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I stared unwavering, jaw dropped at the full color photos in the magazine. Page after page of animals in various stages of suffering at the hand of some self-proclaimed "Sportsman". Over whelmed to the point of tears, I forced my teenage eyes to look away. By my very nature I was an animal lover, as a youngster I made pets of everything from chickens and cows to my pet horse "Dusty" on my grandfather’s farm in Cleveland, WI. At the age of nine I was given a BB gun and assigned CEO of pest control. Feared by the mice and sparrows that consumed grain and reeked havoc in many areas, I would never have considered harming an animal just for sport as these magazines portrayed. It was my freshman year at Howards Grove high school that I found myself kneeling at the magazine rack being shaped by the photos in front of me. A transformation was occurring. I was becoming not only an anti-hunter but also a hunter-hater. Portrayed as uncaring, boastful, common day barbarians, hunters became the enemy. The way I saw it hunters were cruel to the animals so they must hate them. If hunters hated the animals, I hated the hunters. It was that simple. Before too long I began to get involved in debates concerning the subject vehemently defending the right of animals. Letters were written to Madison expressing my disapproval of this terrible practice of hunting. I was sold out, a victim of an anti-hunting media tidal wave that had overcome me within the safe confines of my high school library. Do we pay enough attention to the kinds of magazines that are available to our children at school? Are there any hunting magazines in your local high school? Is there concern of "offending" someone or affecting a student in a negative way? I am proof that hidden and sometimes blatant anti-hunting messages can have a negative result as well. If I had not met my boyfriend, an avid bowhunter, my life would have been robbed of some of the greatest memories I have ever experienced. He changed my anti hunting views without even knowing it. Let me tell you how it happened. On sunny afternoon in early archery season Peter invited me to join him as he and a group of his friends did a deer drive on some property adjacent to my grandfather’s farmland. I walked along planning to use this opportunity to convince him that his views were wrong. As I skirted the edge of the field with the sun warming my face I heard a rhythmic crashing sound coming the woods in my direction. Confused as to what was causing the commotion, I tried to peer through the heavy foliage. The noise got louder and louder until, out of instinct I took a step back just in time to narrowly miss being run over by a doe. She was so close that I could see her every eyelash and guard hair. Looking down at my boot track, her front feet had landed directly in my footprint. My eyes were opened! With my heart in my throat I was absolutely aghast with excitement. What a rush! This encounter left me breathless. It would forever be etched into my mind and cause me to ponder the question, " Was this why they hunted? Is it the thought of the next close encounter with something so wild?" I was reconsidering my viewpoint. Although I could never see myself actually shooting a live animal, I did have a strong interest in shooting a bow. My sixteenth birthday would produce a bow as a gift from my boyfriend. I enjoyed long hours of target practice with Peter and his hunting buddies. Arrow after arrow found its mark in the center of the bullseye. One day while we were shooting one of the guys came up to me and said, "Sure you can hit the target but women can’t hunt." I thought long and hard about that statement. Why can’t I? Just because I am a woman? The next day I started reading anything I could get my hands on about hunting. Twenty-seven years ago it was not easy for a woman to get into the "men’s world" of hunting. My boyfriend even drew the line at teaching the how’s and why’s about the sport. I was on my own. Looking back I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
There was so much more to this sport than the final arrow flight through the vitals. I would put in six long years before tagging my first buck in Brantwood, Wisconsin where my hunting boyfriend-now husband and I would live for three years. Further lessons were learned in the thick tamarack swamps of the Phillips area. Added to my education were black bear behavior and the secret undertakings of the woodtick, neither of which had ever been a problem in Cleveland. A job change would take us next to the rolling oak ridges of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. My anti-hunting days behind me, I started turning my useless criticism into useful encouragement. I voiced my opinions on women in hunting to anyone who would listen and seized every opportunity to help other women get into hunting.
Women in hunting began to get a lot of press both locally and nationally. I soon found myself not only teaching women on a one to one basis but giving archery and bowhunting tips to viewers across the region on a local outdoor show. Before I knew it I was involved in hunts that would be seen nationally on ESPN and the Outdoor Channel. Today you can find me traveling around the country representing the companies that I am on pro staff with; Mathews, Mossy Oak, Kolpin, Loman, M.A.D.Calls, Tru Ball Releases and Steel Force Broadheads. The last 5 years I have enjoyed being a part of the AdventureBound Outdoors television show that is seen on the Outdoors Channel three times a week. I am still teaching classes but have also incorporated organizing women and couples hunts across the nation. Speaking engagements, writing and filming hunts fill the rest of my schedule. In July of 2005, I will premier my new television show about women and children entitled Leading Ladies Outdoors. It is set to air on RFD TV six times a week nationwide helping to drive home the necessity of getting more families into the outdoors.
God’s creation first hand, up close and personal. Anti Hunters aren’t evil they just don’t have all the facts. I know because I was one. Experiencing a close encounter on that sunny afternoon so long ago changed my life and hunting has only enriched the lives of my husband, Peter as well as my two hunting daughters. As a family we also own and operate King Dimensions producing state of the art do it yourself turkey and antler mounting kits as well as other hunting accessories. Being able to conduct business in the hunting industry with its many wonderful people has been a true blessing. In the coming months I look forward to sharing with you some of my adventures, experiences afield and thoughts on the hunting world as seen through the eyes of this now 27 year bowhunting veteran. Hopefully, I will be able to encourage you to take someone along on the next outing you have planed so his or her eyes may be opened. Who knows? You may be cultivating your next hunting partner. |
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Anti Hunters are not born, they are cultivated.
My grandfather’s farmland became my classroom. Woods I use to see only from horseback I was now infiltrating, camo clad with bow in hand. A checkerboard of forty-acre parcels would harbor many learning experiences and yield a wealth of knowledge about the wily whitetails. Deer were much harder to predict with than I would ever had imagined. I soon became addicted to figuring out their daily patterns. It was like a large board game being played out across the sprawling countryside of southern Wisconsin.
Whitetail after whitetail succumbed to my arrows and before long I was asked to teach the first Bowhunting/archery class ever offered to women through the Becoming an Outdoors Woman program. Eager to share my knowledge base I jumped at the opportunity to go down in history as the world’s first instructor to teach an all women class about the finer points of bowhunting. The honor that it was, it was only the beginning. My hunting hobby was quickly becoming a career.
I have come full circle in my thoughts about hunting proving it is never to late to help people understand it’s true meaning. Sometimes it is only a matter of experiencing