At its last meeting Jan. 14, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission had its annual discussion about addressing unsafe behavior at Bayou Meto WMA.
Commissioners were upset about all the goings on down there, and they vowed to do something about it.
The commissioners seemed to agree that locking the gates to the boat ramps until some as yet undetermined hour might help. Now duck season is over, nobody got killed, and the subject hibernates until November.
I don't know if anything was different than usual at Bayou Meto this year, but I certainly got a lot more emails from readers complaining about bad behavior in the Scatters. One fellow asked me to write a column about ethics as a primer for young hunters who he believes are increasingly discourteous and disrespectful of other hunters. He said they are disdainful of the gentleman's traditions that keep the peace in crowded public areas.
The problem with columns like that is that a sinner never sees himself in the mirror.
Another problem is the cowboys at Bayou Meto believe the boat races are the coolest thing in the world. The races are ingrained in the culture there, and the participants consider it a major part of the fun. The actual hunting is almost incidental.
Besides, the NASCAR start is over quickly. You can launch after all the traffic clears and find good places to hunt without too much trouble.
I'm not an authority on ethics, and I'm not qualified to preach. I only try to do right. I don't crowd other hunters. I don't call ducks other hunters are working, and I don't shoot at ducks other hunters are working. If somebody takes me to a spot on public land, I don't return to that spot without that hunter.
When deer hunting, I don't use somebody else's stand without asking permission, and I don't return alone to a prime spot on public land that somebody else has shown me.
That last one makes me laugh as I recall an email I received several years ago after writing about a successful hunt in Bayou Meto. A guy asked me to send him GPS coordinates of the hole where my partner and I killed our ducks. I did the next-best thing. I sent him the coordinates to my parking spot.
Jess Essex, a philosopher, undertaker and gentleman hunter, protested a different level of misdeed that falls under the "slob" behavior category.
"The last week of the season we hunted the 'grounds,'" Essex wrote. "Upon exiting, headed toward DeWitt, we passed by that place where the road and Little Bayou touch. Some slob, some monumentally unworthy S.O.B, had taken a limit of ducks he had breasted out and cast them into the bayou!! Oh for shame!!!"
Throwing duck, deer and even hog carcasses in waterways and along roadsides illustrates a distinct erosion in hunter ethics I have noted over the years. Some hunters do not revere the game they hunt. You see the disregard reflected in cute little slogans that adorn T-shirts, bumper stickers and window decals.
"If it flies, it dies."
"If it's brown, it's down."
Squirrels are "tree rats," geese are "sky carp," and any duck besides a mallard is a "trash duck." Mature bucks are reduced to the numbers of their Boone and Crockett measurements, and gobblers are reduced to beard and spur lengths. Memorable hunts for less endowed animals are often shrugged off as B-grade accomplishments.
It all projects disrespect and lack of appreciation to animals that give their lives for our pleasure and sport. Maybe it's because in this age of supermarket plenty that few of us depend on wild game for food anymore. The outdoors is becoming more of a playground and less of a place from where we draw sustenance. When we become callous and cold about killing, it erodes our civility and, ultimately, our humanity.
For years, it has been normal for outdoor writers to express remorse in their articles for taking game.
Remorse is what one feels when he regrets doing something. I don't feel remorseful when I kill game. I feel profoundly grateful. If I ever lose that, I'm done.
The game and fish that we pursue are gifts, blessings. If we as a group ever lose sight of that, I'm afraid we'll all be done.
Sports on 02/08/2015