“Canned hunting” is the term critics use when referring to the “sport” of paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of executing “wild” animals trapped in escape-proof enclosures on “game ranches.” The term is overtly derogatory, but hardly derogatory enough. “Pay-per-kill” or “execution by contract” are more apt, as there’s no hunting involved, canned or […]
David Petersen
Posted inApril 26, 1999: Visionaries or dreamers?
Nostalgic for the Pleistocene
“We are space-needing, wild-country Pleistocene beings, trapped in overdense numbers in devastated, simplified ecosystems.” – Paul Shepard (1925-1996) How’s this for a statement of opinion: In this century and a whole lot of others, no other thinker has been anywhere near so visionary, prophetic, revolutionary and important as Paul Shepard. Yet, if you know about […]
Posted inSeptember 28, 1998: A senator for the New West in the race of his life
Speaking of eating: There is no meat I would rather eat
Speaking of eating: There is no meat I would rather eat, and none I eat more of, than wild meat got with my own bloody hands as an ethical predatory omnivore. To the contrary, I go sick at the thought of swallowing “alternative livestock” flesh butchered from the bones of captive-raised wild animals. Magazines running […]
Posted inMarch 3, 1997: Hunters close ranks, and minds
Some hook and bullet magazines hit the mark
The key to understanding outdoor magazines – which I both read and write for – is that they exist to sell advertising. This is neither an indictment nor something unique: Virtually all periodicals except nonprofits depend on ad sales for their survival. The advantage of a large circulation comes not from income, but as bait […]
Posted inMarch 3, 1997: Hunters close ranks, and minds
Outdoor writer aims to change his culture
The Insightful Sportsman: Thoughts on Fish, Wildlife and What Ails the Earth, by Ted Williams. Camden, Maine: Down East Books, 1996. 299 pages, $14.95 trade paper. “The hard thing about writing real conservation pieces is not finding material, but finding editors who dare to publish it consistently,” says Ted (Edward French) Williams in his preface […]
Posted inMarch 3, 1997: Hunters close ranks, and minds
Tough love for hunters
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Before coming to Outdoor Life, Stephen Byers worked for Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal. Since his highly publicized resignation from Outdoor Life last summer, he’s been writing a novel and shopping “ever so selectively” for another top editorial slot. Byers talks about his days […]