelly buck could get away. I do take into consideration that hunting is filled with technological gadgetry and to some degree doesn’t make it sporting. In regards to survival the buck could be near death during ruts, starving and becoming dehydrated while fighting off other males for a shot at a female. When two bucks fight over a doe and lock horns it gives new meaning to ‘over my dead body’.  Nature has been on its own for millennia where reproduction is concerned.  It’s called evolution and survival dictates life will find a way as Jeff Goldblum states in Jurassic Park.  Impatience and a need to control causes people to start messing in things, the fact that no cares, or was given how you now have to figure out a way to save something from extinction. There are other considerations though.

As I gave thoughtful investigation to this a new issue arose; the manipulation of buck progeny through Super Sires to hopefully breed impressive antlers within a certain buck score. Also the way in which these Super Sires and progeny are treated to get the best and desired results in antler scoring.

Could this be the new Island of Dr. Moreau? Of course Dr. Moreau was playing God by creating human crosses via vivisection but the concepts of moral responsibility, hunter identity as it relates to wild versus domesticated deer stock, and human interference came to mind.

I looked around for some deer breeding farms. I will admit there are beautiful well-kept bucks with impressive antlers. Doe and bucks are kept in fenced, covered shelters, handled regularly, fed proper nutrition, dewormed, and treated like domesticated cattle ear tag and all. Some of the conversational jargon going on in forums was progeny having a certain percentage to sire where antler scoring, mass per age, antler expedited growth in shorter time frames, and character.  Of course the whole push to do this sort of thing is to cast a trophy antler/meat in the fires of breeding and genetics while slapping a $9000+ price tag on that fuzzy pointy end. Engineered dream buck of a lifetime carries a hefty price tag. I wondered if you could get out cheaper hunting public lands with a tag for a Made-In-The-Wild buck. Which one carries more sentiment? Does this make me a purist to think maybe this isn’t such a great idea or over the long run are they really selectively breeding and not for the suppression of disease and pestilence? Given also the fact that unless you are inserting select alleles onto a genetic code to get a desired result just performing animal husbandry through selection of physical desired traits will not always get you what you desire. It is still a crap shoot.

I guess in the end the question is if you had to choose between Brawny Buck and Metrosexual Buck; which one would you chose based on the information the deer are living completely different lifestyles.

In reflection this is one of those strange moments when a person who hunts is standing at the crossroads of animal activism, hunting, science, and personal belief. On one hand the huntress can ask herself would she rather hunt a wild game animal at liberty that was not interfered directly via humans or hunt a buck that was engineered for certain physical qualities while being raised in a domesticated situation that lead up to its death in less than noble fashion.  I would submit on one hand some would argue a buck is a buck. Luke points out that this engineered buck may make the male hunter feel less than manly due to the circumstance. Others would say just shoot it already. If science has given humans the ability to sequence the genome of a deer and it is a reality that genes can be altered and manipulated for requested outcomes as far as physical characteristics go (as it pertains to bucks); what are they doing to the doe? Where is this all leading to? Have we been down this road before with beef, chicken, and fish? Do we not ever learn? Dr. Moreau used vivisection on animals and humans. Scientists are using it now on deer and everything else. The only concern I have with this is the effect it will have on the defining facets of hunting. Selfishly manipulating the beast can sully the quality of the hunting act by supplanting domestication with the wild. Does this mean I can walk out in a field, shoot a cow called Old Bessie, and say it’s the same thing?   Is it worth engineering a deer in captivity for a nice trophy mount on the wall when you know where that head/buck came from? Certainly not the wild: maybe from a petri dish or super ovulated ovary.

 

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

 

Literature Cited:

Luke, Brian. Brutal Manhood and the Exploitation of Animals. Urbana and Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. 2007. Print. Pg. 94.

 

 

On The Edge of a Southern Forest

Remember this: When you take something for granted it becomes extinct forever or disappears until you regard it with respect. Nothing is an endless resource if it’s not honored, nurtured, or revered. Not even you.



