Great column on the dove-hunting issue

Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Dennis Anderson has a great piece online about that proposed dove-hunting ban that died in the Minnesota Legislature earlier this week. Click here to see how he ably refutes the Humane Society's propaganda on the matter.

Here's one of my favorite sections - and why I think it's significant:

History has shown that if you want to save something on this planet, make it a huntable or fishable species and allow a constituency to form around it.

This is as true for elephants as it is for ducks; so, too, pheasants and rainbow trout. And many others. Who do you think has led the century-old fight for wetland preservation in this state? Upland restoration? And the preservation of cold-water streams in the southeast?

Hunters and anglers.

That point never seems to carry any weight with the antis. I believe that's because they're so focused on each individual animal that they can't see the overall impact of hunting on the species is undeniably positive.

The irony is that Mother Nature - the very same Mother Nature that so many antis profess to worship - has clearly come down on the side of the species, rather than the individual. Every individual animal must die, but each animal is driven to behave in ways that perpetuate the species. That's why big bucks always get the does - it creates a stronger population.

I don't know that it's possible to persuade antis that survival of the species is more important than survival of the individual. But I'm with Mother Nature on this one.

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

The pink huntress speaks!

So I was grading papers the other morning when my phone rang, and who's on the other end of the line but Keli Van Cleave - the high priestess of pink camo. And she had a challenge for me.

I wrote about Van Cleave last week after the Denver Post did a story about her penchant for pink camo. It may sound weird, she told The Post, "but it works because animals are colorblind. Camo is just a breakup."

My response was, "I'm guessing she's not a waterfowler - ducks see colors perfectly well."

It's true: Van Cleave, a bowhunter who does demos at outdoors shows all over the country, is not a waterfowler. But in addition to hunting a lot of colorblind big game, she also hunts sharp-eyed turkeys, and she told me she's hunted them with pink camo gear just fine.

Then she challenged me to try duck hunting in pink camo.

Hmmmmm.

I'd have to find a day when none of my hunting buddies could join me, because I'm pretty sure they'd tie me up in the back of my car to keep me from walking out into the marsh with them wearing even a shred of pink.

Hell, I don't even like pink.

But I like a challenge, and I like Van Cleave's spirit. She grew up as someone who learned to love hunting from her dad and pink from her mom, and she refuses to relinquish either. She's started a company called Pink Outdoors. She's offers a line of Pink Sonic broadheads through the American Broadhead Company. And she plans to unveil a collection of pink camo clothing later this year.

Van Cleave admits her target audience for the clothing is much more the hunters' wives and girlfriends than us huntresses. But she's adamant that it works. "I’m gonna prove that it can be done, and I’m going to do it in in a big way," she told me. "This hunting season is when I'll do it."

Ya gotta respect that.

Maybe I'll give it a try too.

Keli Van Cleave

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

Doves and the latest "anti" nonsense

The Humane Society has been pushing a bill to ban dove hunting in Minnesota, but the bill ain't goin' anywhere: It died in a House committee today.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune did a short write-up on the bill tonight, and here's my favorite line:

"Howard Goldman of the Humane Society of the United States, which opposes dove hunting, said doves, which are small birds, have 'no food value.' "

Mr. Goldman, do you see the picture here? That's not a fig leaf on a turkey; it's a cilantro leaf on a delicious little roasted dove served over a bed of farro with a sauce of saba (boiled down grapes). Go ahead, Mr. Goldman, click to enlarge. But you might want to wait until you're alone - wouldn't want anyone to see you salivate.

Postscript

There's an op-ed in the Winona (Minn.) Daily News today by the Minnesota/Wisconsin state director of the HSUS. Click here to read it, if you enjoy being irritated by propaganda.

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

Filson's women's clothing - now available

I was over at FS Huntress's blog today when I noticed ads all over the place. For Filson! That means the company's new women's outdoor and hunting collection that I mentioned the other day is available online now. Click here to check it out.

At first blush, my impression is that the collection tilts heavily toward the "outdoors" side of "hunting and outdoors," but there's some cool stuff in there. The shooting shirt pictured above caught my eye - love the zippered midsection pocket for license or passport. And I appreciate seeing patchs on both sides, being a left-handed shooter.

Also, I just got a pair of Filson's chaps in the mail for field testing, and I have to say they're pretty cool. The boyfriend really liked 'em too. Down, boy!

The results of the field testing will be in a review I'm doing for Jesse's Hunting & Outdoors, which should be available online in about a month. The review will go over various types of hunting pants from SHE Safari, Foxy Huntress, Prois Hunting Apparel and Filson. If I ever hear back from Pink Outdoors, I'll try to include that line in the mix too.

Now some of you may be thinking it is the coolest thing in the world to do clothing testing, but please keep in mind that I'd rather poke chopsticks in my eyes than try on pants. Lord, it took me two martinis to get over a trip to the Levi's store in San Francisco this weekend.

The good news? These companies have a lot more sense than street fashion designers these days - no muffintops with these pants. Trying on their clothes makes me want to go run through a field of grass, burrs and critters, not run to the bar.

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

A huntress sticks her neck out - in print

The public's perception of hunters has been on my mind a lot lately. There was that San Francisco Chronicle blog item earlier this week where many non-hunters were suggesting that we don't eat what we kill, and that story about women hunters in The Sacramento Bee that was excellent, but that attracted some commenters who thought the majority of hunters were poachers.

I always leap into the comment fray on these things, but a few weeks ago I decided that blogging about it and commenting on other articles wasn't enough. Read more...
I wanted a chance to make my case to a large number of people. So I contacted the editorial page editor of The Sacramento Bee, pitched him on an op-ed piece about why I hunt, and by golly, it's in today's paper (click here to read it).

It's funny - when I sat down to write it, I wasn't sure what I was going to say in my allotted 650 words. I think what hunters do for habitat preservation and restoration is super important. And I think wild meat is about the most healthy food you can put into your body - no hormones, no antibiotics and nutritious because game animals eat natural diets. But I've seen us hunters make those arguments before, and they don't answer the one question that really stops non-hunters:

How can you kill animals?

I think as a group, hunters are often afraid to address the death issue, precisely because it's impossible to make it look pretty. But I believe failure to address this is a problem. One, it further distances the general public from the reality of where meat comes from - out of sight, out of mind. In the old days, who would've flinched at the vision of a little old lady going out into the yard, snatching up a chicken and wringing its neck? No one. It happened all the time. It was called dinner.

The second problem is by not addressing the elephant in the room - or by using words like "harvest" to suggest that killing a duck is like picking a tomato - it looks like we've got something to hide. Having spent my whole adult life as a newspaper reporter and editor, I can tell you I never trusted or believed anyone who was obviously hiding something or dodging an issue. That's why from the start of this blog, I have tried to deal matter-of-factly with the death of the animals I hunt.

So that's what I wrote about for today's Bee. Please check it out and let me know what you think. And if you're one of the readers who found this blog because of the piece in the Bee, please take a look around and feel free to post comments here. If you're one of the people who disagrees with what I do, that's fine - at least you'll have given my ideas a chance.

© Holly A. Heyser 2010