Remorse in kids?

[Tominator]

i'm in the same boat as you wtnhunt. i'm curious to hear the answers.

my daughter has seen doves fall, and has even retrieved them for me and she doesn't have a problem with it, but a 7oz. dove and a 200lb. deer are 2 different things. i don't know how any of my kids will react to seeing an animal that size die.

i guess i'll prep them that death is not pretty, and at times can be quite gruesome, but it is essential for our survival.

[lil hunter]

When I was younger, I didn't know if I was gonna be able to shoot a deer or not. In 2 years of hunting I never had the chance to know, so i still wondered. Then, on the 3rd year, I missed a real nice buck. Thats whe I found out I could shoot at one. So now I'm tryin really hard to get one, and will not pass up a deer this year unless it's too young.(or out of range etc) Eventually, they'll get use to it. I remember when I was younger, I was hurt more when I saw a dove that just wouldn't die off( we had to twist his neck) and he was just suffering until we could get up to it. than when my dad shot his deer last year we sat and watched it for a half hour hoping it would die off. then we finally went down and finished it off, though it was still up and going for about a minute afte we put a 20 gauge bullet in the lungs, and the blood was all gettin pushed out the whole in the bottom of the body.(where we finished it off.
)


If they start feeling sad when they see the deer dieing, be sure to make sure they aren't looking while you field dress, that would hurt them even more.

[Rhino]

I was pretty lucky about it. I started taking my son with me when he was 4 years old. We would sit together in a ground blind or shooting house until he got bored which was 30 to 45 minutes if we didn't see anything. Well the first deer I bagged with him was a doe. He was so excited about it and he never showed any sign of remorse. He couldn't stand it and had to help out with cleaning the deer. I have some old polaroids of him cutting on the ears with a dull knife. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] I guess he just had the hunter instinct and never has shown any sign of remorse except when he missed some deer at a younger age.

The hardest thing I had to deal with was when he wounded a doe that we never found. Try looking in an 8 year old's crying eyes and explain why you can't find it after a long tracking job and a blood trail that played out. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] That was the toughest issue I ever had to deal with my son and deer hunting. Then on the other end of the extreme when he was 11 years old, he killed the biggest buck that season in our hunting club and he won the big buck pot $. Yep & I was there with him too when he bagged that big 8 point but that's another long story. He's 16 now.

You just have to think about how you will deal with it as it happens. Your children may not show remorse for killing a deer but sooner or later you will have to deal with a miss or not recovering a wounded deer.

[Strut_Buster]

Well, not to sound like a whimp but i had remorse when i watched my first animal die, it was a coon which had taken up residence in a tower stand, I felt sad and i did feel quite a bit of remorse. I still do feel some remorse when I take an animals life. I always take time to respect the animal and sometimes, i admit that i say a prayer for it and thank god for it.

[Steven]

My nephew was raised around hunting. Between my bro-in-law and me, he's been seeing harvetsed deer since age 5. He understands it's part of life and death. It doesn't seem to have ever phased him.

His cousin is being raised by an antihunter and I overheard a conversation between them once...

Cousin age 13- " It's mean to kill those harmless animals"
Nephew age 11-" What are you? A wuss?"


He makes me very proud. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[strubedog]

Oh boy, I remember shooting a rabbit with the pellet gun in town. The thing ran a little and started flopping on the ground, I felt HORRIBLE, because I live in the city I couldn't go after it with the gun but rather had to run to the garage to get a shovel to scoop it up/kill it. Took me awhile to shoot at an animal again but it also made me want to become a better shot so the animal suffered less.

My thought is that 8 years old is young, but it isn't my child.

[sureshot]

My kids have been brought up with the reason I hunt,To fill the freezer, [never waste a ounce] to controal the population, and to stop disease[they have seen mange coyotes, and deer winter killed] and to help out farmers who are having a problem! Now if someone says something about me hunting they will tell them the reason I do it , and they understand hunting is not just the kill! I will be worried alot if they do not have a little remorse when they kill a animal, whether a deer or a duck!I know I still do!! I guess I will find out if all the years of training them will pay off in november when My 11 year old is legal to hunt with me! I ahve allready told her that what she kills she is going to eat, and if she does not like it she does not have to hunt again, becouse I know she has the love of nature allready, and that is the most important to me!!

[womanwhohunts]

I think she is ready.She's disapointed because you didn't take one so she knows whats happening.Being raised on a farm and outdoors,I've had to deal with all kinds of death.Sometimes you make a clean shot and sometimes you do all you can to save one and loose it ,too.I always try to finish what I've started as soon as possible,if I have to.I think you've got it made,if you has to explain something.........do so.It's better if you tell her what and why than to have her tell someone else and maybe get a wrong answer.Best of luck and let us know when she gets her first! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]