Why I hunt? (I part)

We hunted for many reasons and there is a very bitter national debate between those who believe that hunting is a barbaric and inhumane activity, and others who love being in contact with nature, who admire its beauty and diversity, and respect and take care of it. Many enjoy the challenge of facing the anger and adversity that nature presents to us and are proud to be able to survive and succeed on their own.


It is my opinion that we hunt because it is an activity that breaks our daily routine and takes us back to our roots, is one of the few current human activities makes us break, albeit temporarily, our ties with civilization and, while hunting, we forget everything and we just feel in touch with the universe again, feel the forces of nature in all its splendor in and around us, we experience the emotion that our ancestors, 10,000 years ago, lived.

From the moment our ancestors, hungry and frightened they were to come down from the trees in search of food, walking upright and hunt their first prey using a piece of wood as a weapon, since that time they ceased to be the prey to become the predator, they became hunters and led to what we are today, in humans, that was the first step in human evolution, step that led us to the top of the food chain and become the dominant race on this planet, the ultimate predator.

It is known that primitive man was identified with the animal whose survival depended on, the paintings found in numerous caves show the devotion, respect and admiration professed for those ancient hunters for their prey and their rituals, songs and crafts reflected how intrisic the animal was part of their daily lives. The best hunters were the most admired and respected member of the tribe and later became their natural leaders.

It is naive to deny our most primitive ancestry, we are predators and hunting is in our genes, we hunt for meat but deep inside us, as it happend thousand of years ago, we also do it for the respect and admiration of our hunting companions, our friends and family and the unique emotions of that crucial moment when we take our trophy.


This unity between man-animal, that mutual respect, created a natural balance between man and nature that favored social development of mankind.

Over the years things have changed and hunting does not fulfill the same functions as before, today is just a hobby but it is one of the few human activity that most closer take us to our roots, to our quintessential human condition, only the majestic wilderness remember us how insignificant we are, only then we forget our civilized arrogance and realize that our lives depend on we relate to mother nature.

Each state of the American Union have different regulations for hunting but in Florida it is forbidden to use such hunting weapons as automatic rifles, explosive, or using live bait, dogs, you can not shoot an animal that is swimming, lying on the ground or in a feeding area, it is forbidden to hunt at night, etc, the law requires us to hunt in the most primitive way as possible so that our battle against the animal is as even as possible.

We also have to remember that we are not facing a defenseless animals, these are animals that are well prepared to survive in their environment, animals faster or stronger than us, When we go out hunting, we too can become the prey at any time unless we take appropriate precautions. Having a rifle, bow or other weapon only helps us to balance our forces to the animals that we are trying to hunt, but there is no guarantee that if a personal encounter with a bear, a cougar or any other animal happens, everything is going to goes well for us, more than one hunter have paid with his life for underestimating these dangers, for not respecting or properly assessing the strength of the animal that he tries to hunt.

There are other reasons for scientific or economic nature to encourage hunting as in the case of maintaining a proper and healthy population of animals and the controlled supply of certain skins (crocodile, snakeskin, beaver, etc.). These are valid economic reasons but those are not exactly my reasons for hunting.