Saturday, April 10, 2010

Bang, you're dead.

One day last week we turned on the TV a few minutes before the noon news started. There on the screen was a magnificent male wild turkey with its tail feathers spread wide... as it calculated its chances of romance with a female of the species.
Suddenly there was a very loud bang and the proud male bird collapsed into a pile of trembling feathers. The camera shifted its focus to a beaming young lad with a large gun. He was being congratulated by his father on his first turkey kill.
Now I do enjoy eating turkey for Christmas, or Easter, or at any time for that matter. And I've got to admit to having used turkey quill feathers and those of various other birds like peacocks, as in the example on the right, in the process of tying trout flies with which to capture that sometimes illusive prey for fish dinner. But right before lunch, at a time when many young children might be watching the notorious one eyed monster, could it really be appropriate to go: bang, your dead?
I do enjoy photographing birds, and often times spend hours at a stretch, patiently waiting beside streams or in meadows waiting for them to pose appropriately in front of the camera. Sometimes I just sit quietly watching their antics, or identifying a species with the aid of binoculars and a bird book, if a new one has appeared or one whose name I have forgotten.
I've never personally shot anything larger than a rabbit, and where I come from, these are considered to be pests by farmers and gardeners alike. And I am certainly not a vegetarian or vegan, and absolutely not a subscriber to that PETA cult. Neither do I oppose the seal hunt because I believe there are far too many of them out there in the ocean devouring the fish that I enjoy catching.
I suppose its a matter of each to his own... in this dog eat dog world.

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