I am, and always have been, a biophile. I can’t remember a time when I was not completely fascinated by animals. I had a menagerie with a rotating cast of characters when I was a child, from hamsters and gerbils and hedgehogs to snakes and monitor lizards and tarantulas. I remember at one point realizing that I could keep spiders as pets, so I had two dozen wolf spiders in used margarine containers from Aldis. My best friend and I would walk creeks, or wet prairies, looking for snakes and such, and when we could drive, we made field trips across the state (I grew up in Iowa) or into neighboring states like Missouri to find critters. As an adult, I have also lived with many animals. My wife (who is not a biologist but loves animals) has had dogs, cats, rabbits, turkeys, chickens, ducks, veiled chameleons, day geckos, a collared lizard, and a blue-tongued skink. I currently live with two dogs, three cats, five day geckos, and at least three parthenogenetic mourning geckos. So it is safe to say that I love animals, and I have chosen a career where all I do is think about, study, and teach about animals. So how does that square with the fact that my favorite recreational activities involve pursuing and killing animals?
I should mention that I am not talking about killing animals for my research. Integrative research can often require killing animals to collect tissues or for other valid reasons. Collecting animals for natural history collections also involves killing animals. I think the reasons and justifications for killing animals for research is a bit different than hunting and fishing, and most of my colleagues who have collected animals for collections or killed animals for research do not hunt or fish.
So how can an animal lover like myself also like pursuing and killing animals? Well, I think it ultimately comes down to the fact that I love animals in the aggregate, but I am okay with the idea that individual representatives of a species can die. After all, death is a part of life, and all individual organisms will eventually die. Hence, I am okay with hunting an animal species given that there is a valid reason for doing so. That reason for me is usually consumption of the animal. I am a meat-eater (as well as a plant and fungus eater), and meat that I procure from myself from the wild is almost always more ethical than what I can purchase.
The fact that I hunt and fish should not be misconstrued as a generally lax attitude towards animal death. As an example, I don’t generally kill animals without a purpose. I rescue spiders, centipedes, and other bugs from my house and garage, and try to avoid killing animals on the road (where my background as a herpetologist gives me an edge in seeing animals on the road). And when I do kill a fish or a squirrel or a duck or a deer, I also do not take it lightly. I take great care to use as much of the animal as I can, including most organ meat, and saving bones for stock, and so on. In other words, the same ethos that has me tolerating spiders in my house also guides my hunting and fishing.
The previous passages have described why I am okay with hunting and fishing, but maybe not why I actively hunt and fish. Both of these activities involve substantial effort and can be pretty expensive. So why do I do it? For me, it is about a connection to nature and to my food. Outside of conducting scientific research, probably the best way to understand an animal is to pursue it. And the best way to be connected to your food is to harvest it yourself. So hunting and fishing falls in the same category of gardening, or farming animals, or mushroom hunting. It is a powerful way to connect with nature and with your food. When I eat something that I have harvested, I know that it is far more special than anything that I could ever purchase.
Although it is not really the point of this post, I also want to dispel a few popular ideas about hunting. Probably the most bizarre idea is that I dislike the animals I hunt or fish, and nothing could be farther from the truth. Whenever I mention that I hunt or fish to someone who does not, they often will ask about feral hogs (everywhere that I have hunted has feral hogs). When I tell these folks that I have hunted feral hogs, they seem to be much more comfortable with the idea, probably with the idea that feral hogs are the enemy, or that I am rectifying some great wrong. But this idea is based in a flawed understanding of how hunting can impact wildlife populations and how I relate to animals that I hunt. In fact, hunting of feral hogs has probably incentivized their spread, as hunting them is quite popular, and they are great table fare. States like Missouri that do not have entrenched hog populations sometimes ban hog hunting, with the idea that allowing hunting will incentivize the illegal spread of hogs. Instead they employ government sharp-shooters to eradicate hogs. Regardless of the efficacy of hunting for managing hog populations, my attitude when harvesting a pig is the same as it would be for a squirrel or a duck. My attitude towards anything that I am harvesting is probably best summarized as intense interest and fascination.
Another common misconception about hunting is that it is always violent and maybe even depraved (which is probably linked to the idea of disliking prey). You see this a lot in popular representations of hunting, where hunters are portrayed as bloodthirsty and lacking respect for the animal. I have both hunted ducks and raised ducks for meat, and killing and butchering animals raised for meat is much harder than hunting. In hunting or fishing, there is the brief violence at the moment of death, but you do not have a relationship with the animal, and the first time you see that animal closely is when you approach the carcass in the field. Contrast that with killing an animal you have raised since it was young and are invested in its wellbeing, and it is a much more difficult process.
A final misconception that I want to address is that it is better, or easier, to kill some kinds of animals compared to others. While I can’t say that this is not true for some people, it is not true for me. Many people who have no objections to fishing seem to be taken aback by hunting, even though both pursuits often end up with the death of an animal. Perhaps my attitude towards this is shaped by the fact that I happen to fascinated with and have devoted my life to studying snakes, which many people fear and despise. I also fundamentally do not think that organisms are arranged into a hierarchy, with things most similar to humans at the top of the hierarchy, and more distant organisms further down the ladder. My fundamental belief is that individual organisms have the same value, and might even have similar capacities for suffering. For example, almost all motile organisms have evasive behavior, and even sessile organisms like plants experience and respond to damage. To me, saying that only organisms with nervous systems similar to us can suffer (and hence should not be killed and eaten) is not supported by any evidence. So hunting and fishing is a way for me to be conscientious in general about my impacts on the world, including potential suffering of the organisms that I must consume to live.
