He that is without sin among you, let him cast a first stone...
-John 8:7
You can tell the weather's been bad around here the past week or so. Oregon Birders OnLine has now gone through the "what to report thread", the "birding access" thread and now the "why hunters are/are not evil" thread.
I am not a hunter; never have been. Neither was my dad. The one time he went out with some friends hunting, he came home with a Barn Owl. We took a stab at fishing, but neither my dad nor I had the temperament for it. My younger brother, however, is a hunter and a fisherman. I know many hunters and while I have misgivings about killing stuff just for recreation, I absolutely get hunting for food and see value in some forms of hunting as a means of population control (though I believe other large carnivores do a better job from a natural selection perspective). I would even say that on average, most hunters are conscientious, law abiding citizens.
I've seen my share of hunter transgressions and I've heard about even more. I've also heard the rationalizations from "good" hunters about "slob" hunters and ethics, but I've never met a "slob" hunter who identified himself as such. All hunters, even the poachers and egregious lawbreakers call themselves "good" hunters. When there's a conflict, it's the rules that are unreasonable, not the hunter's behaviors.
But I don't really want to dwell on hunters, because I can take the above paragraph and exchange "hunter" with "birder" and still be able to stand by the sentiment.
The American Birding Association has a code of ethics which is worth reviewing. Am I as good a birder as I could be?
In my younger days, I played fast and loose with the rules surrounding birder ethics. I hopped more than one posted fence. I have 8 stitches in my right leg from the time I failed to out run a large German Shepherd while I was trespassing on private property. I probably pushed the limits on stressing one or two birds while trying to get a photograph. And I was probably not always as nice as I could have been to those I perceived as my lessers. I can't say that I ever trampled anyones flower bed. I've never deliberately run off a bird so others couldn't tick it. I've never lied about what I saw or made anything up. And I can say with confidence that all the birds on my life-list pass a 95% certainty rule.
We live in a time when personal accountablility seems in short supply and finding fault in other has become a national pasttime. I am not perfect. Perfection is unattainable. But I do try to set a better example than I might have back in the day when I actually stood a chance in out running a German Shepherd.
Ethical behavior begins with the man in the mirror.
Posted by mbalame at May 21, 2005 2:12 AM