Good job Dave! Most Americans get every piece of meat they eat from a styrofoam tray. They loose the sense that life eats life and they are dependant on agribusiness for sustainance. When times get hard, they have not the skills to feed themselves.
It is better to teach kids a bit of gardening, so they know how to grow a potato from an eye on a potato skin. It is good to raise a few chickens, so a kid can learn about the birds after learning about the bees. Then chop one so they can learn how it is done, fried chicken after is a fine incentive. I've chopped a lot of chickens in my day (a few rabbits, lambs and goat kids too). When I do I calm the animal, give it a little feed, then I say how I have fed it and watered it and cared for it every day, but today it is my turn and it will feed me and mine. Then I do whatever I'm gonna do quickly and mercifully, then we do what we need to do to turn it into good meat then we eat. No meat tastes better than meat you raised or hunted, but you gotta get blood on your hands to do it.

Great article..If your kids are going to hunt they should read and reread this. My 19 year old son started hunting with me at age 6. (Did not carry a loaded firearm for several more years!)From the begnnng I tried to teach the items discussed in this article but like most parents I did not know if I had any success. Thank God all my efforts have seemed to paid off. I have observed him not taking shots unless he is sure of a clean kill. He has killed 10 deer since age 12 and all but 3 harvested where they stood. The other 3 within 50 yards of the shot. (He still uses a 243 bolt action) This from a child who still will go the the garage and find the cricket making noise in the middle of the night, catch it and release it outside. In addition to our weekend hunts we annually spend a week at a cabin during Thanksgiving. When he was about 15 and I had not harvested a deer for 2 years he was puzzled at my smile as we were driving home. I think he now understands it's not all about the kill.

My 9 year old Grandson Alex slammed his teacher and classmates the other day when one said that hunting is cruel and that’s all you do Alex. He responded, it’s not whether or not you get something it’s what you see and do and we spotted over 40 Elk last weekend top that! He said!!

This kid is too awesome!!! So watch out Dave, this kid may be giving you and Phil competition someday!!

This is possibly the greatest arcticle that I have read in a while. It seems that a lot of people, including me, take it for granted that we kill, and that every time we pick up a firearm or a bow it is a very powerful responsibility on our part. As hunters we have are obligated to protect and conserve nature. You dont have to be an "earth worshiper" or environmentalist to preserve the woods in which we hunt. All we need to do in the least is simple things, such as passing on a premature animal, picking up that piece of litter, and things like that. It is disgusting on television shows when I see a million deer around one stand and watching someone shoot the biggest deer, gloating and laughing at it, or watching someone that is disgusted at seeing only "small" deer scoring B&C or P&Y.

Alice A. we will never convince.

>animals don't need to be killed for people to eat

Alice, perhaps you need to see the video where the wolf eats the deer alive without killing it. So if you are a meat-eater [you don't say] I want you to eat your next beef right off the hoof, taking chunks with a knife, alive! My point? it is silly to criticize hunting as a form of killing.

Are you concerned about influencing children? I think you need to realize that the headline is intentionally provocative. I scolded Petzal already for that. Are you really reading what he and others has to say? If you are really concerned about children who become hunters, take any sampling you like from those that learn to and those that don't, and I'll lay odds that the better, finer, more-properly-socialized less-screwed-up kids are the hunters by leaps and bounds. Raise your child to be a hunter!

Awesome article. I literally watched an anti eat a burger right in front of me, as he was saying that he never caused the death of an animal. And yes children are born killers, we being omnivores eat MEAT and vegetables, the fact that children are human makes them that. Animals must die for us to live. My sister never used to eat meat. She was always sick. Unfortunately, she was hospitalized and was diagnosed with not having enough of the protein, iron and all the other vitamins meat gives us. She also had multiple miscarriages. She started eating meat instead of the "supplement pills" and guess what she became healthy and has 2 lovely kids.

I will always be thankful that my dad got me into hunting at a very early age. I will do the same with my kids, assuming I have some.

