What is hunting?
How can you kill a wild animal?
Why do you want to go hunting?
What is the difference between a good hunter and a bad hunter,
and which one are you going to be?
Tough questions, every one of them. Tough for adults who have
hunted their whole lives, and especially tough for 12-year-olds
who have yet to kill their first deer.
But they’re also important questions, the kind young hunters
will need to be able to answer if the hunting tradition, established
more than 400 years ago in our country, is to continue into the
next century.
That was part of the message delivered Monday night by volunteer
instructor Ron Moody on Monday night to roughly 40 boys and girls
ranging from ages 11 to 17, as well as many adults, who attended
the first class of fall hunter education at the Fish, Wildlife
and Parks’ office in Lewistown.
The class was one of eight, two-hour sessions the future hunters
will attend during the next two weeks. Each one tackles a different
aspect of hunting and is taught by a different instructor. The
topics include rules and regulations, wildlife identification,
landowner relationships, firearms handling and identification,
survival, marksmanship, scouting and much more. A field day on
Sept. 7 gives the students a chance to get some hands-on experience
before the exam on Sept. 10.
Fergus County chief Hunter Education instructor Bruce Luhrsen
said they begin each hunter ed course with the discussion on ethics
in part because it gets the students in the right mindset for
the rest of the class.
“It’s a good introduction to what hunting is all
about,” said Luhrsen. “We introduce tradition, recreation
and many of the other aspects of hunting.”
What is hunting?
In many circles of hunters, ethics is one of those taboo topics
often left untouched.
The students on Monday night, however, were more than willing
to take one the controversial topic and did not back down from
any of Moody’s poignant questions.
“I want you to think of me like a hunting guide tonight,”
said Moody as he introduced himself to the class. “I’ll
point out some of the scenery and help when I need to. But I want
this to be a discussion among yourselves.
“So let’s get started. What is hunting?”
“A sport,” a student named James answered immediately.
“What is a sport?,” Moody countered.
“A competition,” said a young girl.
“Between who and whom?,” Moody asked.
When his question was greeted with blank expressions, Moody offered
a definition.
“Hunting is the pursuit of a wild, free-roaming animal
for the purpose of killing the animal and making food of it,”
he said. “Hunting is also a privilege offered to law-abiding
citizens and governed by the laws of the state. And the animals
we hunt are all owned by the people of Montana. Does everyone
understand what that means?”
“Hunting is also guided,” Moody continued, “by
a code of ethics known as the “rules of fair chase. This
code is not written down anywhere. It’s simply an understanding
of the difference between right and wrong.”
With that introduction, Moody asked again, “What is hunting,
David?”
The young boy paused for a moment, then answered, “It’s
the pursuit of an animal to kill it and eat it.”
Moody smiled and nodded, “That’s close enough.”
“Why do you want to go hunting?”
The lively give-and-take discussion continued throughout the
evening as the instructor and students tackled a variety of tough
issues.
“How many of you want to go hunting this fall?,”
Moody inquired of the audience.
When every hand in the room went up, he asked, “Are you
all looking forward to hunting?”
In unison the room answered, “Yes.”
Moody then asked the students to tell their specific reasons
for wanting to go hunting and wrote their responses on the chalkboard.
Their reasons included spending time with family, recreation,
the challenge, tradition, acquiring food and learning about wildlife.
“Would you all agree this is a list of good reasons to
go hunting?,” asked Moody. “When everyone agreed,
he asked, “So then we could say these are all things that
are true about hunting.”
Moody then began another list that included many of the not-so-flattering
attributes often associated with hunters, such as killing more
animals than the law allows, leaving an animal to waste in the
field, trespassing, the many accidents that occur and offending
non-hunters by driving through town with blood dripping off their
cars. The students weren’t quite as eager to admit the second
list was also true of hunters, but after some discussion, most
in the room agreed it was, fair or not.
“What’s the difference between the two lists?,”
asked Moody.
“One’s right and one’s wrong,” offered
a student named Derek.
“That’s right,” said Moody. “Anything
else?”
A young girl named Brianna added, “It tells the difference
between a good hunter and a bad hunter.”
