Category: Hillbilly Cooking

I once worked with a woman who was hard core anti-hunting. Anytime the subject of hunting came up she got very passionate and upset. There was a hunter who worked with us. Sometimes he would talk about hunting trips and what he had killed and so on. This woman would get angry and yell at the guy about how horrible he was to kill an animal. Those of us who commented anything were likely to get yelled at as well. It got to the point that we were all about to get into trouble with the boss if we didn’t avoid the subject.

This same woman was a frequent visitor to the McDonald’s drive-thru and talked of big dinners at Applebee’s and various steak houses. She was happy and willing to go out on a date and eat a steak and tater. She wore leather shoes and carried a leather purse because those were the best and she liked quality.

The important thing in her world was that her date (and her friends, coworkers, etc) did not engage in killing animals. She could never abide anyone who “mistreats an animal” in that way. “Hunters are cruel and mean.” In fact, if it were up to her they would all be imprisoned or banished from the country. I tried to show her the hypocrisy she was swimming in. She would not listen.

She was a proud person who knew she was right. She would never in her life condone an animal being harmed… unless she did not see it happening and the carcass magically appeared at the grocery store or it was served to her ready to eat. Perhaps she would be happy if the prisons were turned into meat packing plants so that she would never have to see an animal suffer and all those who do would be in jail.

How can an adult human being eat – hamburgers, steaks, fried chicken, and bacon – but be so hostile toward killing an animal?

Now, right there is one of those things that literally makes me wonder what in tarnation is going on in some of these folks heads!

I have been a hunter since I was a youngin. Men hunted where I “came from.” We also shot guns for fun.

I remember being about 8 when me and dad were up in a “holler” with some other people shooting. They were some of my dads friends and my papaw with some of his friends.

Sometimes the old men would trade guns. Often we were trying out different ones. They let me shoot a lot of different types of guns. We shot targets that we set up for the purpose. A bunch of shooters would meet at that some place often. There were other places too, where shooting ranges were set up. More often than not, when you saw a pickup truck, there would be a rifle or two in a rack over the window. I suspect that when you didn’t see one it was likely to be in the “glove box” or underneath the seat.

My dad told me something like this, “When you need food you have to kill an animal. You don’t need to hurt the animal or make it suffer. Kill it as quickly and cleanly as you can. Kill an animal because it needs to be done not because you get pleasure in the death. When you just want to have fun kill targets, not living things.” I would never have been allowed to shoot songbirds, groundhogs, etc just for the fun of it.

I cannot imagine harming another creature for the sheer pleasure and fun. I would be hesitant to kill animal that I was going to eat or feed to my family, but I would do it in as humane a way as I can. My own feelings on the issue are like those of my father and of the “Indians” I read about as a kid.

Yes – we need to kill animals for food.
No – hunting should not be a sport, ie done only for pleasure.

If you tell me that you are a Vegan, or a Vegetarian, please don’t let me see you wearing leather, fur etc. If it is wrong to kill for food how can you rationalize wearing leather shoes and crap like that?

Clem Bob Barely