For twenty-some years I lived in a remote cabin in Washington’s North Cascades mountains. My place was the last human inhabitance on a gravel forest service road that dead-ended at the Lake Chelan Saw-tooth Wilderness boundary. Almost no one drove out that way and far fewer ever stopped in to visit, so I was surprised one autumn morning when a truck drove down my long, dusty driveway.
It turned out to be a young hunter who frantically explained that he just shot his father in law (mistaking him for a deer) and asked to use my phone. I told him I was sorry, but the nearest telephone was at my neighbor’s, two miles downriver. He raced off to call for an ambulance, but it was too late. Like so many hunting accidents, this one proved fatal for the victim.
It’s a sad story that’s played out again and again—a woman hiking a well-used trail on August 1st is shot and killed by a bear hunter; a forest worker is fatally shot by a nimrod who heard “rustling in the bushes;” an unpopular Vice President blasts his partner in the face with a shotgun—yet the perpetrators are almost never charged with manslaughter or any lesser crimes. As long as they are “lawfully” hunting, the shooting of their fellow sportsmen, or an innocent bystander, is acceptable.
Photos Copyright Jim Robertson
Since today is Memorial Day, this post is dedicated to those—of all species—who gave their lives (so far this year) in the ongoing and senseless war on wildlife. It would take far too long and would be nearly impossible to amass a list of all the non-human losses. In addition to the thousands on record as successfully “harvested,” an incalculable number of animals are wounded, only to crawl off and die, their deaths never reported. Therefore, this victims list, compiled by the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting, is limited to humans:
May
NY: Teen shot by brother while turkey hunting in Yates County
KS: Youth killed in Pott County hunting accident
ME: Son shoots father in eye while turkey hunting
April
FL: Florida man mistakes girlfriend for hog, shoots her
TX: Rabbit hunter accidentally shoots pregnant girlfriend
March
AZ: A case of simple varmint hunting gone terribly wrong…
FL: Officials: Hunter Sees Turkey, Accidentally Shoots Man
FL: Boy fatally shoots grandfather in Hardee County hunting accident
WV: Hunting Accident Claims Life
ID: Rupert Man Killed in Hunting Accident
LA: Cadaver Dogs Used in Search of Missing Man
OK: 11-Year-Old Welch Boy Killed In Apparent Hunting Accident
FL: Man shoots foot instead of snake
February
NY: Train hits, kills man hunting rabbits
FL: Wildlife officer finds body of hunter reported missing in Tampa Bay area
IL: Illinois hunter killed by father in likely accident
MN: Boy, 16, shot in hunting accident
OR: Hunter found slumped over fence east of Sandy
IA: Man Accidentally Shoots Himself Twice
WY: Fatal shooting under investigation
LA: Fort Polk soldier dies in hunting accident in Kisatchie
TN: Madison County boy accidentally shoots friend while hunting;
January
PA: Hunter accidentally shoots companion at Fawn gas station
AL: Citronelle man fatally shot in hunting accident
TX: Menard High School football player shot in ‘freak accident’
PA: Hunter shot Pa. man with arrow
OH: Human Remains Found During Search for Missing Hunter in Vinton County
IL: Hunter fatally shot in Knox County
IL: Sheriff: Father accidentally shoots, kills son
CA: Sacramento man dies during squirrel hunting expedition in Butte Co.
CA: Body of missing hunter found near Boulevard
CA: Body of missing hunter discovered in El Dorado County
VA: Mechanicsville man shot in hunting accident
OH: ODNR Identifies Man Shot to Death on Game Lands
IA: Harlan man dies in hunting accident
VA: Three hunters shot on last day of deer season
NE: Man Accidentally Shot While Hunting Raccoons
WI: Waukesha County Hunter Found Dead
NC: Deer hunter shot by minor outside Clarkton
AL: Local hunter falls from tree stand
MO: Two duck hunters die in accident on Truman Lake
Exposing the Big Game 
Reblogged this on Animal Connection.
Can we just please put down the guns???????? Please!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, don’t you know? Guns don’t shoot people…people shoot people. So don’t blame guns. Jeez. (Sarcasm)
Oh how I hate the word “harvested” when it comes to how hunters describe what they do.
The epitome of human arrogance.
Exactly!! PLANTS are “harvested,” not animals, wild or otherwise!!!!
Yep. In my book I quote Edward Abbey’s thoughts on that word:
“To speak of harvesting other living creatures, whether deer or elk or birds or cottontail rabbits, as if they were no more than a crop, exposes the meanest, cruelest, most narrow and homocentric of possible human attitudes toward the life that surrounds us.”
Amen, See, even the people who do it feel better if they don’t use the actual word: kill. And they make fun of us “snowflakes” for being politically correct.
Thank you for exposing this insane ‘sport!’ as many hunters call it!
Right, as long as Killing wildlife is a sport people will continue to be at war with each other.
yup, humans need to learn from the animals, not kill them. Animals do not hunt for what humans call fun. I know it is not nice to say, and I don’t wish anyone ill, but it is time us so called intelligent beings realize that hunting is wrong and immoral.
You’re right, it’s high time!
Okay. Here is my favorite anti-hunting quote by Captain Paul Watson from the book “Exposing the Big Game”:
“But I do confess I am guilty of taking a modicum of pleasure from hunting myself. You see, I love hunting accidents, and every time I hear of some ignorant nimrod who shoots himself or falls out of a deer blind or who blows himself up with a stick of dynamite, I think, ah, another Darwin Award, and the world is just a little safer for the victims. I view hunting accidents simply as a karmic death penalty for murdering the innocent.
Amen, I say.
Yep, amen to that.
Reblogged this on Exposing the Big Game.
Wonderful thoughts! And, I have a bumper sticker (hope they are still available?) that says it all:
“Conserve Hunters–Harvest One Today.”
Unfortunately I haven’t seen one of those, but I still have a ” … Arm Bears” sticker.
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