We do not survive with our physical skills, we survive with our brain. Some people choose not to eat meat and "not kill anything" that is fine, for them. But please do not expect the rest of us to blindly follow.

On another note, All the anti's that I know, they are the most stressed, angry, bunch of prople that I have ever met. They are always so defensive and extremely easy to offend. Almost always very naive. For the most part, I do not see these traits among hunters and people with a sense of reality.

It is the cycle of life.

A day in the field with a caring parent can teach a child more about life than ten soccer seasons combined. Make it a point to share your love of the outdoors with your children. They will be better adults for the experience (and so will you).

great article, my brother is the prime example for number five. he has hunted for ten years, only taking three deer. if he doesnt feel the shot he wont take it. he enjoys the hunt for what it is. i wish more people would be like this. i would also like to see a great number of the "professional" hunters read this article. it seems like they love to see the "body flop."

The intellectual dishonesty of non-hunters has always driven me nuts and Dave pegs it here. Independent of your philosophy or religion or belief in how we all got here we do need to accept that death happens, it happens quite regularly, and we have responsibility in it. The question is not if it will happen or even when it will happen but WHAT part WE play in it and HOW we go about dealing it out.

Alice, animals are dying because of you, especially if you are a vegan. It takes a lot of habitat and fuel to get all that specialized food to you. So kill yourself. I refer you to my original post.

Us hunters like to not lie to ourselves, and get our food in the greenest, most local, most free range, most humane way possible - killing it cleanly ourselves in the wild. Sorry about your sheltered life.

IM NOT A SMART MAN BY ANY MESAURE.BUT I DO BELIVE CAVEMEN&WOMAN WERE EATING MEAT WAY BEFORE THEY WERE WEARING BURKINSTOCKS IN THERE GARDENS.

Tyson child accidental hanging and Iowa infant playground near strangulation very similar
Steve LombardiAttorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 335Posted by Steve LombardiJune 18, 2009 1:10 PM
Tags: property owner liability, day care centers, infants and children0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribeA playground injury at the Apple Tree Daycare center in Dickinson County, Iowa was caused by a 5-year-old girl near strangulation caused by a jump rope around her neck hooking on the upper portion of the slide at her preschool as she slid down the slide. She was airlifted to the hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and later released.

Original story by KCCI news.

Point of this is, that this is a dangerous world and unfortunately children and adults can be killed or seriously injured doing routine things. If you look at the statistics, they will show that hunting is quite safe. Yes there are tragedies, which can and should be avoided, but you can say that about any activity.

Reading this article while holding my 16-month-old son in my lap says something to me. I myself have only been hunting 2 seasons and this last deer season passed on several shots only because i didnt feel confident i would kill the animals where they stood. I may have been chastised by my father in law and hunting mentor but it means more to me to let an opportunity go by than risk wounding an animal and letting it suffer. Something i hope to instill in my own boys as i introduce them to hunting in the coming years.

Excellent article! I especially like #5 about not having to kill to enjoy hunting. I have two sons- 12 and 19, and the 12 dosen't enjoy hunting if he isn't shooting, I will definetely have him read this article.

Well spoken and a necessary read for all hunters. At 24 years old I can see that this article is right on because I still vividly remember my introduction to hunting. I'll never forget how much of a realization I had when my dad harvested a great buck, his best back then, when I had been hunting 3 or 5 years. We had a little bit of work to find the deer and Dad was getting worried. I found it for him about 140 yards from where it had stood, and Dad said a prayer immediately and he was so relieved. I think I grew up and learned more in those 30 minutes in the woods than I could have learned in 10 years elsewhere. It was just one of those moments. Thanks for such a great article.

Excellent points, Dave. This is exactly why I despise most hunting shows where the "host" has to whoop and shout and dance with glee over letting the life out of an animal that very badly wanted to live. Killing is a part of hunting, and death is a part of the life cycle. It should be respected.

