Subsistence Hunting

Page by: Emily Peterson

This page explores the consumptive and social drivers of hunting.  Though the term 'subsistence hunting' in it's purest form would imply the practice of hunting in which the entirety of the hunter's diet is derived from wild game, in this blog I use it to refer to any case of hunting in which the hunter uses the meat of the animal, either for their own nourishment or that of others.  Eighty percent of our survey responders saw hunting as a viable and humane way of harvesting meat, and an additional 78% stated that they would rather see people harvest their own meat than support large-scale food corporations.  In contrast to pre- and early colonial times, modern subsistence hunters use their take to supplement their existing diet rather than depending on game meat for survival.  In addition to the consumptive drivers of hunting, I will also explore hunting's social traditions.  In our survey, 86% of responders defined hunting as "traditional".  In my findings thus far, hunting is often a social activity; hunting is passed down as a family tradition and often, hunters will hunt in small social groups. 


Ethical Eating

Link to 5@5 -- Why hunting your own dinner is an ethical way to eat: http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/07/02/55-why-hunting-your-own-dinner-is-an-ethical-way-to-eat/

This article by journalist Lily Raff McCaulou highlights five reasons why hunting is an ethical way to get your dinner.  Her points are that hunting has a light environmental footprint, hunted animals are not subjected to the "misery" of factory farming, meat isn't wasted, hunting pays for conservation, and hunting promotes conservation.  McCaulou's points are supported by her experiences as a Manhattanite-turned-Oregon-hunter.  Initially against hunting, her perspectives shifted when she began conversing with local hunters, realizing that they were more knowledgeable and thoughtful about animals and nature than many so-called environmentalists.  One of her particularly strong points was that hunting for your food increases your awareness about where that food comes from.  You are more conscious of the fact that "meat is life", not just another package on a store shelf.  Additionally, she convincingly states that hunting raises more money (through permits, auctions, and tags) for conservation than other recreational activities such as birdwatching and hiking.

http://www.conservationforce.org/role.html

Health Benefits

Link to Health benefits of hunting: http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/health_benefits_of_hunting

This article written by Tracie Abram and published by Michigan State University Extension, explores the many health benefits of consumptive hunting.  According to Abram, no other sport besides hunting and fishing provides both nutritional and physical benefit.  Game meat is typically very lean and healthy, plus hunting requires that the hunter be hiking around in the bush.  Additionally, hunting is often a family or group activity, promoting the hunter's social health, and hunting involves immersion in nature, thus promoting emotional health as well.  I think this article makes some good points about hunting and its health benefits.  The points made by the author are very convincing, though her argument would have even greater strength if it were supported by hard facts and statistics.


Sociodemographic Trends in Hunting

Link to Hunting and Sociodemographic Trends: Older hunters from Pennsylvania and Colorado: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3784445

This 2003 study by Harry C. Zinn attempted to determine the causes of decline in the proportion of the US population that hunts.  Possible factors included population shifts to the Sunbelt states, declining residential stability, urbanization, increasing levels of education, and increasing participation in non-consumptive outdoor recreation.  One argument was that since hunting is a social activity often passed through familial tradition, shifting populations and displacement from birthplaces may cause breaks in hunting tradition and separation from former outdoor social groups.  Additionally, the author hypothesized that participation in many non-consumptive forms of outdoor recreation may draw time away from hunting.  Zinn tested his hypotheses by surveying hunting license holders over 50 years old in Colorado and Pennsylvania.  He determined such variables as percent of life spent in rural areas, intensity of wildlife value orientation, and years of education.  He found some correlation between factors such as rural upbringing and similarity of among family members' wildlife values, but could not definitively state whether any of his hypothesized variables positively or negatively correlated with hunting participation.  Zinn suggests that additional work be done to determine some more social determinants for hunting participation, since these trends are increasingly important as the population of the United States becomes more mobile, urban, highly educated, and active outdoors.  I think Zinn's study warrants more research.  Though his initial hypotheses did not lead to a particularly strong conclusion, his work could still have implications for the future of hunting in this country.  Additionally, I believe Zinn needs to be careful with his speculation on the causes of decreased hunting, specifically his theories regarding education.  Education seems to only further the culture of hunting, as people learn more about the environment and their respect for it grows.


