The ugly under-belly of chukar hunting has once again exposed itself here, hoping, maybe, for some kind of swan song celebration of self-hatred. I don’t really want to give the person the pleasure of a reaction, which — not unlike the mentality of mass murderers, who failed in life to get the attention they crave and thus create the conditions for a guaranteed but pathological kind of attention from strangers — is what he (or, more likely in this case, she) wants. But since this, sadly, has become a part of even the most off-the-radar culture of chukar hunting, I’ll offer it up now with the promise of ignoring it from here on out.
In response to my review of the Garmin Alpha, someone who calls him or herself Drakian wrote:
Since you seem like one of those guys that suffers from separation anxiety with your dogs (you not seeming to want them more than 10′ away from you at all times), why even bother with pointing breeds that are genetically designed to “hunt” and sometimes get out of your sight? Get yourself, hmm, maybe a king charles spaniel and leave the real chukar hunting to the big boys, This way, you won’t have to shit your pants every time a dog goes over a hill…..and you won’t have to “run” every time one your dogs goes on “point”. Boy, that’s a sight – you runnin’ and shittin’ at the same time
Two things come to mind. First, it’s only been in the last 18 months or so that we’ve gotten comments like this; I have my own thoughts about why this might be, but I’ll let you make your own connections. Second, it saddens me to contemplate what someone like this might think is appropriate or ethical behavior in the field. I’ve never claimed to be the best-behaved person in the world, or that I have the best manners, or that I’m the most ethical hunter on earth, but I can’t even (and don’t want to) imagine the type of self-hatred that would make talking to a stranger in this way even possible. I feel sorry for him or her. Real life is better. Check it out.