What Would You Do?
Posted by Bryan on February 22, 2008
It’s Friday…and here at deerPhD.com we like to celebrate the weekend with a weekly feature: What Would You Do? I want to remind everyone that if you have any ideas for a WWYD scenario, drop me an e-mail at deerPhD@gmail.com. This week’s scenario is broken down into two parts - feel free to respond to both:
You are invited to go on an all expenses paid hunting trip with a friend. You’ve never hunted with this friend before, but you’ve seen the trophies on this hunter’s wall (enough to make your salivate!). In planning for the excursion, you’ve already requested time off work and made arrangements with your family.
PART 1: Let’s say it’s a week before the hunt, and your friend let’s you know that the hunt is on a high fence preserve. “In fact”, he says, “all those trophies were taken in those walls…it’s a great way to hunt!” Your friend tells you that he wants to get his money’s worth for going on a trip. WHAT DO YOU DO?
A. Those a nice trophies and a free hunt - who could pass that up? Fences or no fences - it’s all the same.
B. Express concern to your friend, but still go out on the hunt.
C. Refuse to attend because you’re 100% fair chase.
PART 2: Now pretend that your friend never said anything about fences, and you ‘discover’ them as you approach the hunting lodge. When you ask your friend what’s going on, he replies, “Oh yeah…that’s just how we do things here. It will be a blast!”
D. Those a nice trophies and a free hunt - who could pass that up? Fences or no fences - it’s all the same.
E. Express concern to your friend, but still go out on the hunt.
F. Tell your friend that you’re in for a fun weekend and that you’ll go out with him on the hunts, but no actuall hunting for you.
G. Turn around and head back to the airport - you want nothing to do with this style of hunting.
I’m looking forward to your responses, and have a great weekend!
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Hmm…there is some parts of this that are left out. I think there are plenty of “high fenced” areas that still provide for complete fair chase hunting. There is a difference if it’s a 20 acre high fence area or a 2000 acre area.
So that being said as long as the “high fence” operation has plenty of acreage, I’m going with B and E.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:25 am
So you didn’t tell us… Did you match? Isn’t today notification day? Please let us know!
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:54 am
Arthur, you raise a good and very important point. I know you already shared your response, but let’s assume that it’s high-fence with few acres (i.e., clearly not fair-chase).
Anonymous - I must admit that you’ve got me wondering who you are to have remembered that today is Internship Match day. I am very pleased to report that I was matched…Monday I will learn where. Thanks for asking!
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
with those added stipulations, i’m going with c and g…if it is not really hunting i want nothing to do with it!
however, I do agree with Arthur…there can be high fence situations that are still fair chase.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Options C and F.
Fair chase is an inherently subjective concept. We each make our own rules for ourselves but it’s a bad idea to get on our high horse about what other people do, so long as bag limits are observed and safe methods of hunting are used. One might as well tag along and help one’s friend to scout and track and so forth even if one is not interested in pulling the trigger under those circumstances.
February 25th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
[…] What Would You Do? […]
February 29th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Amen, Arthur and Jackson!
In the first case, if I knew it was a relatively small enclosure, then I’d opt out. An acre or two is not my cup of tea. But I’d encourage my buddy to go without me, or see if someone else wants to go. I wouldn’t knock it.
In the second scenario, I’m honestly not sure. Depends on what day of the week it is, the phase of the moon, and the set of my mind at the moment. Odds are, I’d offer to video my buddy’s hunt, and pass on doing any shooting myself.
But who knows? Maybe I’ve got an urge to shoot something, or I want some meat… then all bets are off.
March 5th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
[…] long time, and each one of us as hunters have to decide if we want to participate. Bryan, over at DeerPhD had an interesting post in his “What Would You Do?” series that addressed this very issue, and he had quite a bit of response to it. While I was composing […]
March 8th, 2008 at 10:26 am