Commentary on Hunt of a Lifetime

Written by Roni McCall on November 30, 2007

Hunt of a Lifetime is not in the best interest of disabled children at the end of their lives. I have to wonder how a child in this position comes to the conclusion that they would like to go out and kill an animal. What fun can this child be getting out of this act!

There is nothing humane about allowing young adults and children to hunt, maim and harm animals. Some of these kids are first time hunters and are not getting clean clear shots to the animals thus making them suffer before they die, if they don't run away first. I believe we must humanely euthanize animals when they are so sick that they will not recover and are so injured that they do not need to suffer any further. As I stated these kids often don't kill their prey on the first shot and that is not sport, fun or otherwise. These kids are exempt from the requirement to get a hunting license and take a hunting safety course. They only need to have prior gun experience.

I firmly believe that at one time, hunting was a necessity to survival. But today it is not. We do not need to hunt for food for survival. Hunting is not a sport. Sports have limits in what one can do to harm another thus judges, referees, coaches etc.

I read recently a report from the US Fish and Wildlife Services that hunters now represent 5.5 percent of Americans 16 years and older, while wildlife watchers outnumber them by almost 6-to-1, making up 31%.  The numbers declined by 10% between 1996 and 2006 from 14 million to about 12.5 million.  The drop was most acute in New England, The Rocky Mountains and the Pacific states, which lost 400,000 hunters in that span.

Compounding the problem, the number of Americans who fish also has dropped sharply -- down 15%, from 35.2 million in 1996 to 30 million in 2006 according to the latest national survey that the Fish and Wildlife Service conducts every 5 years.

In New Hampshire, only multiple fee increases have enabled the Fish and Game Department to keep revenues up.  NH dropped from 83,292 hunters in 1996 to 61,076 in 2006.

Wildlife watchers and photographers increased from 62.8 million in 1996 to 71.1 million in 2006, spending $45 billion on their activities compared to $75 billion spent by hunters and anglers.

Hunt of a Lifetime is just another way for hunters to keep a dying “so called sport” alive. And if it is a canned hunt it is even more unfair and unsportsmanlike. There is nothing fair about a child dying; there is nothing fair about another being dying in an unfair chase.

Even “Make-a-Wish Foundation, who’s purpose it to fulfill terminally ill children’s last wishes – will no longer aid children who want to go on hunting trips as their final wish. Hunting is just too unsafe for terminally ill children to participate in according to the foundations spokesman Jim Maggio.

When you take into consideration the fact that the child may have been weakened by the effects of that life-threatening illness, and all the treatment protocols and medications that may accompany that – it’s simply too great a risk to the safety of that child than we’re willing to assume, stated Maggio.

Even Tina Pattison, stepmother of the boy who requested the hunt to Make-a-Wish stated she was angry that Make-a-Wish would not help her in her request.  They turned her down because of the inhumanity of it all.  In that anger she was determined and “Hunt of a Lifetime” was born. Again anger, hunting, killing – wrong message to a child.

Representative L’Heureux (R-NH) who sponsored the bill lives in my hometown. He and his wife Fran and I have attended social events together; we agree to disagree on the issue of hunting. Rep. L’Heureux is an avid hunter and pet owner. He has sponsored some wonderful bills and done some wonderful things for my community and I have no animosity towards him we just disagree on this issue.

But NH Governor Lynch agreeing to have the ceremonial signing just blows my mind. The response I got from his office was “The Governor frequently receives these types of request and tries to accommodate as many as possible as a courtesy to legislators.” My response is this “why have a humane taskforce where is the courtesy to our efforts” “and as a constituent, where is the courtesy to those of us who disagree with this bill” and with politics “often bills are passed not on their merits or lack thereof but on a favor owed by one legislator to another” “and where is the courtesy to the people who daily are involved in animal rescue or animal cruelty cases – what kind of support is that giving those who see first hand the inhumanity”.  (Note, I am currently the humane taskforce secretary).

My non-profit is all about animal cruelty. We don’t expect orthodoxy. And we certainly don’t expect people to be agreeing with us on everything about animals but there are some aspects of history that are pertinent and this is certainly one of them. Animal cruelty sets off alarm bells. Cruelty to animals is a sign of an emotional and empathic disconnect. Look at the history behind the serial killers and mass murders; there violent tendencies began as children, perhaps in subtle ways but more often than not by harming an animal. Look at the school shootings, how many of those shooters were systematically desensitized by hunting.

Animals feel empathy both in captivity and in the wild. Take a look at the number of dolphins for example who have saved people from drowning or from shark attacks or the multitude of behaviors observed in primates. Take a look at your own pets. Do they feel pain, do they forgive you for your faults. A rational person feels the pain their pets feel. Heck my pets are my children – last spring my dog was taken and for the 18 hours she was gone I was an absolute wreck.

Children begin to be empathetic by age 2 and this is especially true by having the same emotional responses to someone who is a big influence in their lives. I ask you what does that say about the avid hunter who takes his 3 year old child along on one of his hunts.

I will end with “Hunt of a Lifetime” is just another means to keep a dying sport alive under the guise of doing something good for a dying child – politics aside – stop using children to get the emotional vote to condone killing.