The Cheney Incident

Everywhere you look Cheney's shooting of "friend" Harry Whittington while on a quail "hunt" in Texas. I am not going to make more jokes, or even rehash the "chronology" of events. Others are doing that ad nauseum. While so many aspects of the shooting are highly questionable, there is a different issue that rubs me raw - Cheney as the "sportsman ... Cheney as the hunter and fisherman. Certainly conveys an image doesn't it? It is that image that galls me.

I am not anti-hunting. Many people not only eat what they kill, but actually hunt as a primary source of food. Many, -perhaps even most, hunters are not sadists, and not there for trophies. But there are those who are quite frankly just there to kill something. It is the killing that is the focus. Those of this ilk who have money do the canned or caged hunt. One of those is Dick Cheney.

Driving up to a field where quail who have been born and raised in cages and never run free - much less flown - in their lives are held in cages until your arrival, is not "hunting." Going for a deer hunt (or even exotic animal hunt) where the animals are in a small field surrounded by an electric fence while hunters shoot from the sideline is not "hunting." It is slaughter for the pleasure of slaughter. Hunting is this context is like fishing at a hatchery. Is that Cheney's fishing experience as well?

It says something significant that Cheney is promoted as a "sportsman" when what he actually does has nothing to do with sportsmanship. Sometimes when you go hunting or fishing you don't get anything. Sometimes you are in the wrong spot, and sometimes the animals are smarter than you are. That is because they can move, think, run, and leave the area. That is the "sport." It is not the killing. There is some element of "fairness" involved in real sport hunting. And yes I know that a high powered rifle or double barreled shot gun against wing and foot is not "fair." However, the animal has a chance. It has no chance with canned hunts.

There are good political reasons to paint Cheney (and Bush for that matter) with the image of the tough outdoorsman who stalks through the brush hunting. However, that is very far from what is happening. Likewise the shooting of Whittington - while likely accidental - is also clearly negligent. If the gun is in your hand, you are responsible for it - particularly if you are the "expert" hunter that Cheney is.

But neither Cheney or Whittington, nor anyone else who participated, were there to hunt. They were there for a conveniently arranged slaughter. In my book, that counts as slaughter and not sportsmanship. But then what can you expect from people who promote "shock and awe" on sitting duck populations as acceptable?