Hunting was never intended to be fair. It occurred naturally as a means for early man to stay alive and make poop. Domestication of the human species has turned hunting into sport and with that came the notion it must be fair – fair chase.
What is fair chase? It depends on whom you ask and to some extent, where they are and what they’re hunting when you ask them. For example, in some states you can use dogs to hunt deer. In some states you can bait deer. In some locations you can only use archery equipment and in others a .50 BMG is legal.
Some may argue that if it is legal it is fair chase but this does not really hold water. Legal hunting methods are often influenced by management practices. Notions that something is fair chase in one place but not another seems a bit odd. Take high fenced hunting for example. In South Africa it is considered fair chase but this is often not the case in America.
No matter where you hunt there will always be a fence. High or low, imagined or real; boundaries exist. If you honor the boundary a high fence creates is it fair chase? What if you ignore a boundary not represented by a fence? Is that fair chase or poaching?
Consider baiting. Is that fair chase? If you plant food for deer to eat and shoot them while they’re doing it, most think that is OK. But, dump a bucket of apples on the ground and do the same thing and you’re not only an unethical hunter, you’re a lazy slob who does not follow the rules of fair chase. Maybe you just don’t own a tractor or have a piece of ground to farm.
A Facebook friend posted the above photo of a bear at a bait site on my timeline, asking the fair chase question. I have a couple of comments.
- If you were hungry would you bait a bear to feed your family through the winter while you hid under its hide to stay warm? If you answer “No.” you’re either lying or stupid. Would that baiting be fair?
- In some locations the only way to successfully control bear populations is through hunting and in some of those same locations hunters can only succeed in this “control” by baiting. This is partly because the area is almost impossible to hunt otherwise and partly because modern sport hunters are mostly lazy and only have a few days per year to engage in a “sport” their DNA compels them to.
- Maybe its survival of the fittest. Do you think this bear thinks its normal to find a dead beaver hanging from a tree? Maybe the bear is lazy – or stupid – too.
Bear are a great example of fair chase rules. Here in West Virginia we are overrun with bear in several counties. During the spring they keep the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) busy with nuisance calls, even in town. But, our bear hunting regulations stipulate no baiting. However, it is perfectly legal to chase them up a tree with dogs and shoot them out. Seriously, its acceptable to let a dog do the hunting for you but you can’t throw out a box of old donuts and shoot a bear who comes to smell them.
Most bear taken without dogs in West Virginia are either shot by the DNR or are shot illegally by deer hunters when they come to corn piles. (Baiting deer is legal in West Virginia.) The topography and the dense foliage here in West Virginia make bear hunting by the spot and stalk method very difficult. I’ve taken one bear in West Virginia by what the State considers “fair” without dogs and it took me almost 40 years to do it.
Humans are the ultimate predator, we are perfectly designed to hunt and kill. We try to civilize this activity by passing rules and regulations to control this genetic desire and to insure proper game management. But then we are also very successful at inventing ways to legally circumvent those rules.
Hunting will never be fair and fair chase is only a phrase we invent to make our lust for the kill seem less cave man like in nature. Most humans in this modern world are sport hunters. Some say this means we hunt only for pleasure but I don’t believe that at all. Hunting is an ingrained human activity that has been around as long as the other things humans naturally do like make babies, laugh, cry, and dream. Hunting is the best way to obtain organic food. It is the only way to stay true to our DNA. And, hunting is what we were made to do. We are very, very good at it.
Hunting is not a game. It’s not a sport and we should not insist otherwise or try to keep score. Hunting is what the ultimate predator should do, and hopefully forever does.
Fair chase? Humans – even the stupid ones – are way to smart for it to ever be fair.
