[vidanay]

My dad (a genuine West Virginia hillbilly) likes to tell the story that one year through the summer and early fall, he would watch a large white tail out his kitchen window every morning while drinking his coffee. Easily a 10-12 point buck. Around mid fall, he started tracking it to find where it went during the day with plans harvest it at Thanksgiving.

He saw that buck every morning for 8 months and tracked it for two or three weeks. For two weeks he never saw it once. The first day after hunting season, he was drinking coffee and watched the buck peacefully grazing in the yard.

[Arrath]

Funny, a few years ago a friend of my dad's was drinking his morning coffee and saw a beautiful elk on his lawn just munching away happily. It was a couple days into the season, and he owned a large piece of rural land. So he filled his elk tag from his patio, in his bathrobe.

[thsksbd]

I believe it.

[ffgjgf1]

> harvest it at Thanksgiving.

That’s s such a weird way to describe the killing of a wild animal, as if it was a pumpkin you were growing in your back yard. Not that I’m saying that there something inherently about hunting in general.

[beaviskhan]

IMO - killing animals for the purpose of eating them is wildly different than trophy hunting. I'm fine with calling hunting to eat "harvesting", I would not buy that nomenclature for trophy hunting.

[ryandrake]

Yea, my family is big into deer hunting, and they use the "harvest" euphemism, too, mostly when talking to non-hunters. It makes the deed sound more pleasant, but it really is not the correct word. You "harvest" crops that you have previously "planted" and "cultivated." In most states that I know of that allow deer hunting, it is illegal to breed the deer or feed them, so there's no concept of planting or cultivation that would support using "harvest."

[nunuvit]

Harvesting implies he killed and ate it. Whether you see that as a euphemism or more graphic probably depends on your dietary philosophy.

[ffgjgf1]

Why? It has nothing to do with my dietary “philosophy” harvest just seems like very silly word to use in this case for no straightforward reason.

It not like anybody would say that they “harvest” farm animals (I hope)?

[nunuvit]

Ah, gotcha. I think you're just not accustomed to this use of the word. It's in the dictionary and people use it that way. In this case, probably used for effect in the story, but it's legitimate.

Curious why you hope it's not used for farm animals?

[mensetmanusman]

A pumpkin is also alive.

[aerio]

If you're going to kill something, call a spade a spade. Don't disrespect the life by pretending otherwise.

[Loughla]

I think it's because harvest implies you're getting use out of the animal outside of killing it. Hunters like to make the distinction that they are also hunting for food as well as sport. Because, as a hunter, if you're hunting solely for some weird joy of killing things, you're a sociopath.

[ffgjgf1]

> Because, as a hunter, if you're hunting solely for some weird joy of killing things, you're a sociopath.

Or honest both to others and yourself.

[brianwawok]

Do you kill the carrots in your salad?

[olyjohn]

By the time I shit them out, they are definitely dead.

[pleb_nz]

At least one would hope so...

[aerio]

Is a deer a plant?

[brianwawok]

Maybe?