Editor's Note - I read Andy Larsson's, owner of Skinner Sights, social media post last week. What we say and what we show matters, espeically on social media. I read a lot of damaging and sometimes divisive posts on social media. So, when I find something sincere, and I dare say noble, I think it's worth sharing. Andy was kind enough to give me permission to do just that here.
Hunting is sometimes called a “Blood Sport”
By Andy Larsson
Hunting is sometimes called a “Blood Sport”. The discriptive terminology shocks one slightly at first as it’s not the image we generally want to portray lest someone is offended or we may be criticized.
Yet, reality is, when we hunt we are intending to take a life and “life is in the blood.”
My first trip to Africa was as a photographer for a friends hunt. (2005) On that trip I shot 3000 images with a camera and three animals with a rifle. A baboon that was killing the farm workers goats, a monkey that was doing the same to their chickens, and an Impala the land owner asked us to find for one of the workers family so they could eat.
We took the family man along with us that morning. He carried with him an old, worn, and rust patina’d butcher knife that looked sharp but had seen better days. I didn’t question him as to why he brought the knife figuring he was perhaps going to dress the animal in the field.
They designated me as the shooter knowing I liked to hunt and to give an opportunity to experience doing so on the Dark Continent. We located the predetermined impala ewe, I took the shot, dropping it exactly where it stood.
At the shot the man ran forward with his knife, raised the head of the animal and quickly cut its throat. He held it for a while as some blood drained into the rich red African soil, then lowered the head to the ground and had what looked like a moment of silent reverence before putting it onto his shoulders and carrying it back to the vehicle.
We took him back to the path leading to his home in the bush, dropped him off in the middle of the road, and I can still close my eyes and see him standing there, knife in hand, waiting for his family to come carry their food back to the fire.
I asked our PH what particular religion was represented there, was it Islam or some derivative of it. He didn’t exactly know but said it was not Islam as such.
Bottom line, life is in the blood spilled as an animals life is sacrificed for us to eat. This is just as true for the steak you eat at Outback a burger from McDonalds, or the turkey at Thanksgiving as it was for that impala in Zimbabwe.
The testimony of that man’s respect left a lasting impact on how I consider the hunt, how we respond after the kill, and the appreciation for the life taken.
How we react when a game animal is killed leaves a mark on those who bear witness to the moment. Excitement??? Absolutely. Disrespect? Never….
While we will still make the effort to cover, clean, or remove the blood evidence so as not to offend those who do not yet understand conservation and the circle of life, I will also respect but not be ashamed that blood was spilled in the process of the harvest.
This is a Black Buck I harvested in Texas Wednesday morning. The image stirred these emotions expressed here and reminded me of a humble man, standing alongside an African two track in the bush, grateful for the gift of life and the reality of death.