Responding to Tom Crowley’s letter in the Shuswap Market News on July 6.
Mr. Crowley has confused “sport fishing” with catching fish. They are not the same, as is “hunting” and the killing of animals.
Fishing is the process of planning a trip, going out into the natural world and enjoying the outdoors. The catching of fish and providing food is simply the reason for going fishing.
To take a youngster out into the natural world and teach them about wildlife is the real value of “fishing.”
The same thing holds true for hunting. The killing of an animal is not all that pleasurable but the pursuit is the challenge. Some of my most pleasant fishing and hunting trips did not result in the catching of fish or shooting of animals.
I would also like to remind Mr. Crowley that it was “sportsmen” who put into place our present game and fisheries laws to set bag limits.
It is “sportsmen” who are the watchdogs of our natural environment, the same as farmers are the watchdogs of our food supply, who incidentally kill animals but manage their herds.
“Sportsmen” do the same. Hunters and fishermen pay a lot of money for the privilege of harvesting fish and animals.
Far more animals are killed on the highways and fish by pollution then by “sportsmen.”
Everything we eat must be killed. Whether it is a carrot you pull from your garden or the male calf that is born, slaughtered and discarded so a cow might give milk, all food must be killed.
To consider ones self morally superior because they do not “sport” fish or hunt is to deny the truth about who we are and what sustains us.
Ed Campbell
