A great read

A good read for the thoughtful hunters here (and those who just don't know it yet)

Hunting: An Interview with Ted Kerasote

"If you think you're such a man, why don't you just take a spear and go hunting with that-why do you have to use a rifle?" This was just one of the many angry questions hurled from the back of the room at Ted Kerasote in Boulder last Fall. I had wandered into Kerasote's reading an unsuspecting vegetarian. Little did I know I was going to encounter the hunter with a conscience versus the animal rightists of the Front Range. Nor did I expect the slicing open of an elk's belly to be written in lyrical prose.

Kerasote read from his recent book Bloodties-Nature, Culture and the Hunt , an exploration of the ongoing hunting controversy, as well as the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels in support of agri-business. Whether observing seal hunts in Greenland, shadowing trophy hunting expeditions in Siberia, or filling his own freezer in northwestern Wyoming Kerasote has throroughly probed the choices surrounding animals and food.

After listening to Kerasote, it was hard to imagine this soft-spoken man hefting a rifle to his shoulder, sighting an elk and pulling the trigger. But that's exactly what he does. I called Kerasote at his office near Grand Teton Park to continue the to hunt or not to hunt dialog.