I was trying to talk myself out of going to this appointment. I was being lazy and avoiding. It was an appointment that would probably last under thirty minutes. It was slightly rainy but after nay saying for about four hours I decided to go. My truck was having problems so I borrowed another. I left for my appointment which lasted only thirty minutes. The person I was seeing was very pleased with my progress and told me great job. I left. On the way back toward the interstate I was thinking how silly I was for being lazy. I wanted to stay at home to hide in the house. I was driving down this country two lane highway which abutted a high bank on a river that was loaded with hardwoods. Just before getting to this area I looked over in this field covered in green on the fringe of a group of pine trees. I saw a dark turkey. I could see him good enough because the chest was gold colored. I then thought what did a momentary vision of this turkey bring to me? How did my seeing the turkey apply to my situation at that time or in the future?

This turkey was on the edge of the woods undoubtedly grazing for bugs or seed. Wild creatures like soft curves.

If I were a bird that others preyed on I would stay just near the edge of the woods so I could make a break for it if something came my way that wanted to make me dinner. At that moment the turkey looked pretty relaxed. It was also by itself or so it always seems while his companions are in the tree line.

Turkeys where I live disappear late in the evening when they are breeding to go into the woods where they begin to nest. Most get up in the trees but will be stealthy and quiet. You may walk right under them and not know it if you don’t know that is where they stay. I have also seen turkey herds migrate from a middle area of farm land situated in oak groves then move deeper into a swamp/grassland riddled by hardwoods later in the summer. I have seen them walk right through a swamp that is moist picking worms, grubs, and bugs all the way to the other side. I have seen turkey crouching down in a thicket because the hawks can’t get them and its good cover. They can see you either way so terrain makes no difference to them. There is always a sentinel lurking where you can’t see them. It’s when they are solitary that you are more apt to strike them down. I have seen turkey fly up in trees, walk up hill, and downhill or crawl on their belly. Deer do this to.

Turkeys are prone to imprinting where they identify with their own kind and can’t be reversed once done. Baby poults learn to freeze or hide beneath the mother. This can be applied to people that do not learn to act in healthy ways within a social group. These people may tend to feel out of sorts with the others basically because they do not know how to be as the others are. This doesn’t mean sacrificing individuality but more of a social interaction that brings about happiness and camaraderie. As a healthy person develops they will know the difference between safety and harm but some individuals only know how to react to a constant fear whether it is real or not by this ‘freeze’ mechanism. Of course there are the other two options of Flight or Fight which freeze has been added. When you watch people you can see this in extremes in the unhealthy individual. Does this mean they are crazy? No. They just need someone to mentor them and reteach them something they may not have learned appropriately in the beginning because they were taught by adults or others that didn’t know themselves. One can see where dysfunction is pass down through families. Once you are enlightened by someone or your behavior has become so disabling-you seek help for direction on how you can solve this problem yourself. It will not work until the seeker decides there is something amiss and needs change. Babies learn and it is from the parents and family first. If there is an existing social discretion, that is where the babies are first exposed. If there is no one to help them learn how to interact with others not already in their set group of people they feel as if they are outsiders walking in a world of unapproachable and potentially harmful strangers.

With turkey poults by the second day they are performing what would be considered the adult characteristics of feeding, movement, and grooming behaviors but still learning. This is because there is always the potential for predators. Human people do not have this worry. Because of the passing down of dysfunctional behaviors from parent to child the likelihood the parent will always perceive the child in an adult way is likely. How many times have children been put in situations where they are to act as adults or make decisions like an adult would? Maybe they are not ready? Some would argue that ‘my parents did that to me and I didn’t die’ but when you look at the train wreck or depressive life they live it will soon be reflected in the life of their children unless they decide to seek some guidance to have a better life. Children usually internalize their confused feelings that eventually come out as explosive confrontations or outright ignorances of their feelings. Most parents disregard or dismiss their children's problems because they don't see the belief that the child thinks their situations are stressful or serious versus the adult's interpretation of it. These days children are pushed quicker to learn because of the competition element of life, learning, and money making. They enjoy little of their childhood unless they have a parent that thinks that is not a waste of time or put adult demands on the youth. People learn how to develop in stages. If one of those stages is disrupted or skewed the mental and physical health of the child may be at risk for things like depression, suicidal tendencies, and lack of identity. What if you were a turkey that hatched somehow and your parent died then you had to figure out what it was to be a turkey while your turkey herd did not accept you and drove you off? Or you never saw yourself as a turkey at all? I can only imagine how confusing that is for people in general trying to find their way in the world.

