Thursday, December 20, 2007

Good eatin'

Earlier this week, I made venison stew and brought it in to share with my colleagues at The Catholic Spirit. To my delight, people loved it and a large crock pot full of stew disappeared in short order.

I really enjoy cooking and eating what I harvest and, whenever possible, sharing it with others. I'm thankful that my wife and kids like fish and game, for the most part. So do my coworkers. Fortunately, I have lots of fish and game still in the freezer, so there will be many more delicious meals to come.

As I reflected on the joys of cooking and eating game, I recalled a disturbing article I read recently in a local outdoors publication called Outdoor News. One of the paper's columnists discovered that some people in a small town where he hunts have engaged in the practice of shooting deer that they see from their vehicles and leaving them lay in the fields.

When he questioned some folks about it, they merely said they enjoy shooting animals that they see. To me, this is not sport. My simple slogan is, if you're not going to eat it or give it to someone who will, don't shoot it. The exception would be if it's a nuisance animal like a coyote.

I believe this is one of the principals of stewardship that people of faith should follow. God gave us an abundance of fish and game. Let's thank him and glorify him for this by putting the creatures we harvest to good use.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's sad to hear about them shooting the deer like that.

Definitely a sign of the "culture of death" we live in.