My wife and I drove into Anchorage recently. As we were stopped at an intersection waiting for traffic, I looked around. Buy this! Buy that! Oh look; over here you can get a tasty fast-food burger. It brought my mind to a jarring halt. Where does that ground round come from anyway?
Some cow. Some cow born and raised with no option other than to grow big and fat as quickly as grass and grain could be pushed into him. When old enough, he likely went to a feedlot where he was fed corn and antibiotics so he could gain more weight (becoming fat that we throw away) before slaughter.
Think about that. The caribou people of the Tangle Lakes area of Interior Alaska used to spend days building stone fences to guide migrating caribou toward the lakes some 3,600 to 7,900 years ago. They would drive them into the lake, then guide their skin boats alongside and cut their throats with a long stone caribou knife.
"Brutal." My wife said when I told her.
Not brutal. Basic. This is where your food came from. Hunting was, and still should be, about survival. Hunting certainly fulfills a primordial need in many of us. There is satisfaction in getting your own food. Pulling up to the drive-in fast food joint and being handed your burger in a sack isn't quite the same.
What about the caribou?
Chasing caribou down on a snowmobile isn't the same either. Blasting away with a semi-automatic rifle at a herd of caribou racing through the trees isn't right. Neither is the behavior of the bow hunter at the other end of the spectrum. Bow hunters and the black-powder hunters are not going back to their roots so much as they are playing with their food.
Mainstream hunters may not agree with me. Nor will anglers who practice catch and release. But I stand by what I say. Bow hunting and black-powder hunting simply are not the most effective way to take an animal. Caribou hunting can be great sport for the hunter. But what about the caribou? Caribou are for food. When we hunt, we are taking a life.
We hunt and kill animals to eat. There should be no other reason. That kill should be made as quickly and efficiently as possible. I am not advocating going back to the days where the caribou people had to drop red-hot rocks into a wooden bowl to cook their meat. Nor do I want to spend my summer building a rock fence. I want folks to think about where their food comes from. In general, I think that hunters get caught up in the "hunting" rather than the "why" of the hunt. I bet hunters 5,000 years ago did too.
Respect the animal
Respect the animal you want to eat. Hunting can mean a great day in the backcountry, moving through the Alaska winter wonderland on snowshoes or a snowmobile, excited about fresh caribou tracks. Doubtless, this is enjoyable. But remember what is fun for you, is life and death for the caribou.
I don't usually think that when I pull up to the drive-in window and ask for a bacon cheeseburger. This time I did and told the guy at the window, "Sorry, we changed our minds." Our little girl wasn't upset. She'd prefer mac n' cheese anyway.
Next time you eat out, or before cooking the caribou steak from the freezer, consider how the meat got there. As you are loading the truck prior to the hunt, spend a few moments contemplating the "how" of what you are doing.
Make sure it includes respect.
John Schandelmeier is a lifelong Alaskan who lives with his family near Paxson. He is a Bristol Bay commercial fisherman and two-time winner of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.