Hunting For Trophies

Back when I was a kid, I remember going to school and for show and tell in kindergarten, I told all the kids that over the weekend, I had been hunting girls with my dad.  Of course, because I was only 5 years old, I didn't realize that I had misspoken and instead of saying squirrels, I used the word girls.  My teacher of course gasped and quickly informed my parents of what I had said.

In all reality though, the story got told many times as I was growing up and I'm sure if I was still around them, they would continue to tell it.  It didn't matter that to them that they were hunting for trophies.  You know, killing defenseless animals for the fun of it.

All too often I see people out hunting for trophies.  They go stalk defenseless creatures using sophisticated weapons and scopes.  They learn how to set up their hunting stands to trick the animals to come to where they nap and slumber as they wait for an easy kill.  Then in the moment least suspected by a defenseless animal, they strike and kill.

Now, maybe we should just arm the animals so that they can shoot back and defend themselves.  Even with all the reasons and excuses of people who hunt as to why they are justified, what turns my stomach most of all, is the trophy pictures.  You know - you've seen them plastered on twitter and Facebook.  They are the pictures of them happy as a lark they killed their prey.  The bloody gore-filled pictures posted for all to see as if they really did something special by killing a defenseless animal.