By Zander Liebenberg
“Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes.”
As the first article states, most people these days jump on the bandwagon and go with the most popular story and this is a trend that needs to be broken. The quote above is a reminder to always think before judging someone and to listen first. We need change, we need this to be a habit.
In part one we discussed the importance of hunting on a global scale in terms of conservation. We continue this part with more personal stories from Dr. Comer and Mr. Chip Hunnicutt.
Zander: “On a very personal note, where did hunting and the love of the outdoors start for you?”
Chip: “Sure, it is pretty easy for me, I grew up with a dad who loved to fish and he liked to do the offshore fishing for billfish and that meant getting up at four or five in the morning, getting in a boat off the coast of North Carolina and running it for three or four hours to get to the blue water, where these fish were. Then fishing all day and coming back and having to wash that damn boat! After a while, just watching him work on that boat and wash it, and had to pay for new engines, I said you know, I don’t think I want to do this. All I need is a gun and I could go walk in the woods so that is exactly what happened. I was in Colorado and I was going to a wedding with some old rodeo buddies.
Some of the buddies were planning an Elk trip that fall and I asked them if I could tag along. I have watched it and heard about it, but never been, I just want to be in the camp. Next thing I know I have been going out with those guys hunting for the past fifteen years. Not always for Elk and in fact, it is no longer the hunt that draws me out there, it is just the camaraderie, being around the campfire, seeing our kids have success together and just being a guide for each other. It has kind of grown from there and I now look at it as an evolution. When you start out you are just happy to see something with horns and after a while you start saying that you need something that is mature and then after a while you know you want to go beyond the State line.
I want to start going up to, in my case, up to Canada and eventually I made it to New Zealand, several years ago. Now I’m thinking even broader. It really started in earnest for me probably fifteen to seventeen years ago. It is something that I really hold dear to my heart now and I am trying to introduce really as many people as I can and this position has given me a little bit of authority among that circle of friends that maybe those overseas trips are not as nuts as they thought.”
“in fact, it is no longer the hunt that draws me out there, it is just the camaraderie, being around the campfire, seeing our kids have success together and just being a guide for each other.”
You see as Chip started to tell his story; you could hear the change in his voice. From formal to this kind of excitement of reliving these memories and telling us his story. This also made me realize that it is vitally important that we share these stories with one another and get back to personal, honest conversations, because that is how people are going to start listening to each other again.
Dr. Comer: “I actually have a different story. My story of hunting is not typical for most people in the US. I grew up in a family where we did not hunt at all and we had no firearms in my home growing up. When I graduated from College, I was certainly not an anti-hunter, but if you would’ve asked me, I would’ve said that it doesn’t make any sense to me and I don’t see why anyone would do that. When I started working, after I got my Masters degree, it was a couple of guys that I worked with, that were actively involved in hunting.
I was interested in the outdoors and wildlife and did a lot of camping, hiking and backpacking and all that stuff. But talking to them and hearing them talk about what it meant to them, you know they were clearly ethical, moral people who valued the animal, all things that I had never been exposed to before. I thought, well I like being outside and I liked the idea of eating an animal that I have harvested myself; it is very appealing. I should give this a try. Not only did they talk about it, they said they have got a piece of property, come out and we will show you what this is about.
And they did, they backed up their talk with action, took me out there and I kind of got hooked on it with them. The consumption aspect is a big one for me, the idea that I could go out into the woods, harvest something, bring it back and feed my family with it, is a real big deal. That is a big thing. My wife now, basically the only meat we eat is what we bring home, if we don’t have enough, we will buy it occasionally. Which is great. Sort of the idea that you can contribute to conservation is a bonus.”
Then I taught at a University for almost fifteen years and I got a lot of new students in during the course of this tenure. I taught the intro class to all these students, fresh out of high school, and a diverse range of individuals. Some of these kids have been hunting their whole life and then there was also a group that have never been exposed to it, and probably had the same views that I did at the start. I told them that they need to get the full picture, not that they needed to go hunt, but to understand how it all fits into the big picture of wildlife management and all that. This really helped me refine my views on it and it has been an interesting journey to get to where I am now and again like Chip said being at SCI, sort of exposed me to the world wide picture of what I was not as aware of as I was before. Which is great to see how important it is, not only in the US and Canada, but all over the world.”
You see these are the stories that should be shared. It is 50% the hunt and 50% the people that you get to know and the experiences that you get to have. It is these personal stories that the people don’t hear and don’t understand about hunting. It is important in today’s world to get personal and get the important discussions going.
As Chip said, hunting is also a great equalizer between boys and girls. It is not dependent on physical size like most sports, so you can get the kids out there doing the same things and teaching each other things, like who can be the most quiet in the woods or who is the better shot when shooting targets. Kids begin to regard each other differently.
“It is very rare that when you talk to a hunter and you ask them how their hunt went that they start with the kill. They talk about the experience. And again, that is what Safari Club is all about. It’s just an adventure outdoors.”
The problem and a lot of the polarizing issues that are discussed, could be sorted out by somebody just getting on the ground and seeing everything first-hand. Like Chip said, it is very hard to talk about Africa from Sacramento California.
Zander: “That is the big story here, like you said you don’t have to go hunting to experience it, but hunting plays such a vital role in protecting these areas that everyone can go to and enjoy. It is really an outdoor activity that you want to share with everybody.”
Chip: “I don’t mind going to a place and paying a couple of thousand dollars, because I have seen what the value of that animal and that hunt means to that local community. And they are giving more to me than just a shot at something, they are giving me an experience and an appreciation for the life they are living in whatever faraway place that might be”. “I encourage everybody to get to know their local hunter, it will open up a whole new world.”
Dr. Comer: “We had a great experience in Zimbabwe, where we got to spend some time in local community areas that are located around some of the hunting areas in the northern part of the country. We actually got to meet some of the folks living there. This was during the Africa Consultative Forum last year. The local outfitters had built a medical clinic and put in some boreholes for the people so that they can have water and it was very interesting.
It’s one thing to read about that and its good and I have talked about it a lot, but to actually go and see the people that are lined up to get the water, that was pretty impactful. One of those things, where I can’t imagine someone who is a big-time anti- hunter, who could go there and have that experience and coming away feeling the same way about it.”
That is the story throughout Africa. We have our big Cities and our Kruger National Park and the Serengeti, but that is a far shot from the real Africa. These places are the places that the people do not see, and these are the most important places in terms of habitat conservation in my opinion.
If you have the opportunity to share hunting or just the outdoors with someone new, do it. Take them along for the trip and let them see first-hand why we love being in the outdoors every opportunity that we get.
A special thanks to Chip Hunnicutt and Dr. Chris Comer for taking the time to have this discussion and sharing their personal views.
