Posted on 09/17/2005 9:08:12 PM PDT by neverdem
GREEN MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST, Vt. - Chomping wad after wad of Bubblicious Strawberry Splash gum and giggling as she tickled people's necks with a piece of grass she pretended was a spider, Samantha Marley could have been any 9-year-old girl.
A couple of things set her apart, though. She was cloaked in camouflage from boots to baseball cap. And propped next to her on the seat of a truck was her very own 20-gauge shotgun.
Samantha, a freckle-faced, pony-tailed fourth grader, was on a bear hunt. Not the pretend kind memorialized in picture books and summer-camp chants, but a real one for black bears that live in the woods of southwestern Vermont and can weigh 150 pounds or more.
She had won a "dream hunt" given away by a Vermont man whose goal is to get more children to hunt, and she had traveled about 200 miles from her home in Bellingham, Mass., and was missing three days of school to take him up on his offer.
"Almost everything you hunt is pretty fun," said Samantha, grinning and perfectly at home with a group of five men, the youngest of whom was nearly three times her age.
At one point, as the group crossed a wooden bridge, Samantha's father, Scott, who had accompanied her - and had filled out her application for the hunting contest - teased her that trolls lived under the bridge.
"Dad," Samantha said with bravado, "I got a gun."
The dream hunt - all expenses paid, including taxidermy - was the brainchild of Kevin Hoyt, a 35-year-old hunting instructor who quit a job as a structural steel draftsman a few years ago and decided to dedicate himself to getting children across the country interested in hunting.
His efforts reflect...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
FReep me her address and I'll make the woman's goose egg dreams come true next Feb.!...:))
[I have one loony goose who's been laying for about 2 weeks now...she's *really* confused on the whole "spring is egg-time" issue]
Bob the gander, is apparently even more "confused" since none of the eggs are ever fertilized, much less hatched.
Do you want your children to have a balanced diet?
Do you want your children to understand their reltionship with God's creation?
Hunting, skinning cleaning and butchering are all skills NEEDED for a balanced life.
Meat (in real life) DOES NOT come in nice sterile plastic wrapped packages, by the way. LIVING cows, pigs, chickens, goats etc. were killed, skinned, butchered and THEN put into those pretty packages in your local Albertson's.
This child is learning that fact of life. Much as I like you as a freeper, I'm sorry you have trouble with this reality.
Yep. Nature got real close to a lot of people a couple weeks ago down in Naw'lins. It wasn't a pretty sight but the sooner you learn the lessons of nature the safer you are.
She said she was a vegetarian which therefore means she has *no* "blood on her hands" at all.
She probably does choke her own artis, though.
[geeze....lighten up Francis!]
Whoops.
Post 164 was meant for you, not her.
Be VERY careful with your vitamins and supplements then, no meat can lead to real health problems, particularly for children!
Game meat is MUCH healtier than store bought.
Well... I'll have to respectfully disagree.
That sounds so interesting!
I do the B12 thing along with fresh juicing,etc. Very careful so I don't have the problems that some others have.
"NO" blood?
Eggs, fish, milk, etc. are all animal products, all may be considered to be "blood" to some degree.
Leather is made from the skins of animals, I can very nearly guarantee she uses or consumes "blood" in some manner nearly every day.
BTW, I do agree that disliking hunting but eating meat is creepy. I really could go on and on about slaughterhouse conditions but it's late. They're also one of the biggest employers of illegal aliens but that's a whole other thread.
Besides the obvious safety aspects which MUST first be mastered, other "skills" are required. Marksmanship, stealth, patience, determination, just to name a few, and did I mention patience? Most of my appreciation of nature comes from having been taught to hunt at a young age.
Spending quality time with family and friends is also priceless. Most Freepers would view my childhood as somewhere between "poor" and "middle class". I consider myself very blessed to have those wooded streams and swamps to roam in as a kid.
Slaughter house work is not pleasant, but I can think of several more repugnant trades.
Mortician, forensics, abortionist, sewage plant pond skimmer, etc, just off the top of my head.
I think that many freepers come from the same background but that's just a guess with no evidence :-)
"I know what you're saying, killing an animal is something I wouldn't want my 9 year old to do."
Yeah, who cares how it was the first umpteenthousand years of our history. The nation of wimps we've become in the last 100 years is what's important. Meet comes from stores and fast food places. That's all anybody ever needs to know.
Laura you poor child. The yolk in farm eggs is much richer than the store bought ones. View it as the same as the difference between nestle chocolate and hagen daas chocolate. Hatchery chickens are fed a steady, bland diet. Farm chickens are fed about the same thing, but also get scraps from the garden and dinner table sometimes. They also get to scratch around for whatever else they can find.
You can taste the difference in many recipies. Deviled eggs almost become a delicacy.
I really feel sorry for you kids that never get out of the city.
Abortion is in a class by itself. I'm starting to get active in raising some pro-life consciousness in the vegetarian/vegan events and groups.
"eating meat is creepy."
Game over man, game over.
Mommy, what's an omnivore???
they probably thought that you would shoot your eye out...
My families is seeing it's particular sport dieing out. It was brought over from Germany in the 1870's, where they hunted wolves with dogs. From my Great Grandfather on down to two generations past me.
It's a Texas version of "riding to the hounds". Catching coyotes with dogs.
Too many highways, dogs get run over during the heat of the chase.
Gentrification, the large farms and ranches are being broken up for ranchettes.
Very few people raising sheep anymore, so predators are not the serious problem they once were.
People who complain, Understandably, about a pack of hounds running around for about 4-5 hours, baying, bugling and barking and keeping things stirred up all night.
It's coming to an end, But, the bright side is that the coyotes are encroaching on urban areas. The overpopulation of small dogs, cats and foxes will ease up soon.
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