Deer Cam

Image take from Google Image search

I’m still fairly new at my current position in the company I work for – next Monday, actually, will complete my first month here. In the last four weeks, along with lots of technical knowledge pertaining explicitly to my new work responsibilities, I’ve been getting to know the other newbies hired around the same time. One, a younger Caucasian male from my city’s south side (aka Redneck Central) has been very clear from the beginning, through various random conversations we’ve had, that he consumed deer meat more than any other flesh – by far. He’s also mentioned that he and his family is quite the hunting clan and that they hunt/kill almost all the deer meat they consume. He’s also mentioned that he maintains a webcam from his deer stand and likes to spend time watching recorded footage of the wildlife that passes through where the stand is.

(As an aside, allow me to add that this young man is an interesting mix for a person. He’s country. Loves Wal-Mart. Refers to the Affordable Care Act as Obamacare and just this morning was going on about how bad it’ll be. Yet, the first day on the job while we were out to lunch together he asked if I’m married and I answered, “Not until it’s allowed in the state of Indiana.” He quickly nodded, implying that he understood what I meant, and the first thing out of his mouth was, “It’s so stupid they won’t allow it here.” He’s an interesting bird, indeed. I mostly like him.)

So back to the topic… He mentioned first thing yesterday morning that his brother had “bagged one” recently and had recorded the whole thing on video on his phone which was somehow cleverly mounted to his cross-bow. I didn’t think much about because the conversation is par for the course with this gentleman. However, I gave it much thought later that afternoon when, on his work computer, he displayed and played the video sent to him from his brother’s phone. For being recorded on a mobile phone, the video was surprisingly long. Almost the entire video was of two deer, about 10 yards away, foraging at the edge of the woods. One was much smaller than the other and neither had horns. The video ended in the expected way, although I did not watch.
Sport hunting is something I’ve always been against. Lots of people will cite overpopulation and a number of other “good” reasons for hunting. I just don’t care and the reasons tie into what I mentioned a number of posts ago for why I’m choosing to abstain from meatery.

Nature is perfect in that She always takes care of her children and takes care of business when it needs taken care of. Naturally speaking, things are never out of balance (for long) in nature. Humans are experts at creating imbalance and preserving it. Populations naturally swell and dwindle – no help is needed on the part of humans. Add to that the obvious advantage humans have over creatures like deer and the fact that we no longer need to hunt for our sustenance, and … well, it makes me REALLY frowny. Sad, in fact.

Many consider hunting a sport. I don’t. Sports are played for leisure or income and all parties involved understand their roles. This isn’t so with sport hunting. It’s mostly unnecessary and it’s pretty mean.

The larger deer in the video has since been forced to leave the body it had. I couldn’t begin to speculate what the next step of its journey might be. What I do understand is that the compassion I feel in this case is something that needs checked. That might sound a little strange, but it’s true. Ideally, I would simply accept that hunting isn’t for me, allow my coworker to live and do as he wants according to his own swadharma, and keep moving. I’ll obviously allow him to continue on his path in the way he knows best, but in the mean time I’ll be assessing why this aspect of who I think I am thinks/feels this way – and try to be less frowny in the process.

Aum Mahaganeshaya Namaha
Aum Shanti

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