An Interview with Norm Perazzo

Norm Perazzo is a mechanical engineer as well as an avid hunter and proponent of responsible hunting and hunter safety.  He is a bow and gun hunter safety instructor at the Guan Ho Ha Fish and Game Club in Scotia, NY.

Emily: How would you define your practiced form(s) of hunting? (i.e. sport, trophy, subsistence, etc)

Norm: I'd have to say subsistence first (although I don't need the meat to survive).  The end goal of hunting for me is to have venison in my freezer.  I am uncomfortable with the commercial meat industry, both for the way they treat the animals, and for the contaminants in the meat, but I am, by nature an omnivore.  
     That said, the sport aspect is very engaging.  To learn the habits and behaviors of a species sufficiently to successfully hunt them in their element is extremely gratifying.  A small minority of people who buy big game licenses actually take a deer. There are a few places where deer are sufficiently overpopulated, or humans have fed them, where a kill is easy.  For the most part it is a challenge. Many people who have mastered filling the freezer take on challenges or restrict themselves to the most mature animals.

EP: Does anyone else in your family hunt? 

NP: I have one son who hunts some years and a daughter who goes out at least once each season.  Leah's triggering motivation was a challenge by vegans that she met at college.  They said that if she had to face and kill the animals, she wouldn't eat meat.  It took a couple of seasons but she shot a deer, field dressed it and (with my help) butchered and packaged it and took it to school to offer to anyone who'd eat it.

EP: When did you start hunting and why?  

NP: I started out as a teenager with my uncle (now deceased) and his friends.  With them hunting was more of a rite of manhood rather than a serious attempt to take game.  I met a serious deer hunter in my late thirty's who got me deeper into the art and science.  Once I studied hunting a bit, and then learned the specialty of properly cooking venison, I was hooked.

http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2008/08/15/
new-hampshires-state-animal-white-tailed-deer-odocoileus-virginianus/

EP: What types of animals do you hunt? 

NP: White tail deer, almost exclusively, occasionally turkeys if I can find someone to go with who knows how to dress and butcher a wild turkey (I don't).  

EP: Do you eat the animals you hunt?

NP: Absolutely, down to cleaning up the fine trimmings for sausage.  I would hunt the overpopulated squirrels after deer season, but I just don't like the taste of squirrel.

EP: What do you believe is hunting’s greatest merit?  

NP: I'd have to say there are two overlaping benefits: 1) Hunting by humans is a superior method of regulating prey animal populations in that seasons, limits, zones, etc. can be regulated, and human hunters are far less likely to take the very young as compared to wild predators; and 2) hunting provides a major source of protein to humans in a fully sustainable way.  I think that the severe decrease in the contribution to human food supply from hunting that has resulted from the proliferation of wolves out west is tragic.  That is all the more meat that must be grown on non-sustainable farms.  The North American Wildlife Management Model says that all decisions will be made for the health of the wild population, not for markets or political pressures.  By and large I believe that New York follows this model.

EP: What do you believe is hunting’s worst aspect?  

NP: Certainly unethical, irresponsible hunters.  A small percentage of hunters are jerks.  They range from mildly annoying (using my treestand) to illegal and threatening.  The worst incident that I experienced was finding the carcass of a large buck that I had been scouting lying next to the road with its head cut off: this animal was sacrificed for its antlers.  I know one hunter (who I will not hunt with) who has coined the term "sport shot".  This is a bow shot beyond the sure-kill range that has some chance of killing the deer, and some smaller chance of bringing the animal home.   I hesitate to list these, because they are a minority, but in the interest of full disclosure, I must.  The hunter safety program focuses on this type of ethical issue, as well as the safety issues.

EP: How would you react to claims that hunting causes suffering to animals? 

