Killing for Fun

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 6, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 18.

No small boy should be allowed to go around with an air-gun, shooting at every small bird he gets sight of. If any sparrows have to be killed, it should not be left to the boys.

When the boy grows older, he should not be turned loose with a 22-rifle, with which he will shoot at everything that flies, walks, or creeps, and endanger his own life and that of other people.

A far better way is to buy the boy a camera instead of a gun, and teach him to use his eyes and keep a note-book.

To get a good picture of a moose, a deer, or an eagle, is generally much more difficult, takes more endurance, more patience and determination, than killing with a gun.

I have hunted with a camera for a week at a time, climbing tall, limbless trees, carrying a heavy pack over bad trails, crouching in a canoe all day long, wading beaver ponds, and getting up at all hours of the night, and have come home with possibly a dozen first-class pictures.

Had I hunted with a gun in the same district it would have been easy to kill a cartload of game.—The Animals’ Friend.