ethical hunting- what is it?

Ethics around hunting is discussed all the time, and there are many different viewpoints on what people perceive to be right or wrong. Ethics are defined as being the moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity. As hunting is largely an individualist pastime, it is often up to the person doing it (or people) doing it at the time to make a call. It is the same with fishing, however it’s a bit more regulated, leaving less up to the individual. Hunting in New Zealand is one of the most unregulated in the world- where else can you simply get a permit online, grab your rifle and ammo, for only the cost of food and fuel for their vehicle and go hunting or fishing? I believe this also comes at a cost because there is less trophy quality around, which again comes down to people’s ethics. This is where it pays to match up personalities when in the hills. For the aspiring trophy hunter, they are likely after the big stag or the big bull and are likely to leave everything until they come across the big one. On the other hand, someone might just want to shoot something, that will be anything. It’s always the classic argument amongst New Zealand hunters about young stags- leave them or shoot them? The trophy hunter says leave it, it’ll be a trophy one day and pass on his genes. The meat hunter will say that you can’t eat antlers and proceed to shoot the animal. The latter in my view is more detrimental to the future of the population, but I understand that hunters who don’t get the opportunity to hunt often will often want to shoot the first thing they see- I notice this on the farm bringing people out. I’m lucky enough to go out there pretty much whenever I like, and I often forget that. Taking someone inexperienced I might get them onto a young buck, but once they’ve got one under their belt, they should be aiming for something a bit bigger. Being fussy won’t sit well with them for a start, so I’ll get them onto a deer then encourage them to get onto a bigger goal. Where I was guiding in Canada it was a much easier explanation- in the area I was in, anything with antlers was legal, so no cows or yearlings. In New Zealand if someone is on public land and has a permit or private land with permission, they can shoot any game animal they want. A quote from Aldo Leopold has a good point- “A virtue in wildlife ethics is the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than a mob of onlookers.” Especially if one is alone, they don’t have to tell anyone anything they did if they don’t want to. Exaggeration of stories seems a result of this, and its easy to pick after a while if people say every time “it’s the hugest stag I’ve seen” all the time. The one that got away always seems to be the biggest one! Where your ethics lie depends on most likely one’s upbringing, background and what their personal situation. Someone who’s struggling to make ends meet is hardly going to be picky about what they take, and that’s all understandable. We also don’t need people getting up on their high horse telling people what they should be doing- you don’t know their story and what they’re going through. The New Zealand outdoors environment is a unique one in that none of our game animals are in fact native. All were introduced with the early settlers from Europe, Asia, and North America. As a result, we are less sentimental about them, and North America is at the opposite end of the spectrum. For Canada, the Moose is pretty much their national icon. This makes the subject of Moose hunting a slightly sensitive topic amongst the public. And credit to them, they have the best game management system in the world. Wildlife biologists are surveying numbers in the area before the season opens and they determine how many individuals can be taken out, and this translates to how many tags are issued. Here, the public has had different viewpoints of them. In the early days until around the 1930’s, we had protection on game animals with a licence system. This worked alright until numbers got large with no natural predators. Government cullers were then employed to take out deer. One of my great uncle’s was one of these. He used to have bomb up’s on mobs of Tahr and shoot a whole heap then the barrel would overheat. They’d then put it in the snow to cool down! They’d have another bomb up after that. Helicopters came out and they realised there was money in venison, so populations were decimated. Attitudes now have changed to somewhere in between. Most people realise they provide recreational value to Kiwi’s, but they need to be managed appropriately. We still have diversity of opinions however, but that’s not going to change no matter what the issue is. Anyone whose hunted with me knows I’m pretty picky. When I first started, I was a lot different- I wanted to shoot anything and I kept a tally of how many deer I’d gotten. Now I’ve got a bit more experience, shot a few deer and what not, so I’m quite choosey. I need to justify in my head as why I’m taking it- is it to control the population, get some meat, take a less desirable stag out of the gene pool and so forth. Taking an animal’s life is something I don’t take lightly, and with it brings a bunch of responsibility. It feels like nature gives you a certain privilege to take an animal, and I don’t want to abuse that. When its with other people the excitement of getting them a deer takes over, but with myself I always immediately reflect on what I’ve done. Was that the right decision? Taking an animal’s life is a big decision. I’m very much a trophy hunter now, so I’ll often leave young bucks in search of an older one. I could be a lot of years before getting a big Red stag for example- but when getting it I’ll be content that I’ve earnt it and made more opportunities for others by leaving young ones. When meat hunting, I seem to get more of a buzz from seeing someone else shoot the animal. Especially if they’re not very experienced. Wasn’t like that when I started out though! I could never understand that when I was younger- my old man would always make me do the shooting. On a Tahr hunt I’d shot one, and he was lining me up for another one. “Don’t ya want to shoot one?” I protested. “Nah. Your right, you do the shooting”. I’m understanding that more and more now. When I was younger, I would often know the size of my biggest Tahr, Fallow and so forth and how many. Now it doesn’t matter to me- I’d rather just get out into the back country. There’s different phases people go through in their hunting careers and its normal for people to change. We’re meant to- its an essential part of being adaptable.
Like everyone, I’m not perfect by a long shot. I’ve got regrets about how I’ve handled situations, what I should or shouldn’t have done, not only in hunting but life in general. Cock ups are all apart of it, I’ve made my fair share of them. You can’t get too down about those sort of things, shit happens and that’s how you learn. We’re all learning no matter how long we’ve been hunting. I’ve also done it numerous times when I thought I’d lost an animal, only to find it dead a few days later. When I first got my Sako .308, I wasn’t used to deer dropping so quick. Previously I had used a .223 on Fallow deer. My fifteen-year-old self stalked up on a yearling in the grass paddock, getting to within 100 metres. Not bad I thought. Then I shot at it, and the whole mob ran away. I looked up and was used to seeing something slowly falling, and I didn’t so I presumed it was unscathed. It was just a bad shot. “Bugger, I’ve missed it” I said to myself, then headed home. I think I remember getting a shock off the fence as well, probably pay back! A couple days later Dad was out and about and told me there’s a dead yearling that’s been lung shot. So rather than missing it, it dropped stone cold! That was a waste of meat and we gave what we could to the dogs, but I learnt to check the area after that. More recently I shot a red hind and couldn’t find it. I was searching until dark, presuming it had gone away. Came back the next day and it had done a similar thing, in the same spot I’d shot it! It had just gone into a hollow and died, something any wild animal will do. I’ll always check the hollows and low points in the ground now if I can’t find it. The list keeps going on, but if you have good intent and learn from cock ups, there’s no problems.
It’s up to people individually to decide their own ethics. As deer are a public resource and many are trying to get the same thing- one must be considerate towards other people. It’s a definite grey area for outdoorspeople, and individuals could argue all day long about what’s wrong and what’s right. Let’s be real, that’s not going to achieve anything. When people get ideas about things, they are always looking for evidence to back up that viewpoint, often subconsciously. Viewpoints need to be respected, and if one is concerned about another’s ethics when hunting or fishing, take them out and do your best to show them your so called “moral high ground” rather than tell. They will most likely take it in a lot more if they follow someone’s example, rather than being told.