Reply #28: I am a Texan [View All]

All the men in my family hunt, mostly deer.

They used to hunt squirrel, but no longer. Now it's mostly deer, occasionally wild turkey, dove, duck.

One of my cousins bought his newborn son a camo outfit to wear in his crib. The same little boy shot his first deer, single-handedly, last season. He was six.

Mostly, my relatives go to land they own, equipped with hodgepodge 'cabins' of greater or lesser civilization, where they cook over an open fire and drink lots of beer, and maybe play a little cards or dominoes. Sometimes they have a 'deer lease' with a group of friends, for a season or contracted over years.

My father no longer shoots, just goes out and sits in the cold-ass deer stand to watch the wildlife. He would shoot, though, if he saw a really large buck.

We have a stuffed deer head (who has a NAME) high on the wall in the living room, and, opposite it, a stuffed duck, in full flight.

If anything is killed, it gets taken to the 'deer processor', and the men get tidy deer sausages and a mounted head at the end.

No women ever go, or are invited, on these hunts.

Some of my wealthier relatives also go down to the Hill Country or, more commonly, South Texas, to 'hunt' on enclosed lands, where the animals have been bred and are in total captivity, even down to having certain species in certain fenced areas. Sometimes the bigger 'ranches' even have African game, like lions, to 'hunt'.

My $0.02 - this is barbaric and ridiculous and cruel. I really don't understand WHY anyone would want to engage in this. If you want to 'hunt' (unless you legitimately NEED the animal for immediate nutritional needs), you should go to Africa and wrestle a lion to the ground with your bare hands and then eat its beating heart. That's how animals hunt.