Turkey poults go through rapid development and they develop a series of survival mechanism. People do this to and acting as the baby turkey bird is one of them. It keeps you safe from threat or at least a false sense of security. If I don’t move I won’t get eaten. Then again depends on which brain chemical you experience. You could fight or flee. Who knows what you’ll do because this optional mechanism could change depending on the level of the threat.

I read that habitat is key to wildlife survival. That goes for people to. If you are living in a poisonous habitat it is going to depress you, ruin you, hold you back, or even kill you.

You have to learn this concept. The crux of Your personal management. You require five things at most.



1. Food

2. Water

3. Shelter

4. Space

5. Arrangement


Turkey have different areas for different life stages based around seasonal habits. If your habitat sucks feel free to move in and out of it. You moving around will put you in a better position to meet the people that can help you or at least support your endeavors. Turkey like to go to the clover areas. Find the area that will feed you and support your creativity, happiness, or calm. If your home or work habitat is cluttered, dirty, or the ‘anger area’ it is not conducive or productive to you. Its distracting and could drain the energy right out of you. Do as the turkey. Find that green field where you can relax, strut around, and show people what you are made of. Be glorious! Stomp your turkey feet and thunder like the thunder chicken. Be badass.

The first weeks of a poults’ life is when they are most susceptible to predators then it could be safe to say that the early years when children are in transition between child and adult maybe the most crucial. They don’t know who ‘I am’ therefore could be mimicking other children that are confused themselves. That is why adults should mentor them. Teach them the ropes where they are functioning adults that can sustain other would be adults. Everyone is a parent and a teacher regardless of biological affiliation.

If a turkey is smart enough to pick a brood site that encourages the poult to thrive based on what that habitat can provide as nourishment and ease of teaching while the adult birds are monitoring the poult themselves is genius. These older birds will pick an area where the poults can act as ninjas moving through grasses and shrubs while invisible to predators and unprotected by the older birds so they can learn to act alone versus running gang busters through an open field.

Another aspect the turkey can teach you is to ‘remove your predators’. Predators are people that can aggravate you, make you physically ill, and eat you out of happiness and home. Remove these people. They will not change if they do it will be well after you invite them to leave you because that is their wake up call.

I believe Turkey should have been the Choice bird of the country. The turkey is called the Earth Eagle then why not? This bird is associated with Mother Earth. In my readings the turkey has been called the Give-away Eagle due to tribal members bestowing all possessions to and makes others sacrifice to help the people. Those who claimed more than their due was regarded as selfish and those who were poor or feeble were treated with honor. Turkeys have always represented abundance and fertility where one must give gratitude for your life in general.

I remember the first time I saw full turkey feather regalia. I was at this really small local pau wau in August. It was nestled back in this wooded grove. In the center was a circle made of hay bales with an entrance in one way. You were not supposed to cross over the circle but only go in at the entrance. Several men were dancing around but then this tall man came in and started dancing around by himself. His feathers seem to move with the beat of the drums. His face was painted black and white while his turkey feathers moved about like water. It was awe inspiring that turkey feathers had a second life.

I googled to find these words tacked on to the noble Thunder Chicken:


Pride

Abundance

Generosity

Awareness

Virility

Fertility

Sacrifice

Foretelling

Havest

New beginnings

Cycles

Preparation

Renewal


I usually take the odd random sighting of animals, birds, reptiles, fish, and plants as some message (where it comes from doesn’t matter as long as you get it). I was thinking this was one of those moments where I should be grateful for whatever I have been blessed with whether it is good or bad. Either way, I will get some lesson out of it. I read that it is also a message to express strengths and brilliance. I do want to be aware of how my life is lived from this point on. There is no need for me to suffer or lack human interaction. If I see someone that needs help or direction I have experience to offer if they want to take it. Nothing much was ever done by force except more fighting. I would hope that seeing this Thunder Chicken means that there will be better days on the horizon for me and whomever I touch. If I am about to cycle into new beginnings then bring it on. I have been preparing for quite a while trying to be patient so that moments of renewal will come to me and others even though we as people have to sacrifice a lot to get to a livable point in life.

It’s time to show our plumage and reveal the true self.

Written by:  W Harley  Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~