You want fair chase?

The most popular blog I've written for this site discusses hunting and the fact that every person on the planet who eats meat is responsible for the death of an animal. Even if you don't eat meat, you'd not be here unless animals died,

Reality. Yes huh. Cows will eat meat.

 With that in mind, the Georgia Legislature is again considering a bill, in committee, to making deer baiting legal in the Peach State.

Those of us who live in S. Georgia are fully aware there are 2 Georgias - N. Georgia and South Georgia. This is a political, economic and cultural divide just as real as the Fall Line which the divide pretty much follows.

Yep.

This is another issue in which we are divided. Northern hunters oppose baiting. Southern hunters want baiting. The Camo Coalition is enlisting the aid of members to lobby the Legislature to oppose the bill. As I am a member of the Coalition and got their email requesting we contact Legislators about our feelings, I did so.

I edited their letter to reflect my opinion, making sure I signed it in such a manner the Legislator knows I am a newspaper editor. Newspaper editor opinions carry weight at the Gold Dome.

Since you wonder, I favor allowing baiting. I have personally killed many deer over bait piles and near bait piles. In case you are wondering, other states do allow hunting over bait.

My daughter's first deer, a button buck.

Some people object to this. They say this is not "Fair Chase." To them I say, is there any any fair chase involved in producing that steak you ate last week? The fried chicken last night? The sausage in your breakfast this morning?

Fair chase? It doesn't exist in the world of hunting today, except in very isolated cases.

The real spirit. You make your weapon and go after the target with nothing but you and the weapon.

The naysayers say using bait is not true to the spirit of "hunting."

Really? These hunters walk into the woods camo'd to their eyeballs, carrying firearms capable of hitting a deer-sized target at 1,000 yards, with cover scents, attractant scents and park over places where deer are well known to inhabit and wait. They also plant "food plots" which is often nothing more than lightly tilling some ground, scattering seed and hoping the seed sprouts. Hunting over corn fields is also entirely legal. It is legal to harvest the corn in the field and dump it right back on the field and hunt over it. Yes huh.

The reality of modern deer hunting, as seen from a different Point of View.

Lotsa spirit there.

What's the real difference in adding a pile of bagged corn to this setup?

Sounds to me we have already established who is and who ain't a prostitute. We're just negotiating a price now.


I hunt for meat. Yes, if a trophy walks out on me, I'm gonna do my best to kill it, but I'm still after meat. I haven't yet figured out how to eat antlers.

I hunt for meat. I am a carnivore. I feed my family with the animals I kill. I supply my family needs with the money I get from selling hides to the fur market.

In case you are wondering, here's the current list of states which allow baiting and which don't.

No Bait Allowed:
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming

Baiting Allowed In Entire State:
Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Washington

Baiting Only In Selected Areas:
Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin

The majority of the deer hunters I know hunt over bait. Is this illegal? Yes. But years ago it was illegal for Rosa Parks to keep her seat on the bus when a someone of a different skin color wanted her seat.

You may say that reference is irrelevant to hunting. Not to me. It's all a matter of rights - including my right to feed my family. Where I come from, feeding my kids is a hell of a lot more important than who sits where on a bus, but the root issue is the same - government attempting to tell us what we can and can't do.