Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 11, 1993 TAG: 9312140008
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARTIN WILLIS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The harvesting of exotic game at Boar-Walla isn't a sport. A sport is a contest in which the outcome is initially in doubt. Boar-Walla guarantees 100 percent success to its hunters. Nor is any hunting particularly ``fair'' to the game. Hunting would be fair only if the wildlife stood an equal chance of killing the hunter. Boar-Walla is one of an increasing number of examples of animal husbandry.
In Europe, civilized a few thousand years before the Americas, public hunting disappeared long ago. European hunts are on private preserves where wildlife is nurtured by agriculture and the creation of favorable habitat. Predators and poachers are suppressed and the herds and/or flocks of wildlife are managed and harvested for economic gain to landowners. Virginia has numerous such preserves for whitetail deer, quail and pheasant. Boar-Walla apparently offends people because the animals are goats, sheep and pigs.
Anthropologists tell us that mankind began as a predator on the plains of Africa. His mastery of fire, shelter and clothing (initially the skins of other animals) allowed mankind to artificially expand his range to all the corners of the earth. We're now masters of our world, unrivaled predators at the very top of the food chain. No creature on earth has impacted so drastically on the life and environment of our planet. This impact can only increase as our populations expand.
To illustrate the extent of man's domination of his environment, the most populous bird in the world, found on every continent and in every country on earth, is the chicken. The thousands of varieties of chicken, including some of the most bizarre and exotic birds on earth, all exist for the purpose of being eaten by man. Even dairy cows, exploited daily by man for their entire lives, eventually find their way onto our dinner table in our stews and luncheon meats.
Hunting is an example of man's exploitation of the earth's natural resources. The history of man is the history of exploitation. The game laws and hunting ethics of today were unheard of in the days of our forefathers. Our ancestors ``jack-lighted'' wildlife at night and hunted year-round. Competing predators such as the wolf, puma and bobcat were eradicated. Waterfowl were commercially hunted to near extinction. Fishing grounds were decimated. In Tennessee, tourist literature touts the exploits of Davy Crockett, who killed 102 bears during one winter. Will Rogers characterized our American pioneer as a fellow with an ax, shovel and gun who took from the earth whatever he wanted without regard to the cost or consequences. In the Roanoke Valley, our ancestors destroyed an extremely valuable natural resource to wildlife by building a town on it, and then honored the destruction by naming the town ``Big Lick.''
Cody Lowe effectively identified the ethical dilemma faced by the anti-hunting faction in ``The Back Pew'' column of Nov. 21 entitled ``It's open season on the morality of hunting.'' It's only our current customs that tell us it's acceptable to eat beef, pork, mutton and deer, but not acceptable to eat horses and dogs. How would the prolific burger palaces of America be viewed in those parts of the world where the cow is sacred?
To avoid hypocrisy, anti-hunters must first reconcile their argued sanctity of Boar-Walla's exotic animals with mankind's commercial exploitation of cows, sheep, pigs, goats, fish and just about anything else on earth that mankind finds useful.
Martin R. Willis is corporate counsel for Rockydale Quarries Corp. of Roanoke.
by CNB