I love the growing interest in hunting among millennial and hipster populations. I believe everyone should experience the emotional, cognitive and spiritual impact of hunting and killing wild game.

Hunting is the best way to honor life. In contrast, when we grab our McDonald’s burger or pick up a pound of beef from the store, we often take for granted that we just took an animal’s life. No, we didn’t pull the trigger, but our buying power endorses the same: Death of an animal.

Restaurant chains and grocery stores deprive us of a physical connection with the food we eat. Have you ever thrown away a pound of chicken thighs that have gone bad in the fridge? I certainly have, and it sickens me. As a hunter, I’m aware of my explicit ingratitude for an animal or multiple animals in this case, that died for my meal. Animal food waste is senseless killing. I personally don’t know any hunters who would toss a half-eaten elk steak in the trash.

Many hunters hunt because we have dignity for animal life. Yes, we could easily go to a butcher and order what we want, but we don’t know how the animal was raised, how it was treated, nor how it was killed. Did the animal live in a stockyard its entire life, experiencing little more than a small pen with electric fences? Did they spend years being transported from one stockyard to another? Were they pumped full of hormones so their meat would be redder for the consumer to believe this means “fresh”? Did the sound of animals being slaughtered reach their ears day after day?

No, thank you. I prefer to take an animal’s life that has been allowed to live out its years in a natural environment, being nurtured by its mother, being free to roam.

In my family, during hunting season, we get up at 4 am and hike miles, sometimes 10-15 miles/day in rain and snow to be in the animal’s natural environment. We might spend 16 hours+ out in the elements, listening, scouring the ground for tracks, climbing rocky inclines to get a better view through the forest. Even then, if we are fortunate to locate game, they usually hear or see us long before we see them. If we do manage to get close enough to an animal, we may not be at the right angle to ensure an ethical kill.

Ethical hunters never want to deliver pain. Not just because it’s wrong, but adrenaline sours an animal’s meat. We want the animal to be calm and unaware of us, to die a peaceful death.

I consider it a great honor to hunt. I haven’t made the choice to do so in recent years, but I will do so again soon. As I raise my children. I want them to be sensitive to and aware of where their food comes from. Especially meat. I’m encouraged by the abundance of ethical awareness and mentored hunting that is gaining traction. I’m working with other wildlife lovers to ensure our lands are secured for the perpetuity of wildlife.

Thanks for reading. And let me know if you have an interest in getting involved.