Today is the opening day of pheasant hunting season. This season is important to the livelihood of the town of Redfield. Hunters spend thousands of dollars to come here and hunt. Restaurants, bars, hotels, air lines, grocery and convenience stores, car rental places and hunting lodges depend on this next 3 months to earn them a large part of their annual income. Does anyone else think it is ironic or even wrong to depend so much on the hunting and killing of such a small bird? A bad winter could wipe out a hunting season and cause a huge money crunch. A series of bad winters or even bad springs could wipe out a large chunk of Redfield's economy. That is a scary thought.
I like living and working here; both my family and my husband's family live here or in surrounding area and the thought of not being able to raise my kids here and work in the school system here is scary. It just seems odd that I indirectly am affected by a sport which I do not enjoy or even like.
This year Keith's hunters from down south are returning and with the money he earns as their guide, we will be able to purchase a new computer. Somehow this feels wrong to me. Some 70+ pheasants will give up their lives to that I can access the Internet and WWW more quickly and so that my children can do school work in the Window 2007 programs that the school now uses.
It confuses me how people can plan for, make money from and enjoy so much the shooting of a wild animal.
2 comments:
I agree! I understand that hunting is fun but yet I understand the other side of it too. Living in spink county, it sucks having to rely on such a source of income on a yearly basis. But then again, we are the "pheasant capitol of the world". Whether that is true or not anymore is a different story - it's not wrong to buy a new computer with the money you obtained from the hunters.
So Mrs. Hansen, doesn't it frustrate you when people only respond to your short blogs? Haha, I find it somewhat humorous. :) Because I know when I write a lot, I put quite a bit of thought into it or I just want to get my point acrss, so I figure the big ones should be the ones that are actually read.
Post a Comment