Horrified by Hunting? You Know, That's Ok.

I know many hunters that find themselves in the pretty odd position of justifying their decision to bring food home for their families. It is odd because what we're doing is fundamentally at the heart of our existence: we're providing for our families - just in a slightly different fashion than heading down to the local Coles.

One of the reasons I hunt, and there are quite a number, is that for me it is a way of assuming total responsibility for the process of sourcing meat for my family's table. From the outset I am in control of the process: I chose the beast from which the meat will ultimately come from, how it is killed and how it is treated and prepared, ready for consumption. At no point do I outsource a part of this process; I own it wholly.

In utilising a wild beast, there is the added benefit of the beast having the least possible chance of suffering at the hand of man. It has lived a life - ignoring the fact it is exotic - as nature intended and you can't get much more free-range than that!

I firmly believe that we, not as hunters but as humans, should have the freedom of choice when it comes to sourcing our food. We should have the right to be guided by our own morals and our values and if those morals and values deliver us to hunting as being our preferred means of sourcing food, we should have the freedom to pursue that path.

I can only imagine the hysteria (and justifiably so) if individuals were robbed of the right to choose whether or not to grow their own vegetables or harvest their own water. It would be grossly unfair, some may even say a denial of a basic human right, if that were to occur. Why is hunting any different?

I don't think for a moment that we're about "converting" anyone to subscribe to a life philosophy of providing for one's family on any scale. Far be it for me, or anyone, to dictate to another how they should live their lives, but I and the hundreds of thousands of hunters across Australia would certainly appreciate that same courtesy be returned.

So if you're horrified by hunting, that's ok, just don't try to stop me.

The Conscientious Choice

One of my fundamental beliefs is that each of us has, or should have, the freedom to make a conscientious decision about where we source our food.

This is readily accepted, when it comes to vegetables and fruit; indeed it is actively promoted by an industry, supported by a raft of celebrities and there are various grass roots movements around the world campaigning for public land - footpaths, reserves, etc -  to be converted to, or be made available for market gardens, vegetable plots or herb gardens.

And so it should be the case; it would be a brave but completely misguided and barbaric government to deny people the opportunity or ability to produce or forage for their own food. In countries such as the UK, this idea is further expanded with communities raising livestock on public commons along with healthy crops of vegetables and fruits.

But why should it be any different for the harvesting of meat?

There is little doubt that meat is, for the general populous, an incredibly important part of our diet. There are some who claim a vegetarian diet could be adopted by the global community; to suggest this however, ignores the problems that modern agriculture poses, the enormous threat to the natural biodiversity and the huge toll on sentient beings. In short, it is simply not practical without decimating an already fractured, wounded and vulnerable mother nature.

From an animal welfare perspective, harvesting our meat from the landscape presents perhaps the most humane way of sourcing protein.

Think for a moment about the life of a sheep, cow or pig bred for its meat: from early in its life it is subject to a range of animal husbandry practices that, while necessary, do cause some distress to the animal. From marking lambs, to dehorning cows, to trucking them to an abbatoir, there are few sources of meat that do not cause distress to the animal somewhere in the process.

Now this is not intended to sink the boot into farmers. Far from it, the reality is that without these practices many people would go hungry, malnutrition would be far more prevalent and conflict and social upheaval would plague our communities.

The life of a wild beast on the other hand is most likely one that has never seen or suffered in any way at the hand of man. It is true that there may be the odd animal that has had a close encounter with another hunter, but these are certainly the exceptions to the rule. In hunting we are fulfilling the ultimate in free-range sourced meat.

There is also an enormous benefit to be realised in sourcing meat from introduced game and feral species. There is no denying the impact of cloven hoofed beasts on our fragile, ancient soils has done untold damage to the natural biodiversity of this great land. It is not isolated to terrestrial biodiversity either, with many native fish species suffering habitat destruction through siltation of water holes and sediment smothering spawning grounds (siltation is listed as a key threatening process of the endangered Macquarie Perch - Macquarie Perch - NSW DPI).

I understand that hunting is not for everyone. It is not my intention to 'convert' those who don't currently hunt to this lifestyle. Rather it is to introduce the idea of the conscientious hunter, the idea of harvesting wild meat and the potential benefits of this lifestyle to the individual, to the animal and to the landscape.

But most of all, it is to defend the individual's right to make the conscientious choice about the source of their food.