I usually post on the General and Political boards, but as an old hunter, I got a kick out of this common sense article. You gotta wonder about the guy that tried to hide his kid from reality. :barf:
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_show.html?article=16194
By JOHN HARRIGAN
Woods, Water and Wildlife
THIS IS the time of year when people are likely to see deer — dead deer — making their way down the road in the back of a pickup truck or atop an SUV. Twenty or 30 years ago this seasonal phenomenon didn’t seem to excite much interest, and was instead accepted as just another fact of life. Lately, however, things have changed.
Many of us probably remember the mini-controversy that erupted in Manchester last year when a distraught dad complained that he had to swerve onto side streets and duck into alleys so his kids wouldn’t be traumatized by the sight of dead deer on vehicles. The way he put it, he’d have had to take the kids in for counseling.
Among the more sensitive factions of lawmakers there was grim talk of passing a law against any display of a dead animal.
There are two things at play in this “displaying dead animals” thing, of course. One is that this just happens to be the easiest way to transport a 150-pound animal. Secondly, for many years it was Fish and Game law that hunters had to have at least part of a carcass in plain sight as they were driving down the road, to make checking licenses and tags easier. This law is long gone, but many hunters don’t know it.
I can hear legions of hunters out there thinking “So what? What’s the big deal with seeing a dead animal? Who cares?”
But some people do. And they are likely to be the same people who object to photos in the newspaper of happy hunters and their deer (or moose, or bears). They write vitriolic letters to the editor now and then, accusing the editor of being insensitive, irresponsible and anachronistic.
Now, the crew at my weekly newspaper in Colebrook has ready answers for this kind of complaint, which is blissfully rare. First, not all of the pictures we run are stereotype shots of men and their deer. Many are of moms, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, wives, and yes, granddaughters with their deer, all smiles and ready to help hack it up for the freezer and the kitchen.
Strange — we hardly ever get any complaints about those particular photos.
Second, we ask, how come it’s somehow “OK” for us to run pictures of little kids, all smiles, holding up big fish, but it’s not “OK” to do the same with a dead deer?
As I was driving down to town to do this column, a couple of rigs were parked at Ducret’s Store, waiting to have deer checked in and weighed. I stepped in to see about a problem with my old double twenty, and the room was full of happy talk and smiling faces.
Some of the trucks and SUVs not only had deer in or on them, but were also loaded with Christmas trees. This is not an unusual sight — hunters headed south with their deer, destined for the family supper table, and with their tree, destined for the livingroom.
But hey, the Christmas tree was alive once, too, and there it is, being brandished right in our collective faces. Where are the indignant protests, and the strident letters to the editor?
John Harrigan’s address: Box 39, Colebrook, N.H. 03576. E-mail: hooligan@ncia.net
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_show.html?article=16194
By JOHN HARRIGAN
Woods, Water and Wildlife
THIS IS the time of year when people are likely to see deer — dead deer — making their way down the road in the back of a pickup truck or atop an SUV. Twenty or 30 years ago this seasonal phenomenon didn’t seem to excite much interest, and was instead accepted as just another fact of life. Lately, however, things have changed.
Many of us probably remember the mini-controversy that erupted in Manchester last year when a distraught dad complained that he had to swerve onto side streets and duck into alleys so his kids wouldn’t be traumatized by the sight of dead deer on vehicles. The way he put it, he’d have had to take the kids in for counseling.
Among the more sensitive factions of lawmakers there was grim talk of passing a law against any display of a dead animal.
There are two things at play in this “displaying dead animals” thing, of course. One is that this just happens to be the easiest way to transport a 150-pound animal. Secondly, for many years it was Fish and Game law that hunters had to have at least part of a carcass in plain sight as they were driving down the road, to make checking licenses and tags easier. This law is long gone, but many hunters don’t know it.
I can hear legions of hunters out there thinking “So what? What’s the big deal with seeing a dead animal? Who cares?”
But some people do. And they are likely to be the same people who object to photos in the newspaper of happy hunters and their deer (or moose, or bears). They write vitriolic letters to the editor now and then, accusing the editor of being insensitive, irresponsible and anachronistic.
Now, the crew at my weekly newspaper in Colebrook has ready answers for this kind of complaint, which is blissfully rare. First, not all of the pictures we run are stereotype shots of men and their deer. Many are of moms, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, wives, and yes, granddaughters with their deer, all smiles and ready to help hack it up for the freezer and the kitchen.
Strange — we hardly ever get any complaints about those particular photos.
Second, we ask, how come it’s somehow “OK” for us to run pictures of little kids, all smiles, holding up big fish, but it’s not “OK” to do the same with a dead deer?
As I was driving down to town to do this column, a couple of rigs were parked at Ducret’s Store, waiting to have deer checked in and weighed. I stepped in to see about a problem with my old double twenty, and the room was full of happy talk and smiling faces.
Some of the trucks and SUVs not only had deer in or on them, but were also loaded with Christmas trees. This is not an unusual sight — hunters headed south with their deer, destined for the family supper table, and with their tree, destined for the livingroom.
But hey, the Christmas tree was alive once, too, and there it is, being brandished right in our collective faces. Where are the indignant protests, and the strident letters to the editor?
John Harrigan’s address: Box 39, Colebrook, N.H. 03576. E-mail: hooligan@ncia.net
, Art
) to protect his precious kids an their fragile little minds. Just think how much fun you could have with a guy that gets that upset about eveyday things!
I'm assumin that goes back to the rattlesnakes? No I haven't experienced that, praise the lord. Snakes aren't quite the problem up here. Most volatile thing we had come through the baler was 2 skunks, one of em must have been blessed cause he survived the plunger, knife, an knot tier. Got hung up in the chute and made things mighty miserable for the guy on the wagon , an the next couple hundred bales of straw didn't smell so nice 