assumptions~

Something happened today that was rather upsetting to me.  I lost a facebook friend because I harvested a deer.
Here's the note that was left for me in my inbox: (name withheld)

Hi Melody, I hope you're well. Melody I'm sorry but I have to drop you as my facebook friend. You have been very nice to me and was always so kind. The reason is none of my friends or family kill animals. We love them and try to protect them. You killed a deer and he never did anything to you. I don't understand people who do this. It must be a cultural thing where you live. I see one of your friends even wrote "wasn't it a rush pulling the trigger on the big gun and just killing something for once? What's the thrill of killing a defenseless animal. To me that's the same as stomping a cat to death just to watch it die. Hunting is not a sport. It's killing another living animal just for the thrill of killing. No thank you. Take care.

This was my reply:

So sorry that you think of me like that; because that isn't me. I am not a sport, trophy or thrill killer!! To me... hunting is a means of putting meat on the table. No different than going to the grocery store and buying a chicken or beef roast... just the elimination of the middle man. We EAT what we harvest. I came from a very poor background and from a family of nine children. If my father didn't HARVEST what the Good Lord provided I don't know how he would of kept us fed. We HARVEST our deer just as we harvested our chickens, their eggs, beef cattle, hogs and even the Thanksgiving turkey. Do you eat turkey, chicken, beef, ham? Do you wear a leather belt or shoes or have a leather wallet? We even harvest our own vegetables. So please... please... don't put me in the same category as a person who would stomp a cat to death to watch it die. That's horrible ... and it hurts me to think that you would think of me like that. I am not a cruel person
 ~~~
I'm sorry... but that was the last thing I thought this person would write to me and it shocked me and it really hurt and was upsetting.  How can someone make that kind of assumption? or comparison about me? comparing me to someone who would stomp a cat to death to watch it die!!  

I was raised by very strong firm Christian values.  I am not an animal hater and I don't like being categorized as one.  Our families have been  members of the National Rifle Association since it's induction. We also were very active members with the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.  My husband has been a Wisconsin Trapper's Education instructor for the state of Wisconsin in conjunction  with the Department of Natural Resources for over 13 years. We are firm believers in the ethical treatment of animals.  When they are HARVESTED it is done in the quickest most humane possible way.

I can ... without a doubt ... say that any animal that is HARVESTED by us is done in a fashion that is more humane than that piece of chicken you might eat at KFC, or that burger from any franchise, or that beef roast or charlie chicken from the sea that you got from your grocery store.

If you want to be a full fledge vegetarian  ... that's your choice... I don't care.  But if you are... you better get rid of your pets too; because guess what their dog food or cat food is made out of? And take away the Elmer's from your kiddies school; because guess what that's made out of too? Quit wearing your leather belts and put away those  leather shoes and wallet. Quit fertilizing your roses and petunia's too while you're at it... and do you know where your vegetables came from? What did that cow eat before it made that glass of milk? and what about good ol' Jello???

Do you even know what would happen if there wasn't a HARVEST season on certain species of animals? Or if they weren't kept under control and allowed to just go out and breed and repopulate themselves?  Have you ever heard of  tularemia or deer fly fever or CWD - Cronic Wasting Disease.  Do a google search and look it up.... it's a problem that is spreading throughout the United States with deer herds.    Believe me ... harvesting them and utilizing them for consumption and manufacturing is FAR more humane... for whom? The top of the food chain.  Man.

Until next time,
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel