Hunting: An Activity for Grandchildren?

Hunting may be a tradition. But your grandchildren may not want to join you.

by Jack Beaudoin

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Norm Phelps, 69, of Funkstown, Md., remembers boyhood days in the Tidewater region of Virginia, hunting bobwhites, squirrels, rabbits, and an occasional red fox, with the breeze blowing off Chesapeake Bay.

"I hunted a lot as a child and a teenager," Phelps says. "I started when I was 7. Everybody I looked up to hunted — my father, all the males in my family, even the preacher."

So you might expect Phelps to be planning to pass on the family tradition to his five grandchildren. Don't bet on it. "Just because something is a tradition doesn't make it right," says Phelps, who quit the sport when he was a teen and is now a leading animal-rights author. "There are good traditions and bad traditions, and hunting is bad. Why would I want to turn my grandchildren into people who kill animals for fun?"

A Bonding Experience

Marian Love Phillips, 67, of Vicksburg, Miss., sees it differently. The grandmother or step-grandmother of 14 took up hunting in 1985, after meeting her second husband. She says her involvement in the sport has given her opportunities to connect with her family and share her knowledge and passion for the outdoors. "Every time I take my grandchildren hunting, I tell them stories of my hunting experiences, how to respect their firearms, and so on," she says. "I hope they will remember all the things that I try to instill in them. It has been a great bonding experience that I will always remember and I hope they will as well."

Phillips recalls her first hunting excursion five years ago with her grandson Carl, now 18. "We must have sat there for a good two hours or so when Carl spotted a buck coming up to cross over the levee," Phillips says. "He was using my .270 Ruger, which is a powerful gun for a little guy like him. I had taught him to take a deep breath to relax before he made a shot," she adds, and when he did, "Bam! I literally had to catch him so he would not fall off the stool. It was the most exciting and the most exhilarating day of my life and his."

A Tradition Worth Preserving?

Hunting's popularity is waning across the country — about 12.5 million Americans say they hunt today, down from 19.1 million in 1975, according to the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. Several states are now taking steps to revive interest in hunting among young people. A new West Virginia law allows public schools to offer elective gun-safety courses to students in grades 6 to 12. Other states, including Michigan, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Utah, have considered proposals to lower or eliminate minimum age requirements for hunters. (Most of the 20 states that have minimum-age rules require children to be 12 before they can hunt large animals such as deer or wild turkeys.)

Grandparents who hunt say sharing the sport with the next generation gives them an important opportunity to pass on an endangered tradition and to participate more actively in their grandchildren's lives. "It's not possible for me to experience the latest technology, the electronic games, the do-dads, with my grandson," says George Smith, 59, of Mt. Vernon, Maine, who is the grandfather of one and the executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine. "But I do know hunting. I know fishing. These are things I can share with him."

Smith and others also insist that hunting meets broader social goals."Our society will continue to need hunters and hunting," he says. "In southern Maine, there's an epidemic of Lyme disease because the deer population is out of control. There is no other effective way to limit that population except through hunting, and if we don't introduce hunting to our children and grandchildren, who will? They're certainly not learning it in the schools."

Hunting to help limit local deer populations, Smith says, is an example of good stewardship of the nation's land, and it's a lesson grandparents should teach their grandchildren. Smith's own children do not hunt, but he hopes to introduce the sport to his grandson. "I feel a real sense of urgency about this," he says.

The Case Against Hunting

"Hunting is riddled with abuses that many people — including kids — are horrified by," says Casey Pheiffer, campaign manager for the Wildlife Abuse Campaign at The Humane Society of the United States. She urges grandparents not to hunt with their grandchildren. "I think it's great that grandparents want to share the outdoors with their grandchildren, but those connections can absolutely be made without a weapon."

The Humane Society's position is that "hunting doesn't encourage compassion for animals," Pheiffer says. Among other concerns, the group believes, children who don't hunt at an early age are less likely to be desensitized to killing and violence; non-hunting outdoor activities are inherently safer for young children; and even "ethical hunting" is inextricably bound up in controversial practices. "Kids are definitely choosing not to go into the woods to kill wildlife," Pheiffer says. "That reflects a shift in values, and grandparents ought to respect that shift."

Phillips concedes that there may be a generational shift in attitudes toward hunting. "The desire has to be there," she says. "When my grandsons were coming up, they saw that I was a hunter and wanted to emulate me, and I was willing to teach them. Just being in the outdoors is so much fun, and they enjoyed going to the camp and learning the positive aspects of hunting. You can tell them about hunting and let them experience being in the woods, but if the desire is not there, you should not pressure them."

To learn what grandfathers can teach their grandchildren, click here. Elsewhere on Grandparents.com, discover 100 things to do with your grandchildren this fall, read about fishing with your grandchildren, and find tips for hiking with your grandchildren.