Elk "Hunt"

On November 14th, 2009 a select group from my Ethics and Ecology class at Lewis-Clark State College went to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to the Coeur d'Alene Elk Company in order to shoot, kill, dress and skin a cow elk. 

We started by meeting at 6:00 in the morning and carpooling up to the Farm. When we arrived there it was a brisk 32 degrees or so and we were all bundled up. The owner lead us through many gates - some with yearly elk, some with cows and some with bucks. He told us that four of us would be able to accompany him into the final pin where there were three cow elk and one buck. He told the shooter that he could pick any of the three cows to shoot. I was in position with my camera (I was the photographer for the day). In my mind I was waiting for some kind of cue that the shot was coming but suddenly I heard the shot and saw the cow elk closest to us and it's head dropped. After about three seconds it started to stumble and then fell. We all waited with held breath while the shooter and owner began to walk up to where the elk was, about 150 yards away. All of a sudden the elk jumped up and started to walk away. We learned that in a typical hunting setting, one would allow the elk to run and bleed out. However, here the farmed elk don't do that so the shooter ended up having to shoot it two more times (the same thing happened after the second shot). 

The owners of the farm then brought a John Deer tractor out and scooped the elk up into the bucket and brought it down to a place where the whole class could be to help dress and skin it. The next two hours or so were dedicated to the slicing of flesh, pulling out of entrails and cutting of the tough membrane between the fascia and fur of the elk. This was a very interesting experience for me. At first I was very worried that I would not be able to handle watching or helping with this but it turned out not to be nearly as bad as I thought.

After this they helped us load the gutted and skinned elk into the back of a classmate's Tacoma pick up and brought it to a butcher in a small town west of Lewiston. The butcher then gave us a semi-lengthy lecture about how we may have ruined some of the elk because the hair got onto it (later we found out that the guy is just a little grouchy). As I stood back, staring at the elk on the butcher hooks that held it's body, which had been sawed in half I thought to myself, "I bet this elk had no idea this would be it's end today". For some reason this was a very sobering thought. It made me feel a little bit sad but also made me think about that very question in relation to humans. Each of us have no idea where we will end up at the end of each day. I began to ponder on this for the next week or so and it has inspired me to make the most out of each and every day that I have. It seems an interesting way to come to this realization but then again, isn't that part of the beauty of life - that the most odd and unique experiences can produce an array of different emotions through us.