A gentlemen and his son at church both lost there job on the same day, his wife got cut back to part time; all in the last 6 months. Over the last couple of years they've always said if we had extra, they'd love it and I've always knocked a few down for them. Nothing has been said this year, but I personally feel obligated to help them out this year. I can honestly say that if Jeff or anybody around has/had more luck than me in harvesting animals that I would pick up this meat and take it too them, so in this instance "killing" would not be the motive whatsoever. No difference than if the local butcher offered free meat.
I think you guys need to go out and weed a garden or something. I don't donate deer. We put seven in the freezer last season. If I have room in the freezers... I'm keeping them. On the other hand, K and I have killed well over a ton of fish this year. We only directly eat a small portion of the fish we shoot and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. I prefer to turn them into tomatoes, corn and pumpkins and then eat those. :D
A buddy of mine kills 15+ each year....and eats about 1 if that. He LOVES the challenge of the hunt AND the kill. I would kill more...I used to kill 7-8 each year for MANY years, but now I don't have as much time....and don't have people asking me for them much anymore. We eat about 3 each year....I let my son kill one or two, and I fill in the gap. We usually get about 4 or so the past 3 years. I NEED to shoot about 50 does on my WV farm...dang things are everywhere. The problem is...its in a CWD county...so no one wants the meat anymore.
I'm not denouncing those that give. I just think in a lot of cases the giving is the justification for the kill. If that makes you feel good by all means follow your heart. But rest assured most of those folks who take the donation would rather have your "gift" in beef or with the gas bill or prescription help. The argument of the DNR bringing in snipers is far fetched. That happens but it happens in parks and areas with no hunting what-so-ever. We all have different upbringings in the hunting world. Our roots are strong, and show in threads such as this. I guess I differ from Greg/Mo and Germ and others in that I kill becuase it is a neccesary part of a successful hunt, but it's not the most enjoyable aspect.
As long as SOMEONE is eating the dam things...who cares who kills them? That state I hunt in sells deer licenses for a reason...they want them killed...pretty simple.
Vension is better for you than beef If they do not have to buy meat, they can buy the other items you mention. I hope to be driving a nice fat doe to the soup kitchen in Saginaw opening weekend. I hope people enjoy the meat, because I know I enjoyed the hunt and the kill
So is donating what they need more important or donating "your" excess? Jeff and others...You won't find me being aggressive in this thread. I'm simply introducing "another" view to a previous "feel good" thread. Some will view it as noble others may not.. Just a topic for discussion.
Eh, it's not the MOST enjoyable part. Scouting, locating, patterning, successfully taking out of his world... that's a HUGE part of it. But killing is right up there, too.
It's been my understanding that people in need are not picky I did hear a guy at the soup kitchen ask for the inner loin:D
Jeff no doubt we are wired different! I guess I'll just leave it with, I donate to causes, in both deed, money and gifts of food. I don't feel the need to take more deer, turkey, rabbits...etc from the land than my family can use. Simply for the sake of giving them away. I hunt for different reasons. No disrespect to those who view it differently.
I hunt for meat first and foremost. I must say, I love watching the arrow fly and the blood squirt into the air though. That is just awesome.:D
In most cases of life I'd tend to agree, but there are areas of gray (as some are pointing out) A guy who goes out to kill a deer, kills it, then goes uh oh what do I do now? So out of laziness, he runs it down to the butcher and says "here, I don't feel like messing with this whole process, so I am going to "donate" it to a good cause. He goes home bragging of how today he took a doe for a good cause, it fed the needy. Can you not see right through that? Sure it fed someone, but the intention of the act CERTAINLY wasn't for that. Which is why I said I am torn on the subject. Sure I helped Robs friend out significantly on his grocery bill for the winter (not that he even truly needed it, but it helped him none the less). Commendable? Meh, I don't think so. I certainly didn't make the trip to AK to feed him. I "donated" the meat due to costs of bringing it home, I look at it as he did ME a favor by putting it to good use for me. I wouldn't let it go to waste regardless of cost, but he sure did me a favor of using it rather than making me pay $400-500 just to bring it all home. Thanks again Brian if you are reading this! Charity with the intent of giving is Noble. Charity because it is more convenient than the alternative or because it allows us more opportunities, not so much. I have donated more deer than I have kept myself in my lifetime (processed all but one myself though), but make NO mistake....I wasn't doing it as a crusade to feed the poor, hungry, willingly accepting neighbors, ______(you name it) I was doing it so I had the opportunity to go hunting. It has no negatives to it for either party, but that doesn't change the fact that charity was NOT the intention.
I'm just going to throw this out there, maybe its way off...not everyone hunts the same area and the same number of deer with the same regulations. I know, crazy right? I hope I didn't embarrass myself with that statement.
Why does the fact that the more opportunities is the ONLY reason most people donate venison bother you? maybe not a peace prize, but the guy who says he killed a doe "for a good cause" sure is vying for something. I don't care one bit. Heck, I do it myself! Just not embarrassed to admit that I donate BECAUSE it allows me to hunt more. I don't hunt more because it allows me to donate (as killing for a good cause eludes to).
Explain to me how that is lazy? I often kill a deer, field dress it, and take it to the processor to donate the meat. Or I get on my phone, make a few calls and drop it off to friends, neighbors, clients etc to process themselves. Between my 2 sons and my self, we will have 10 permits to fill. Am I supposed to hang it up for the year when my freezer is full?
I like to hunt/experience nature. I like to film. I like to conserve/preserve. I like to travel. I like to help others, I like to wack critters. Heck, there are many things to "like" about hunting. I have three freezers and a huge Irish Catholic clan surrounded by plenty of needy and not so needy neighbors. I can never keep those freezers full-seems the meat always finds a place to go after I process or prepare it. I kill it and it disappears-strange. I'm happy...so are others. It all happens for many reasons and none of us social recipients really gives two cents why. It's legal and we just keep swimming-at least in my circle.
Wow, I too like to wack critters and generally speaking I never even worry about what I will do with the meat. I gut em and cut em and put them in a cooler. I then take them home where I keep what I want and drive the rest to work and the pieces vanish right before my eyes. Some times I just gut them and drop them off at the butcher to be picked up later or not at all. If not at all then it gets donated to H4tH by the butcher. It's a fairly straight forward system and I've never really put as much thought into it as many here seem to. I was brought up hunting and we never just killed something to kill it and we always use or enable someone else to use the harvest but we were definitely there to kill. If I kill something in the morning I gut and cut as quickly as possible to get back on stand, I'll kill as many as I legally can sometimes and sometimes I won't. Does that make me gluttenous, less noble? Maybe, never really thought about it. The deer/does need to be thinned every season yet every season I see "buck" hunters or "old timers" that don't want to shoot does, or smaller/scrub bucks, or just can't hunt their way out of an outhouse. I pick up the slack and enjoy doing it. So who's more "noble"? Who's actually helping the herd/land? I firmly believe it has to do with where I hunt, VA/NC have healthy populations coupled with liberal bag limits. We have lots of farmland for the most part and in many of the farming / hunting circles I've seen people(myself included) do not place deer on a pedestal like they seem to in other areas(I never knew that until I started visiting hunting sites). It doesn't mean I don't enjoy hunting them or respect them as worthy opponents, I just have a different perspective on them.
Some of the responses on here remind me of the Puritan's view on sex. Basically they were okay with there members having sex with their spouse as long as they weren't enjoying it TOO much. If that was the case, then it was no longer acceptable and suddenly became a sin.
