chiefks

I was just on the Outdoor Life web site. On the home page there is a article abouta possible new world record inland grizzly bear. I don't know the full story, of if the lucky hunter ate the bear or not. There is a lot of comments bashing hunters for not eating what they kill. Like bear meat for instance. I'm not sure if the people doing the bashing are anti's or not. If they are hunters, why are they acting like that???? Thats is stupid. I generally eat what I hunt and kill. But if I hunted Bears or maybe a mountain lion or bob cat, or coyote. You can bet your bottom dollar I wouldn't be eating it. I might try the bear, but I hear its not very good. I know all critters need to be hunted and populations kept in check. Keeping bear populations in check allows other species to do better. Just some thoughts.

game4lunch

Here in Wyoming our G&F sort of takes care of this topic for you. You see . . . bear and mountain lion are a seperate designation from deer, elk, moose, antelope, etc (BIG GAME). They are called TROPHY ANIMALS. I would not doubt that this distinction is at least in part due to the fact that they are not thought of as "table fare". Therefore there are different regs governing them. For instance, it is a G&F violation to wantonly leave or fail to retrieve BIG GAME meat. However, there is no such penalty for leaving bear or mountain lion meat. Yoiu also sare required to contact G&F personel within' 72 hours of harvesting a TROPHY ANIMAL.
Certainly there are those who have and will eat bear and mountain lion, but they are not thought of as food, but as a trophy.

Long and short, If I ever do harvest a bear &/or lion, I WILL try some at the table.

Alsatian

I think it is bad medicine for hunters to slam other hunters in public. This just gives the anti's grist for their mills. Personally I think a hunter ought to eat what he kills. I do not understand why one would hunt an animal having no intentions to eat the meat. But I also know that hunting bear and not consuming the meat is legal, and I know that I do not understand everything, that my ethics are not necessarily the last word in ethics. So I am tolerant of trophy hunters and have no intention of bashing them in a public forum or even a private forum for that matter. Who knows, in some time my thinking may change.

One thing that comes to my mind is that while we hunters look at our hunting as a way to commune with nature and to take excellent meat for the table, I think the view of state fish and game officials of hunters is quite different. I think hunters and hunting regulationsare viewed by state authorities as means of efficiently regulating game populations. It may be that hunters killing trophy animals figure into the management plans of the state fish and game officials. If it were not permitted, for example and speculatively speaking, to hunt and kill grizzly bears in Alaska, the population of grizzly bears may grow out of proportion. I don't know, I'm only suggesting this may be an element of this subject that should be considered.

wyomingtrapper

I believe in Alaska that you are required to recover the meat of black bear, but not brown/grizzly. I eat everything I hunt, but not everything I trap. Have had beaver and muskrat, and they are good table fare. Generally save them for bait for trapping, or to feed temporarily caged fox for urine collection. Would do the same with bobcat meat. Fox, coon, skunk, and coyotecarcasses go in the chicken yard and the birds peck the bones clean, process, and return the favor in the form of eggs....or they get left in the wilderness where something else eats them.

General waste is not a good thing, but what really goes to waste in the wild? Killing ground, squirrels, prarie dogs, gophers, etc... generally goes along way to keep disease in the populations in check, as does trapping for many predators and furbears. A carcass will get consumed. If not from us, than by other mammals, birds, insects, etc.... That brown bear carcass did not last long after the hunters left it.

Boonebreaker

Bear meat has the misconception of not tasting good...in fact I believe it is better than venison...One HUGE factor though is you must render it correctly...The most critical part is to render it immediatly! They have much fat which insulates the meat and the meat is so thick in areas it does not get a chance to cool properly...thus tainting the meat and giving it a bad rap! A local meat market will not except "all" game meat, and says he rarely does bear because it is spoiled by the time people bring it to him...Just thismonth my cousin shot a boone and crockett black bear andHE weighed 535 pounds. He has already had ahalf dozen meals and I was invited for one. It was excellant! As far as the cats...IDK never had the privelage!

Champlain Islander

I eat everything I kill so my hunting is limited to animals I eat. I don't feel strongly about others not eating the kill but just worry about myself. I have been at this game for too long to get a huge charge on killing a chuck for intance just to say I did it and hit it at long yardages. IMO that is a waste but don't care if others feel differently. I ice fish all winter and see pails of rotting fish near the access at times. Why catch and kill them if you aren't going toeat them, sell them or give them away. Seeing a dead chuck, coon or coyote left in the wild is the same for me. If I shot a coyote for instance I would feel compelled to use the animal for something like the fur or a mount. Killing it and leaving it in the field is not the way I would do it. I hunt deer, caribou, elk and small game and eat all of it.

Boonebreaker

As far as the main topic of the post....

I have not hunted an animal that I have not ate..Although I have neverhunted anything too weird!

game4lunch

I do hunt to eat. And I eat what I harvest. There were a lot of clients when I was guiding that had no intention of eating their trophy Elk, Deer, Antelope, etc. But the meat still got consumed. In fact there is a very handy organization here (and elsewhere I believe) that takes game meat and distributes it to wanting underprivelaged families. Great program.

There is a distinction between trophy game and "Trophy Animals" here in our regs. And I find it cooinsidental that the Trophy Animals are those that aren't usually considered table fare. Hell, every animal I've ever taken was a trophy! (lol)

timwlarsen

Everything except sparrows getting into the bluebird boxes. The idea of eating a land roaming omnivore doesn't do much for me, and it reallydoesn't bother me that some people don't.

txbritman

I've read in a number historical writings that the old mountain men considered the mountain lion the best eating out there. I wouldn't think it would be, but I've also read that african lions are great eating though most don't try them.

Anyway, in our house, all we eat is what we hunt or catch. I'm a lucky man to be married to a wife that will eat what I get. I know alot of guys whose wives won't eat anything they bring home.

Mickey Nierdieck
Outdoor Connection
www.oc-adventures.com