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Growing up, I loved searching for worms. I felt fascinated watching their squiggly little selves and exhilarated upon finally spotting one. I could spend hours digging through mud looking for my little buddies. As a friend, though, it was my responsibility to engage respectfully and gently while saying hello. My experiences with worms highlighted that they mattered too. My worm “hunt,” therefore, instilled values antithetical to real hunting.
Humans are especially social animals. While not very capable alone, we survive by banding together with other humans and animals. Within these communities, we have to relate with one another to form sufficiently cohesive groups capable of cooperating. Rather than being born with an exact prescription for interaction, this is something that must be learned. Biologically speaking, we’re neurologically plastic, which means our neurons can wire and rewire together in different ways. Our minds are especially malleable during youth, adapting to the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Socially speaking, humans also have a great deal of flexibility. While interacting, we gather cues about acceptable norms and values, which serve as guides for constructing our self-identities and societies. So, we’re shaped by experiences in our social environment, for better or worse.
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Based on our experiences, we create understandings of other human and nonhuman animals, informing how we relate with one another. As Dr. Melanie Joy’s book, Powerarchy, explains, there’s two divergent ways to relate: power-over vs. power- with relationships. When some individuals are seen as superior in moral worth, power-over dynamics tend to form and tactics of domination become permissible means for securing interests.
Conversely, when everyone’s viewed as equal in moral value, human or otherwise, power-with relationships tend to emerge. In using our power to try to benefit everyone, we seek to coexist without domination. This is a more pro-social way of relating based upon respect and acknowledgment of everyone’s inherent worth.
Research has linked attitudes in favor of dominating nonhuman animals with high scores on a sociological scale known as social dominance orientation. More simply put, when humans believe in dominating other animals, the likelihood increases of supporting other forms of domination. Human supremacists tend to engage in other forms of supremacy, including within the categories of gender, race, class, sexual orientation, etc. So, the power-over dynamic of dominating non-human animals sets the foundation for oppressive relationships of all kinds.
Recently, pro-hunting organizations have been pushing to expand children’s access to hunting. In Buffalo, NY, our county (Erie) has so far been the only eligible county in NY State to decide against opting-in to a program allowing 12 and 13-year-olds to hunt deer with guns. The legislature narrowly voted to opt-in but that was overturned thanks to a veto by County Executive Mark Poloncarz. With such a close result, pro-hunting groups have already threatened vigilance in continuing to push for Erie County to opt-in. Pro-hunting organizations have been mounting similar campaigns throughout the country.
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While incremental changes to laws about hunting ages might seem like small moves, there’s a very big reason hunters have their crosshairs set on children: because of their vulnerability.
Using language of “tradition,” hunters argue that they need the opportunity to pass down hunting traditions to the next generation. Traditions, however, can be passed on at any age.
The tradition of marriage, for example, is almost universally seen as one that shouldn’t be entered into before adulthood. The tradition of hunting, however, is unique. Despite the unfortunate capacity for human violence, most humans are actually averse to hurting others, especially the innocent. In WW2, for example, many soldiers shot to miss, not wanting to kill even sworn adversaries. Many humans also have a strong affinity for animals as seen by the deep bonds formed with those we adopt as family. So to keep this tradition of killing alive, hunters have to override aversions toward inflicting violence and our affection towards other animals. Hunters are targeting the youth at such a vulnerable age to prey on their susceptibility to being desensitized to violence while creating prodomination attitudes, molding them into adults with traits necessary for hunting. This can have broad ramifications as these children grow into adults who have learned that domination and violence are not only tolerable but appropriate. Unsurprisingly, childhood violence against animals proves to be a good predictor of adulthood violence.
Our flexibility in development provides reasons for concern as well as hope. We can foster domination and violence, or alternatively, compassion and kindness. The choices we are making now are building our future relationships with other humans and our fellow animals.
My worm “hunts” helped provide the foundation for caring deeply about all animals, human and nonhuman.
In adulthood, I now leave the worms where they are, for the most part. Although on rainy days, I still say a friendly hello while gently relocating my squiggly little buddies from hazardous side- walks to the safety of some mud (although, I might be a bit extra at times in mumbling a lecture to them about staying safe). If I‘d grown up with a different experience around hunting, I don’t doubt that I’d be a very different person.
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Article by Lauren Wesp who lives in snowy Buffalo, NY with her kitties, Kirara and Nunu. She has an M.A. in Sociology and engages in animal rights advocacy, including organizing for WNY Vegfest. She enjoys reading, writing, yoga, hiking, crafting, and engaging with her loved ones.
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