Not that it’s all that unusual considering the destructive nature of the so-called “sport,” but hunters seem to be chalking up a lot of cases of mistaken identity lately. A prime example: over the weekend in Montana, a hunter mistook someone’s dog for a wolf and shot it to death with his assault rifle, 20 yards from the dog’s guardian who yelled frantically for the shooter to stop.
Meanwhile today’s NY Daily News tells us of a “Long Island firefighter killed when mistaken for deer by friend in hunting tragedy” Their article reports:
A beloved Long Island firefighter was killed in an upstate hunting accident after a buddy mistook him for a deer, sources told the Daily News on Monday.
Charles Bruce, 52, was on an annual hunting trip with friends from the Malverne Fire Department when the tragedy unfolded about 10:20 a.m. Saturday in rural Westford, about 11 miles east of Cooperstown, law enforcement sources said.
“Unfortunately, it was a high-powered rifle. He was dead before he hit the ground,” Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl told The News.
“Charlie had a bad back, so he went back to his room to rest. And when he came back out, one guy saw a tree move and fired,” said a close friend of the victim’s who asked to remain anonymous.
The shooter was an active Malverne firefighter who moved on to a nonfirefighting role with the Department and is “destroyed” over the incident…
Photo Copyright Jim Robertson
The shooter was “destroyed” emotionally; at the same time, his hunting partner, as well as the deer they shoot, are all destroyed literally.
Clearly, hunting is a pretty destructive preoccupation.
I don’t care how many hunter safety courses they attend, when it comes right down to the heat of the moment, trigger itch all too often takes the place of cool resolve or good judgment. Completely lost are notions of ethics or accuracy, not to mention target identification.
Exposing the Big Game 
Trophy hunting and trapping are diseases, imposed by hunters, trappers and wildlife agencies, extreme minorities of the general population, upon game species and the public. Hunting is not good for the wildlife ecology, upsetting the health of game species and the balanced ecology of prey and predator. It is absurdly asinine as management tools (excuse for hunting). Man no longer needs hunting or trapping for subsistence. Predators, such as the wolf, bear, lion, coyote cull the weak, vulnerable, and make the herds move, thereby increasing their health. Man hunting, blood sports, especially trophy hunting, kills the strong and healthy and the teachers and caretakers of the young, and disrupts families. Man hunting (predation) is additive to game herds, a negative viability effect. Hunting is not healthy for man or targeted animals. It is a rationalization of hunters and wildlife agencies for killing wildlife, called management or recreational opportunity. Wildlife viewing, especially adding in wildlife photography, can be just as challenging. Wildlife viewing is also more of a revenue benefit for the economy and 5 times more popular than hunting. If the state wildlife agencies, and USFWS, and USDA Wildlife Services could be switched from wildlife killers to wildlife enhancers and facilitators of wildlife viewing, it would be better for wildlife, the public, and even the mental health of the hunters and trappers; and would move mankind closer to what we entertain ourselves as: humane, humanity, a part of nature instead of apart from it, but no longer subsisting on it.