Examining Personal Ethics

Hunting is a private, and often solitary, activity. There are no stadiums filled with fans. There are no teams with logos, and no cheerleaders. Hunting is conducted in private or in small groups and out of sight of others—yet hunting attracts the attention of many people with different attitudes about hunting and hunters.

Aldo Leopold, a leader in establishing professional wildlife management in the United States, wrote in his famous book A Sand County Almanac:

“A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than a mob of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this fact.”