Your Vancouver Province

Hunters are preserving a valuable way of life
Letter
Published: Sunday, July 15, 2007

I'm sure the government's move to encourage hunting will bring out all the anti-hunters with stories of armed rednecks on all-out killing sprees.

Having hunted for more than 35 years, I feel sorry for them.

Humans are a hunting species. And for those who have never experienced their primeval roots and felt satisfaction of providing for themselves, they are truly missing a part of life.

Some say hunting is never about the killing, and I would say to a great degree that is true. But if you are never seeking game, you might just as well be hiking.

Hunting tests you mentally, physically and emotionally.

The high of making a clean shot and the low of missing or, worse, losing a bird or animal are part of the greater experience we used to live with before the advent of grocery stores and freezers.

Having watched the decline of interest in hunting for the last decades, I applaud the government. Perhaps if our new generation got away from videos and televisions, they would see the world in a different light.

We hunters are always subjected to cheap shots and scare tactics, but have managed to preserve something that for us is not just a way of life, but a part of life.

Michael Roman,

Langley