I am a new (2 1/2 years), middle-aged (43)female hunter. I have been so moved by what hunting has taught me about animals and myself – and what I’ve discovered to be unfounded stereotypes about hunting – that I spend a lot of time reading and writing about the subject, which is what brought me to your blog.

What’s prompted me to comment is the idea that I’d like to have a conversation with you, not a desire to attack you (though I am about to refute some of the suggestions you’ve made).

So, to your final question: If you eat meat, then yes, it is hypocritical to oppose hunting animals. Why did the animals you saw in that store have more value than the cows, chickens and fish who’ve died for *your* dining pleasure? In my opinion, they did not. In fact, the animals you’ve eaten have probably lived a life much closer to the black slavery you discuss here – and just like the whites who accepted that system, most Americans have conned themselves into believing that today’s agribusiness livestock were bred and born to become our food, so it’s OK not to value their lives, right? I don’t buy it.

So why would I also say you’re also not being a hypocrite? Because you observed a lot of things that bothered you, and who am I to reject your observation and experience? I would rather persuade you to challenge your assumptions.

I think your single greatest mistake here is going to such lengths to associate racist/ignorant behaviors with hunters (caveats aside, that’s the clear tone of this piece). No doubt, there is a bubba element in hunters’ ranks. Not the people I hunt with, but I’m sure they’re out there somewhere. Regardless, though, if you really want to question whether hunting is right, I think you should focus on the core issue: Should we kill and eat animals? I don’t think associating hunters with racism addresses that question.

To address a couple of specific points you made:

* First, the big one, re this statement: “(H)e learned the values of the natives, how they respected the animals they hunted, which was never for sport. Instead, when they did hunt, it was for food and other materials — they used every single part they could so as not to waste.”

This is why I hate the term “sport hunting” – it suggests we kill for sh**s and giggles, not for food. The origin of the term was to distinguish “gentlemanly,” ethical hunting from “market hunting” – hunting animals for sale in restaurants – which was helping to decimate wildlife populations 100 years ago, along with the rampant habitat destruction that was taking place.

Now people have come to interpret that as “killing for fun.” The reality that I have come to understand, and which every hunter I know shares, is this: Yes, we hunt because we enjoy it. The process reconnects us with our true nature as omnivores – a nature that has been systematically stripped from us over the past four or five decades as industrial agrictulture has removed most of us from any connection to our food supply.

But the kill? When you pull the trigger, it’s business – you are focused, you have made the decision. But in reality, most of us are deeply uncomfortable with this aspect of the hunt. We show it in different ways – which sometimes include not showing it at all. (Remember, 90 percent of hunters are male and society has taught them to quash troublesome emotions.)

Also, the vast, vast majority of hunters eat what they kill. Yes, perhaps we make a trophy of what’s above the shoulders. But we eat the meat, and we value it – and often prefer it over storebought meat.

Many hunters, by the way, like the term sport hunting because they acknowledge that we hunt because we want to, not because we have to. I disagree. I say, “People buy meat the grocery store because they want to – they want the convenience and lack of blood on their hands. They *could* go hunting, or raise their own animals for food.”

* Yes, spending money on taxidermy outweighs what you save from hunting your own meat. But most people I know don’t hunt as a way to get cheap meat. We hunt because we enjoy participating in nature. We hunt because we appreciate wild game and think it’s healthier for us than what we could buy at the store. I spend a boatload on hunting. And I don’t care, because it’s taught me the true value of meat.

* Those taxidermied animals you saw weren’t in the prime of their youth. People stuff very mature animals – typically with really big racks. I can’t think of anyone who’d stuff a young animal.

* You don’t need gun safes to hide your guns from public view; you need gun safes 1) to keep them from any children who may be in the house and 2) to protect them from theft and fire. Yeah, they’re expensive. Aside from my car, I don’t have many – if any – single items that cost as much as my guns, and none of them are that high-end – about $1,000 apiece.

If you’re interested in learning some perspectives on hunting that may not have been at all apparent in that store you visited, go to my blog (the link above) and click on “Thoughts about hunting” in the index. I know I don’t represent all hunters. But what I’ve learned is that I articulate things that many hunters feel, but have never been able to articulate (I know this because they say as much, all the time).

I hope that helps you separate the core practice of hunting from the attitudes you associate with hunters. If after an exploration like that you decide you find hunting abhorrent, then so be it. If nothing I can say changes your opinion, then you probably really are against it.

But you should really consider going vegetarian, for moral consistency.