I'm not a hunter

That said, I do support the so-called "right" of people to hunt. I prefer if someone goes out of their way to kill an animal there be a use for the decedent. Even if you shoot, say, deer for sport perhaps the meat could be harvested for, say, a local food bank? I know that's not easy, even food banks and soup kitchens, ones operated under by license, have strict rules and laws regarding the source of the product they are giving away in most cases.

Hunting just isn't for me. Granted I do enjoy a good hunting story, particularly that of Colonel John Henry Patterson, the man who killed two maneless male lions in Tsavo, Kenya because the lions were making mincemeat out of his railroad bridge building crew. Patterson later wrote a book called, aptly, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and a "based somewhat on a true story" movie was produced in the 90's called The Ghost and the Darkness. Enough about the history. Besides tracking and killing the two male tigers who were eating his crew Patterson's account of his time in Kenya also included many stories about hunting in general. In fact he killed, and this is from memory so don't quote me, a species of antelope unknown to science that was named for him as the discoverer. The most entertaining story of hunting was a failed hunt and I believe it involved either a water buffalo or rhino, whatever it was it was something big. Patterson shot the beast with a fairly low powered rifle and the bullet failed to penetrate the skin of the beast. What it did succeed in doing was piss the giant off in a big way and it charged Patterson who took defense by lying down in the tall grass. After the beast had passed Patterson, in his own words, decided to shoot again "against his better judgement". This turned the pissed-off-o-meter of the animal to eleven, so to speak, but Patterson survived the encounter.

What's the point of all this? Well a lady from Massachusetts on a gator hunt in South Carolina shot and stunned a 1,025 pound american alligator this week which she then killed with a knife between the skull and spinal column. But why? Is she going to eat a 1,025 pound gator? I don't think so.

I'll say this: I'm deathly afraid of alligators. Crocodiles too. I don't like them and we have alligators in North Carolina. In fact I've seen a few, very far out East in the state, mostly along Highway 64 close to Manns Harbor just past the accurately named Alligator River. An alligator is one animal I'd kill without second thought if I believed my pets or myself to be in danger but I don't think I'd want to go kill a 100+ year old alligator "just for the hell of it".

Still, somehow, I support the ability for someone to choose to do so. It's just not for me nor for is freezing my ass off turkey or deer hunting in the fall or winter months. If you want to, more power to you, I guess.