My goal with this post is not to convince anyone to hunt and fish, or change their diet, or anything like that. I think we are all living in a world where no ethical choice is uncomplicated, and I think however people choose to live in the world, either as vegans or pescatarians or meat-eaters, is great. In fact, I lived for about four years as a (mostly) vegan- my wife was vegan and I cook for us, so I was vegan most of the time. But I did want to explain the seeming paradox of enjoying hunting and fishing as an animal lover. I will just end on the fact that both pursuits have allowed me to be more connected to nature and food, and the same motivation that made me pursue this career also makes me passionate about pursuing animals in nature, whether for photos or science or food.
I should mention that I am not talking about killing animals for my research. Integrative research can often require killing animals to collect tissues or for other valid reasons. Collecting animals for natural history collections also involves killing animals. I think the reasons and justifications for killing animals for research is a bit different than hunting and fishing, and most of my colleagues who have collected animals for collections or killed animals for research do not hunt or fish.
So how can an animal lover like myself also like pursuing and killing animals? Well, I think it ultimately comes down to the fact that I love animals in the aggregate, but I am okay with the idea that individual representatives of a species can die. After all, death is a part of life, and all individual organisms will eventually die. Hence, I am okay with hunting an animal species given that there is a valid reason for doing so. That reason for me is usually consumption of the animal. I am a meat-eater (as well as a plant and fungus eater), and meat that I procure from myself from the wild is almost always more ethical than what I can purchase.
The fact that I hunt and fish should not be misconstrued as a generally lax attitude towards animal death. As an example, I don’t generally kill animals without a purpose. I rescue spiders, centipedes, and other bugs from my house and garage, and try to avoid killing animals on the road (where my background as a herpetologist gives me an edge in seeing animals on the road). And when I do kill a fish or a squirrel or a duck or a deer, I also do not take it lightly. I take great care to use as much of the animal as I can, including most organ meat, and saving bones for stock, and so on. In other words, the same ethos that has me tolerating spiders in my house also guides my hunting and fishing.
The previous passages have described why I am okay with hunting and fishing, but maybe not why I actively hunt and fish. Both of these activities involve substantial effort and can be pretty expensive. So why do I do it? For me, it is about a connection to nature and to my food. Outside of conducting scientific research, probably the best way to understand an animal is to pursue it. And the best way to be connected to your food is to harvest it yourself. So hunting and fishing falls in the same category of gardening, or farming animals, or mushroom hunting. It is a powerful way to connect with nature and with your food. When I eat something that I have harvested, I know that it is far more special than anything that I could ever purchase.
Although it is not really the point of this post, I also want to dispel a few popular ideas about hunting. Probably the most bizarre idea is that I dislike the animals I hunt or fish, and nothing could be farther from the truth. Whenever I mention that I hunt or fish to someone who does not, they often will ask about feral hogs (everywhere that I have hunted has feral hogs). When I tell these folks that I have hunted feral hogs, they seem to be much more comfortable with the idea, probably with the idea that feral hogs are the enemy, or that I am rectifying some great wrong. But this idea is based in a flawed understanding of how hunting can impact wildlife populations and how I relate to animals that I hunt. In fact, hunting of feral hogs has probably incentivized their spread, as hunting them is quite popular, and they are great table fare. States like Missouri that do not have entrenched hog populations sometimes ban hog hunting, with the idea that allowing hunting will incentivize the illegal spread of hogs. Instead they employ government sharp-shooters to eradicate hogs. Regardless of the efficacy of hunting for managing hog populations, my attitude when harvesting a pig is the same as it would be for a squirrel or a duck. My attitude towards anything that I am harvesting is probably best summarized as intense interest and fascination.
Another common misconception about hunting is that it is always violent and maybe even depraved (which is probably linked to the idea of disliking prey). You see this a lot in popular representations of hunting, where hunters are portrayed as bloodthirsty and lacking respect for the animal. I have both hunted ducks and raised ducks for meat, and killing and butchering animals raised for meat is much harder than hunting. In hunting or fishing, there is the brief violence at the moment of death, but you do not have a relationship with the animal, and the first time you see that animal closely is when you approach the carcass in the field. Contrast that with killing an animal you have raised since it was young and are invested in its wellbeing, and it is a much more difficult process.
A final misconception that I want to address is that it is better, or easier, to kill some kinds of animals compared to others. While I can’t say that this is not true for some people, it is not true for me. Many people who have no objections to fishing seem to be taken aback by hunting, even though both pursuits often end up with the death of an animal. Perhaps my attitude towards this is shaped by the fact that I happen to fascinated with and have devoted my life to studying snakes, which many people fear and despise. I also fundamentally do not think that organisms are arranged into a hierarchy, with things most similar to humans at the top of the hierarchy, and more distant organisms further down the ladder. My fundamental belief is that individual organisms have the same value, and might even have similar capacities for suffering. For example, almost all motile organisms have evasive behavior, and even sessile organisms like plants experience and respond to damage. To me, saying that only organisms with nervous systems similar to us can suffer (and hence should not be killed and eaten) is not supported by any evidence. So hunting and fishing is a way for me to be conscientious in general about my impacts on the world, including potential suffering of the organisms that I must consume to live.
My goal with this post is not to convince anyone to hunt and fish, or change their diet, or anything like that. I think we are all living in a world where no ethical choice is uncomplicated, and I think however people choose to live in the world, either as vegans or pescatarians or meat-eaters, is great. In fact, I lived for about four years as a (mostly) vegan- my wife was vegan and I cook for us, so I was vegan most of the time. But I did want to explain the seeming paradox of enjoying hunting and fishing as an animal lover. I will just end on the fact that both pursuits have allowed me to be more connected to nature and food, and the same motivation that made me pursue this career also makes me passionate about pursuing animals in nature, whether for photos or science or food.
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