Some folks might be thinking that I’m making too much of this whole hunting issue. After all, it’s been a long time tradition practiced by some of our most famous presidents (and infamous vice presidents). How bad could it be?

Well, all you have to do is visit any grocery store magazine rack across America to find out how bad it is. If anything, you’ll see that sport hunting is worse than what I’ve been saying.

Like any other animal exploitation industry out there these days, the deeper you dig, the more shocking the details you’ll uncover. Despite my involvement (some might say obsession) with this issue (to the point of writing a book about it) I guess I really haven’t plumbed the darkest depths of hunting’s heartlessness yet. I found myself genuinely shocked when I saw the wording on the cover of an Alaskan “sportsmen’s” magazine in a grocery store check-out line on my way home from visiting relatives yesterday. Partially covering the photo of a grinning hunter posing with his dead “trophy” animal were the words, “Where to Kill the Biggest Critters”!

At least this publication was honest, it came right out and said “kill,” not “harvest” or “take” or any of those other soft-sell terms for animal murder. They know they’re evil, and they’re proud of it. Among the other articles featured was “Learning from Ted Nugent.” That should give you some idea of the intellect level of the magazines’ readership. 

But this rag is not just for sale in some backwoods enclave or at the rat-hole mini-mart where Bubba stops in for beer and beef jerky. I came upon it at an upscale grocery store by a ferry landing right across the Puget Sound from the supposedly progressive city of Seattle. This stuff is wide spread and insidious.

So what kind of awful, sick things were inside that magazine? I didn’t have the stomach to pick it up and look. Maybe next time…

Wildlife Photography Copyright Jim Robertson