Thursday, October 29, 2009

Gator Hunting

I went gator hunting with my friend the other day for the first time. Being already involved in all sorts of hunting, I was anxious to add another animal to my hunting list. I told a couple of my friends I was going and one of them, a hunter himself, made a remark that showed his disapproval towards hunting of gators. Coming from a hunter, I was quite surprised... maybe I could expect this from a "tree hugger" but not him. His reasoning was that gators are often taken for trophy more than they are for meat and also, the way that gators are hunted make it an unfair advantage. I told him to hold off on his argument... I knew nothing about gator hunting and I was not going to/nor have I to this day made an argument on a subject that I have no clue about. So with his disapproval and voiced opinion, I went gator hunting. After we finished gator hunting, killing two gators.... I was ready for my rebuttal. First, we saw some big gators but we were out for meat. Some people are not fans of gator meat but I love it... and the basic rule is: the bigger the gator, the tougher the meat. Because of this, we were looking for moderate sized gators... nothing that could be considered trophy size. So the misconception that gator hunting is all for trophy was eliminated. Next was the unfair hunting tactics.... although I see where my friend was coming from, I do not agree. We are hunting on the alligators home territory without baiting and such... we come on a loud air boat and they are fully aware of us coming. Not to mention that alligators can stay under water for a very long time, make them very hard to spot. If anything, the alligators have the upper advantage. Some may disagree with my points but after going gator hunting, this is what I came up with and this is what I believe. Hopefully I will enjoy many more gator hunts in the future because it was a lot of fun.

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