It is 2:30 am. I just woke up from a terrible nightmare. You know, the ones that haunt you even after you are wide awake. I started to analyze this nightmare and of course, the dead and decapitated body of my dream was obviously that of the moose that my husband had just hunted the day before, a few hours earlier…
November 22, 2020, 11:36.
I just received a text from my husband: “I am so excited! I just shot a moose! ” Me, still at home, I laugh. Ha! Ha! Ha! Your joke is very good! We have spent the last few months (read years) hunting without seeing anything. I must say that with 5 people, including 3 children, noisy winter clothes plus our 7 month old puppy, we are more than a din in the forest! We walk, whispering of course, eating Spitz and drinking hot chocolate. We are noisy, fragrant, a large mass that moves all the time. It may well be impossible to see something … Even the hares run away from us.
This is why I am skeptical and amazed to receive this first text from Martin. Really? You have SEEN one? After a few exchanges, he can’t take it anymore, he calls me. There it is. He really hunted a moose! I hear it in the sound of his voice. He is calm but emotional, jubilant but resonant. The real work begins now. He kicks into action, alone, up there in the forest. He is 2 km from his car. Without a winch, without a side by side, with only one knife and a lot of willpower. At around 1:15 pm, he wrote me that it is much longer than he would have thought. He is only on his first leg! He’s going to need help. The sun is setting early. He would like to finish before dark. I join him with my 2 passionate hunting neighbors along with Betsy & Walace.
Standing there, a cool winter wind whips my face. In the middle of nature, a thrill runs through me. Nature invades me. I have immense respect for this majestic beast at our feet. I thank our mother earth, our universe, for giving Martin the opportunity to see and take this animal. But I have to tell you, I would rather like to see this moose peacefully walking and grazing without worrying about being attacked by a predator. Since our adventure on Calbodine, I have become a vegetarian, almost vegan. At first, it was rather out of disgust with the meat that we found. Then my understanding of the world evolved and it became more out of respect for our animal world, intimately linked to the plant world, intimately linked to our own existence. On the other hand, my children like to eat meat and my hubby too. Unable to buy meat at the grocery store, they are content with our own eggs, nuts, chickpeas and legumes. I am incapable of supporting this meat industry, which raises, feeds, waters, kills and cuts meat not as an animal in its own right but as a piece of profit on all fours. However, I support my family if they want to eat an animal hunted respectfully. Martin triumphs as much with his meat as I, who loves eating meals grown from my garden…
The last years, months, weeks, days, hours of unsuccessful hunting have just been rewarded for my boyfriend. Martin’s persistence and patience have just been honored. It seems like the bigger the animal, the more emotional we are, aware that this animal died for us. I understand the motivations of my hubby and I sincerely respect his choices. He hunts an animal, his survival instinct being very high, to feed his offspring. He is immensely grateful for the life this animal has given us. It is even emotional. He feels blessed to be able to feed his growing children with 100% pure and organic meat, wildly breed and kill with deep respect. Now that our freezer is filled up, Martin can stop hunting for this year. No way to take another life before eating this wild red meat.
I must admit, the tender loin was quite tasty all the same, but I think it will be the last piece for me anyway…