Moody shook her hand and told her it was the best answer he’d
heard since he began using the exercise more than a decade ago,
then added, “The difference between the two lists is you.
If you do one thing, it will be true about hunting. But if you
do the other, it will also be true about hunting. In this class
we do a lot of talking, but there will come a time when you have
to make that decision. It will be made out in the field and there
won’t be any referee watching you or blowing the whistle
on you. You will be all by yourself with no witnesses and no audience.
That’s when your understanding of right and wrong will be
put to the test and the decision you make will be the difference
between whether you are a
good hunter or a bad hunter and whether hunting is good or bad.”
How do you kill something you love?
Typical of most local hunter ed classes, the group of students
attending this fall’s course was split almost evenly between
girls and boys. Regardless of their gender, however, all of the
students agreed they liked animals.
“So then how do you feel about shooting those animals,
which you just told me you liked?,” asked Moody.
When no one responded, Moody told them in their lifetimes many
or all of the students will one day be asked to defend hunting.
“You may have to answer clearly why hunting is a good and
right thing,” he said. “It may be one of your final
exams. And believe me, to not be able to respond is not a good
feeling.”
Moody explained that the best answer he had come up with over
the years is what he calls “The Deal.”
In essence, he explained the deal humans and animals have is
that in exchange for lawfully taken game, the humans ensure the
animals are able to continue living with healthy populations in
a natural lifestyle.
“I don’t care if you can memorize that word for word,
as long as you understand the idea,” he said. He also wants
them to understand what he called the 3Rs of good hunting: Respect,
Relationships and Responsibilities.
“One essential foundation of modern hunt is the deal,”
said Moody. “The other one is the hunters’ attitude
of respect toward animals and all other relationships. If you
hunt with an attitude of respect, society will allow you to continue
hunting.”
Preparing for the final exam
Before Moody”s ethics discussion began, he told the students
there are four things they need to do to pass the course. They
need to be 12 years old in the calendar year. They need to pass
a written exam with a score of 85 or higher. They need to attend,
participate and have a positive attitude. And, maybe most importantly,
they need to persuade the instructor they are a person with whom
the instructor would feel safe going hunting.
“It’s a judgment call,” said Moody. “We
don’t pass or fail people. We just try to decide if that
person is ready to go hunting. Our big reward for doing this is
that we have the chance to start young people in a lifetime career
as a hunter. That’s our paycheck.”
But Moody also explained that pass or fail, the real final exam
for the course will not take place in any classroom, but in the
field.
“It’s a pop quiz, pass/fail, all-or-nothing exam,
and I promise you will get one. And if you hunt long enough, you’ll
probably get several. It’s real important that you know
that, because the price of failing is
high.”
One of the final exercises Moody runs the students through during
his course on ethics is having everyone in the room stand up.
Then after a moment, he asks the kids in the room to sit down.
If any of them do, he explains to them in a light-hearted fashion
that they need to change their way of thinking if they want to
become a hunter.
“Once you decide to take a gun in the field, you have an
adult responsibility,” he said. “When you shoot a
bullet, you have the same responsibility at age 12 that I do as
a 56-year-old. There is no such thing as a “kid” responsibility
in the field.”
Moody, who has taught hunter education since 1978, enjoys that
particular portion of the class.
“I see it as a small rite of passage,” Moody told
the News-Argus after class. “It”s a ritual to trigger
a new identity in a young person’s mind that they are leaving
childhood and taking on adult responsibilities.”
But it’s not just that portion of the course Moody enjoys
teaching. He volunteered this year to teach the ethics aspect
of the course this fall, because, “it’s the part that
is nearest to my heart and the one I’ve worked the hardest
on over the years. This class is the only structured, organized
formal teaching event for new hunters in our country to learn
about ethics and responsibilities, the value of the hunt.”
Whether his message gets through or not, Moody doesn’t
always know for sure. But like all hunter education instructors,
he sure hopes so.
“I feel very fortunate that I have never had one of my
former students show up in the headlines as a violator or a casualty,”
he said. “But I do know other people who have, and that’s
your worst nightmare. As an instructor, it’s kind of like
your final exam.”
Lewistown
News-Argus