A guy I know upcountry, a real Mountain Man, killed a bear with a longbow last week. He was hunting in my old apple orchard, in the early morning before he went to work.
He was not sitting in a blind, up a tree; he was on the ground with his bow when he saw a big black bear on the trail. My friend knew he had to drop the bear with one shot, because a wounded bear will attack. He waited until the bear lifted its front leg to walk over a log, showing it armpit. He drew, loosed the arrow, and hit it in the lungs. The animal ran several yards and collapsed. The hunter approached cautiously. The bear was dying. It took a long terrible time, and there was nothing to do but stand there and keep the animal company as its life ended. When death came for the bear he called his buddies who helped him dress it and carry it out of the woods.
Those are the bald facts; but how do we feel about this death in the woods? Do we think of it as brutal slaughter of a beautiful innocent wild animal? Or an act of courage and skill? Killing a bear with a longbow is not for amateurs. It’s very dangerous and takes steady nerves and aim. Does it help to know that my friend is going to eat the bear? Does it make you more sympathetic if I told you he wanted to make a rug out of the bear's pelt, but he couldn't afford to get it done, so he sold the bearskin to somebody else?
This hunting and killing is country business, and it seems cruel to us urban folk. In my book "Sam (a pastoral)" poor folk poach deer for food. Farm kids eat their pet pig. Good people raise veal calves in close confinement because they need the money. There is blood on every hand. The difference may be that country people acknowledge the blood and we city people get to pretend there is no blood.
Am I willing to make a moral call on this story? I really don't think I am.
A very good moral question that most city folk who have never hunted or raised animals for meat may have a problem answering well.
My helper, born in Saigon and forced to live in the country for three years, never killed any of the many chickens she and her brothers raised. She told me yesterday that she didn't like the story I told about having to kill several puppies that our feral dog had because we couldn't give them away. I was a teenager with a 22. Made sure that they had no pain and buried them properly. I did with my mother said. It was sad, but necessary.
I understand that black bear are increasing all over the country, like deer. More and more, suburbia is encroaching on wild lands. Black bear can be very destructive of property when they are looking for food. The way the guy hunted for was very noble, like a Native American. Although I'm not sure I would like to eat bear, he did. It might have been better if he had had a way to use another arrow to put the bear out of its misery before dying.
While I hunted, I eat everything I shot. I did not shoot up property or kill wantonly like so many so-called hunters, do. Machine guns are totally unnecessary for hunting when one good shot will do.
I can't make the moral call either. But poaching and encroachment on wild lands is destroying wildlife everywhere and I'm afraid that many species will disappear from hunger or stupidity.
Democratic Dilemmas and Divine Inspiration examines the significance or relevance of the idea that the U.S. Constitution was, as many believe, divinely inspired. How much did that belief matter to founders of the nation and how much does it matter no
