A Rant Against Bear Hunting and Country Music
I’ve got a bit of confession to make. I hate country music and country musicians — with a passion. Is that fair? Probably not. Am I biased? I’d have to say so. Am I committing the cardinal sin of stereotyping a large group of people based on the actions of a few? Guilty as charged.
It’s hard not to with stories like this one. Did you hear about Troy Gentry? The guy’s being prosecuted for killing a black bear with a bow and arrow. Now I’m not opposed to hunting (though I’m a lot happier when the prey has hooves and a white-tail - technical schematic here.) So what could be so horrible to deserve prosecution for the manly action of hunting a fearsome predator with a bow and arrow?
Perhaps shooting a tame bear in a cage, then tagging it and doctoring video to make it look like you shot it in the wild… Which is what he and the ranch owner reported to the state of Minnesota.
His defense sounds like it’s going to be a real winner.
“Troy absolutely denies that he knowingly and willfully did anything illegal, and is confident that he will be exonerated,” said his Minneapolis-based attorney, Ron Meshbesher, who said Gentry has never been interviewed by authorities. “They don’t know his side of the story. He was told it was proper and legal to kill the bear.”
Don’t you love it? Words like knowingly and willfully, proper and legal. No one’s denying that poor Troy protected his family by killing the ranch pet in the cage. They just say he didn’t know it was wrong. Apparently, it’s not even the killing that was illegal. It was doctoring the tags and reporting it to the state — and that’s what prosecutors will have to show Gentry knowingly did to win a conviction.
You know, for some reason I’m not as angry at lying to the state. It’s clearly wrong, but I mean, it’s just Minnesota. It’s the killing that infuriates me. Hunters, a question: Why do people hunt with bow and arrow instead of a gun? I think I know the answer, but someone can correct me if I’m wrong. It’s a challenge, it’s a lot harder, and I can imagine that the excitement and satisfaction of taking prey with these tools is a lot greater. And I respect that.
But drawing your bow and arrow on a caged animal? I don’t give a rat’s behind if it’s legal or not. It’s shameful.
Now I have to admit that I didn’t even know who Troy Gentry was before this story. He’s half of the popular (with who?) duo Montgomery Gentry. But upon a little investigation, he quickly fit right into my stereotype of all that’s wrong with country music. For example, in an article on an upcoming album that would make Stephen Colbert very proud, the writer expresses:
This album reflects a deeper exploration of the issues Eddie Montgomery & Troy Gentry have always deemed important: family, religion & the US Armed Forces.
What else is there really?
It’s the smarminess of country music that I can’t stand. It’s the “family values” that look an awful lot like softcore pornography. (Possibly not safe for work, but incredibly educational if you’ve not flipped through CMT recently). Country music has become one more way that culture gets entwined with religion.
Now I’m not advocating that we abandon popular forms of music, including country music if that’s what you like (though your ear for music has obviously been bludgeoned beyond repair). I personally love a vast array of rock music, though I clearly recognize that some of it doesn’t share my moral values.
It’s just that I prefer my decadence to be clearly labeled as such.
Complete and utter agreement. Thanks.
I’m a hunter so I’ll respond. I blogged about this myself with equal disgust. Every hunter I’ve talked to about it agrees as well. As a rule 90% of hunters are ethical sportsmen that in no way resemble the stereotypical beer-swilling bubbas you see them portrayed as. But you do have turds like this guy, as any group does.
As for the “why bow hunt” question, hunters go through a progression that is pretty universal. You start off as a kid in the “killing Stage” where you’re real goal is just to kill something. Then you progress to the “Limit Stage” where you have some proficiency and are trying to do a lot of it. Then you reach the “Trophy Stage” where the killing is easy and you have limited out enough that it has lost it’s excitement. Some hunters never go further than this. But some, I would argue the most mature, reach the forth and final stage known as the “Sportsman Stage.” In this stage the focus isn’t on killing numbers or even big trophies. It’s about the whole experience. Most sportsman hunters leave the woods just as happy on the days they didn’t kill something as the days they did.
It’s in this final stage that you most often find bow hunters (with some exceptions). You are spot on in regards to archery hunting being much more difficult than rifle hunting and this is surely is one of the major reasons for its attraction. Another big point to understand is why people hunt. For many (most?) it also has a lot to do with feeling a connection with your ancestors. The less gadgetry you have, or in the words of Aldo Leopold, the less you bring the factory to the woods, the more you feel this connection.
Thanks Butch! For what it’s worth, as far as the stereotyping goes, I’m biased against country music, not hunters. I have a great respect for ethical hunters, and groups like Ducks Unlimited have done wonderful things for conservation. Bluntly put, hunters and fisherman have far more power to wield towards conservation than other outdoor groups like birders, though in this sense we’re all in it together.
I guess black bears are not endangered or there would have been even more outcry about this. Is it grizzly bears that are endangered? I forget…
Mary, I’m not sure about the exact legal and political status of Grizzly bears, but they have basically disappeared from the lower 48 states, with the exception of a small population around the Yellowstone area. This is a tremendous reduction from their historical range. They are still fairly numerous and widespread in western Canada and Alaska. Here’s an interesting map showing their past and present range.
The much smaller black bear (which can be black, brown, or cinnamon in color) on the other hand is more widely distributed, found throughout the Alaska and Canada, the western US, patches in the eastern US, and Mexico. I managed to find this range map.
Jay,
Your “random quote” sidebar displayed this for me, right next to the Troy Gentry post:
After reading the story, I felt a strong impulse to see Troy Gentry locked in a cage with a bunch of drunken rednecks shooting arrows at him.
What a pathetic expletive deleted person he must be,
A pet bear named Cubby, used for photo ops. Makes my blood run cold. Isn’t this how human killers start. THe lust to kill an animal easily. THere is a world, no universe, of difference between this jerk and someone that tracks an animal in the wild, uses skill and the game for food.