As someone who has never hunted and never understood it, I wanted to learn. Here’s what I discovered:

Lucia Ruhoff, ‘27, comes from a family where hunting is done by respecting the animal and making use of its life. “I’ve heard of stories of people who go hunt, shoot a deer and just leave it there, which I personally think is not the correct way to do it since you’re just wasting an animal,” explains Ruhoff. 

While some hunt just for the sake of killing, for Mac Pfeffer, ‘27, it’s the time for him to connect with his dad and siblings.“You’re not going to shoot it in the head. That’s not what you do. You should always aim to kill the deer or [animal] that will leave it in the least pain possible,” states Pfeffer. Similarly, Ruhoff emphasized how they don’t shoot fawns, and instead give them time to grow up and reproduce and grow the population. 

Pfeffer also explained,  “I think people misunderstand hunters [and think that they’re] like people that aren’t responsible with their guns.” With that comes the responsibility of representing the hunting community well, Pfeffer notes. “Your job as a hunter is not only to hunt, but also to do the practice well in the eyes of the public.”