I think I agree with everything that is said in this article. Good work. I think it is especially important for kids that are or aren't, either way, going to be hunters understand the entire cycle of life - beginning to end. It may be a difficult teach, but it needs to be done.

Bella, I usually disagree with your posts, but you were right on with this one.
Most of you get it. The obvious, shall we say "politically correct" (yuck) maybe never will.
Dave, you brought a tear to my eyes with this one. I thought back to when my dad took me on my first hunt. He was an honorable and respectful man and I now realize more of what he was teaching me.
I always enjoy the hunt, even when not seeing any game I am hunting.

We weren't meant to eat meat? Then why do we have the dentition of an omnivore? Do you even know what that means? Who told you we weren't meant to eat meat?

If we aren't supposed to be eating meat, then why did all of our ancestors do it? Why do our closest relatives, chimpanzees, do it?

Either you never think for yourself, or you are blind. If you just used your brain and were honest with yourself, you would see the folly of your ways.

What does an accident have anything to to with compassion, kindness or mercy?

This kid is dead in a "hunting accident". And that proves what? Someone died yesterday in a car accident. Ban driving?

Yea! Great Writing! We need more of this: hunting is so much more than the kill, it should be about the skill. Hunting is not about collecting the best trophy either. We're not just talking to kids here.
I wrote on this also: "Why Teach Hunting" buck@score-your-hunting.com

These are simply some of the best words on hunting ever written. Nicely done Mr. Petzel.

I wish more of the hunting shows and magazines had more focus on the enjoyment of the outdoors, putting food on your table with your own two hands, and the thrill of the HUNT itself over the "body flop" as you put it so well.

nice article. i agree with just about everything in the article

great post my dad taught me these truths when i was younger and i plan on teaching them to my kids. my brother and i botth hunted with my dad and uncles when we were younger and now I hunt and he doesnt. he isnt against it or anti but it wasnt his thing and no one treated either of us any differently because of our differences and i am grateful for that

Good article. It is very true that there is a lot more to hunting than simply killing an animal.

Real good article. Should be part of hunter training.
took me a couple decades to realize I didn't have to fill every tag I had or kill every buck I got the crosshairs on. I have a great collection of heads and racks and unless its the next world record dont care if I never shoot another large buck. To let a good buck live is a great feeling but fooling him again is fun too and I am more relaxed knowing I dont have to kill something to have had a great hunting trip.

some good thinking, fisherman

just a guess [informed by knowing some]... you are home-schooled?

number 4 holds a special meaning to me 'cus it is the reason I can live with killing. So it hurt me when I missed a wounded squirrel at 6 paces last season, and Im not good at "dispatching" it with a knife. This is the drive for me to not only be good at skeet, but to be able to aim my 870 like a rifle 'n hit something.

AliceA, I think you are on the wrong website, 'cus your a$$ is about to get chewed!

great job, now if we can just get you to write an article explaining the birds and the bees, all our life's problems will be answered

As a father of two little boys, 3 and 4, I am just starting to teach them the ways of the world and the woods, thanks for the tips...

+1 huntcamp. well put.

Provocative title! but good article.

I usually feel remorse killing small game, but don't feel a thing for a deer. Something wrong with me?

Get real, you are teaching your kids who are not born to be killers for humans are not made to do such to kill an animals and watch it suffer and die. "Respect"? Why don't you instead teach your children the animals too want to live and if we have the choice to kill or not to kill we should choose not to kill. Teach your children to eat food that God gave us (plants) that do not require to kill and will be filled with nutrients. Food such as pasta, rice, bread, potatoes, all kinds of grains, nuts and seed loaded with protein, calcium and iron the way God wanted man to eat, not to kill for unnecessary reason but "sports". There are so many great food that children can eat and no life has to be destroyed. You can teach your children about life and death and that animals do suffer, but in a way to say that is why we do not harm them.

Teach your children well, respect life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdx2yVWUN8c&feature=channel_page