NP: First, I react very assertively to minimize that suffering: I am a hunter safety instructor for both bow and gun hunting.  I urge all hunters to know their limits with the implement that they are using, and to wait for the (forgive me for being graphic) the double lung shot.  This is the most humate kill, shutting down the cardiovascular system and starving the brain of oxygen in less than a minute.  That said, hunting is a human endeavor, and mistakes are made.  No matter how much I practice with a bow, the proximity of the animal (27 yards max for me) gets my adrenaline going, and hampers my judgement.  I nearly quit bow hunting after some poor shots led to unrecovered kills.  Now I try to chant "It's ok if it gets away, it's ok if it gets away....." to combat the cave man compulsion to get some kind of shot off.  I have stared at deer for more than 1/2 hour when the proper shot wasn't there. 

EP: Do you believe hunting is a humane way to harvest meat?  

NP: On the average I believe that hunting may be on par with commercial meat industry in the severity of the "death experience" of the animal.  Most animals have no idea of the threat until a mortal wound is induced - they don't always even run.  Regarding wild animals,  it is not a question of humans killing them, or they won't be killed.  Unless we want to give all of the does hysterectomies (this has been proposed), deer will overpopulate like any prey animal and they need predation. The alternative to hunting is the reintroduction of predators, generally wolves.   I am dead certain that human hunters, on the whole are far more humane than canine hunters: canine hunters prefer babies, and they are willing to consume significant portions of large prey without bothering to kill it.  This is not rhetoric - I know of partially eaten deer that were still alive when our hunting party scared off the (most likely) coyotes.  Given the choice between a rifle round and being run down and chewed on by wolves, I'll take the bullet.

EP: Would you rather hunt for your own meat or purchase it from large-scale food corporations?  

NP: I far, far prefer to hunt.  Although I am not very strict, I eat many vegetarian meals rather than eat commercial meat, and I have almost exclusively eliminated commercial pork from my diet (bacon being the hardest to resist).  Pigs are far too smart to live in the conditions of most commercial pig farms, and I've read that they show signs of psychosis in the confines of the more severe "pork factories".  The beef industry acknowledges that a hormone disc in the ear speeds up the growth rate of steers, and antibiotic use in poultry has all kinds of dangers.

EP: Do you ever share your hunted meat with others?  

NP: Every chance I get - I use venison offerings as a good will gesture to the non-hunting public.  I bring some to hunter safety class, and to family gatherings.   I even brought some to Los Angeles to cook for some of the TV crowd that a high school friend is now involved with. The secret is in knowing how to cook it.  Many people who say they don't like venison change their minds when I cook for them. [He even offered to share some venison with me!]

My interview with Mr. Perazzo was very enriching.  Many of the questions I asked him were more for me than for the advancement of my topic of subsistence hunting.  Though I have never been a proponent of hunting, some of the points that Mr. Perazzo made regarding the merits of hunting have helped to quell some of my fears on the subject.

Hunting Tradition

Created by: Emily Peterson

This flow chart is my representation of the hunting tradition, as passed down through families.  Much like Mr. Perazzo and his uncle, then him and his children, the tradition of hunting is often spread through familial interactions.  Hunters then involve their friends and family in hunting activities, such as hunting in groups.  Then these, hunt members share their hunting products (i.e. game meat) with their friends and family.  As such, hunting tradition continues to be spread through families and close relationships with friends.

Conclusions

During the course of this process, I have gone from being almost completely against hunting to really seeing its merits.  I understand now that hunting is a humane way to obtain your own meat while not supporting the cruelty of the commercial meat industry.  I've (quite ignorantly) always thought of hunters as individuals who enjoy seeing animals suffer, but after the completion of this project, I see that they are most often very respectful and reverent of the animals they hunt.  There are those exceptions among the population of hunters, but I believe the vast majority are not cruel individuals and practice safe hunting.  I still do not understand many of the aspects and traditions of hunting, as a result of coming from a family in which hunting was not a tradition and having no friends growing up who shared hunting with me.  I am interested to learn more about hunting and hunter safety, and hopefully try some of Mr. Perazzo's venison!