What Really Bothers Me

You know what really bothers me (among other things)?

What bothers me is when people talk about “harvesting“ animals.  We harvest crops. We harvest wheat and apples and corn. We kill animals. Animals are not harvested. Here in New Mexico, where I live, we talk about the chile harvest, and we harvest pecans. We don't talk about the elk harvest or the deer harvest. We don't hear news reports about the elk harvest or the deer harvest.

To me, using the word harvested rather than killed is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to soft-pedal the fact that animals are being killed. It implies that we own the objects of the 'harvest,' which in the case of wild animals, we certainly do not. Why do people use an agricultural term -- harvest -- when referring to the killing of animals? This objectionable term is in widespread use, not just by hunters, but also by wildlife managers and wildlife biologists. I have no idea where this term originated or how long it has been in use. But it is time to retire it to the dustbin of history. Do those who use this term really believe they can control wild animals as they control crops such as wheat and corn? Do they think the wildlife are sitting in a field like a field of wheat, just waiting to be 'harvested'? Humans control their crops. They provide water and fertilizer and pesticides. With wildlife? Not so much.

I have always found this attempt -- whether deliberate or not -- to avoid the reality of hunting and wildlife 'management' to be both fake and disingenuous. So hunters and wildlife 'managers' and biologists, it's time to own up to the fact that what you are doing is killing wildlife. Stop trying to sugarcoat it and pretend it's nothing more than sending a combine into a field to pick crops.