Today, I came across an outstanding article in The Stillwater Gazette written by veteran and former hunter/trapper, Bradley Ayers. In the article he talks about how he evolved from the senseless recreational killing that so many in Wisconsin are obsessed with and no longer finds joy in it. Mr. Ayers says in the article:

I confess. I once had an addiction. In an earlier life, I was a hunter and trapper of wildlife. Later, in the service, I extended it to humankind.

I’ve been in self-inspired recovery since being hunted, nearly trapped and shot at myself and witnessing first-hand too much bloodshed, agony and death.

I now live in semi-wilderness not far from the St. Croix River. I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s on the North Hill in Stillwater in a familial culture where hunting and trapping was an annual tradition. One learned the trade early on…