A blog I've been reading a lot lately, A Mindful Carnivore, is by a vegetarian turned hunter. Mr. Tovar the blog writer recently completed his masters thesis on what he calls Adult Onset Hunting, an affliction I myself suffer from though to be honest I've participated in the sport before, ahem, informally.
More below the horn porn.
Recently the phenomenon of adult onset has become even more specific to women writers of one of my favorite magazines about environmental issues, High Country News. If I had to characterize the similarities in all of these fine writers checking out the idea of shooting one's own meat I'd probably say left of center, interested in food, lots of exposure to the natural world through other pursuits.
In the first article Ms Aschwanden, upon hearing a shot at her neighbor's meadow, and coming up on the neighbor and his friend that shot the elk, immediately feels anger at the hunter, until, on questioning, he informs Ms. Aschwanden the meat will feed his family for a year. The hunter at that moment earns a new label, lacavore, and Ms Aschwanden decides she'd like to maybe give it a try.
The article is called Eating ethically: a tree-hugging former vegetarian learns to hunt, and was origianaly published on The Last Word on Nothing a great blog by science writers.
The second article is by a young woman from Landers, a place where hunting is a more accepted pastime than in many other locals. Ms. Ostlind has experience processing wild game, she comes from a hunting family, but for any number of reasons never considered hunting herself. She is taking a hunter safety course, the first step in an unavoidable degeneration of the Adult Onset Hunting Affliction hereafter to be known as AOHA.
It's time to kill my own food by Ms. Emilene Ostilind
The last article, the longest and maybe the best, complete with gory carcass photos is by the Backpacker writer Bruce Barcott. Called a Killer Hike the piece mentions the enhanced understanding of the environment he walks through, the newfound respect for hunters, and the elation of, yup, killing an animal.
Funny Hunting Vid
What about you? Hunters still bloodthirsty killers or have you ever considered shooting the meat you eat.