I also came from, not an non-hunting, but an actively anti-hunting family. The writing appeared on the wall when I became an enthusiastic young naturalist at age 11 and lived for my weekend small mammal trapping expeditions, which resulted in properly prepared scientific specimens. I went completely over to the dark side when employed by the Fish and Wildlife Service in the Aleutians one summer, trapping and shooting introduced Arctic foxes, which had decimated waterfowl and seabird populations and were being eliminated in order to restore the Aleutian Canada goose, which the foxes had eaten to near extinction. In spite of that introduction to hunting, which has preoccupied me ever since, I abhor predator and prairie dog killing as pointless destruction. It is my duty as an ecologist, however, to maintain the balance of nature by spending the winter in a duck blind.
Bill, I don't have much optimism about the human race recifying our errors. A small fraction is aware of what we have done to nature, but the overwhelming majority couldn't care less. It is even worse in the developing world, where wildlife is just about gone, and awareness and concern hover at about zero.
