Back in college, as part of a misguided foray into the study of “Natural Resources Technology,” I volunteered to help at a local Wildlife “Recreation” Area (as it was designated), in hopes of spending more time around animals. The first thing I was asked to do was go into their pheasant pen and help herd some of the birds into a portable cage (which it turned out was going to be trucked over to a shooting zone and released as targets for hunters).

As 20 birds were being crammed into the cage barely big enough for 2, one of the frightened birds got away and flew off to the imagined freedom of the “refuge.” But within seconds, a shotgun blast rang out. A hunter “recreationally” shot and killed the pheasant before it could get safely away from the insane situation.

Needless to say, I left and never returned to volunteer there again, and quickly abandoned all thoughts of working in the field of “wildlife recreation.”