Current mood:	indescribable
Current music:	"Janie's (Cheney's) Got a Gun" - Aerosmith

So the news is all a-buzz today with Vice President Dick(wad) Cheney's near slaying of his friend and hunting buddy, Harry Whittington, an attorney and millionaire from the Austin Texas area. Despite their apparent precautions (like bright orange hunting vests and such) and the fact that they were out hunting quail (hey! It's easy to mistake a 78 year-old man for a 6 pound bird! Just look at them! and look totally alike!) Cheney still managed to pepper Whittington with buckshot to the neck, chest, arm and ear. Even more amusing was the fact that since Cheney is at risk for a heart attack at any given moment (and what would dubya do if the brains behind his operation went down to a bum ticker?) his trained medical staff, who go with the Vice President wherever he roams and the ambulance he has on call 24-7 were able to get Whittington to safety.

"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been...The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."

Upon hearing the news, a friend of mine commented that hopefully this would change the administration's mind on the "barbaric nature of hunting." Fortunately or unfortunately, I doubt this will have much impact on our nation's affection for the sport. As much as I hate to say it though, I don't dislike hunting, so long as it's intention is to kill for food. This prompted a raging debate on the ethics of a "game" centered around the slaughter of an animal. To her defense, the good lady pointed out many of the various problems that the sport poses. For example, even the best marksmen can't often kill their prey on their first shot. Often the animal takes off and can bleed out for hours before the hunter catches it (if he/she ever does) or they die from their wounds. She talked about the rate of death among vultures and other scavenger birds and animals who choke on bullets or consume too much buckshot from a carcass and die. She raged about canned hunts (the hunting of a domesticated or chained animal, generally purchased from a zoo or private collection, that can't fight back or presumes humans to be it's caretakers) and talked about the dozens of deaths every year from hunting-related accidental shootings.

Yet while I agree with her in principal, especially where canned hunts are concerned, hunters do a lot of good as well...

When I was younger, I worked with a couple of smaller environmentalist groups through my college (Students Against Violence to the Environment - S.A.V.E.) and high school (Students For Environmental Action - S.F.E.A. - yes...that acronym was pretty awful...) During my time with them, I had the opportunity to see the conservation efforts of a wonderful group known as Ducks Unlimited. Though they were a hunting group (specifically for water fowl) they donated an uncountable sum of time, money, and land to preserve habitat for ducks, geese, and other aquatic or semi-aquatic birds. Aside from that, they also worked to preserve habitats for birds not on their hunting lists (like sand pipers, cranes, and other beach, pond, lake or marsh dwelling life.) They spoke out for the conservation of wetlands, something all environmentalists agree is necessary, though few have been active in the preservation of, and are often considered at least partially responsible for the return of the Canadian Goose that now has more problems with over-population than with being endangered.

I suppose the place I come to on this one is the middle road. I know hunting has it's cruel aspects, and I know that it is far from a perfect activity, but banning it totally seems out of place and wrong. Many hunters and people in general have no reason to support conservation efforts without a tangible benefit. Most people can't fathom the notion of roping off segments of land for the simple purpose of leaving it alone so the animals and plants within might thrive. Groups like Ducks Unlimited provide that reason to ensure that these species have homes and places to roam in. And while I personally despise guns and doubt I could hunt unless I absolutely had to as a matter of survival, the fact that these groups do go that extra mile to set aside land for their contributors means that those of us who just enjoy a good walk in the woods still HAVE that option and can still see wildlife where it was meant to be seen.

And as for Cheney, well, while I'm sure this won't change his affinity for hunting, I do believe this might change up his roster of hunting buddies...especially if old Abramoff is scheduled in the near future... :-)