By Todd Schaller, WWA Vice President & Education Committee Chair
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s December, 2023 Newsletter edition.
With the majority of Wisconsin’s waterfowl seasons in the books, and as the end is or was approaching, we often start the process of reflection on our season’s past. We reflect on the many layers of the season, the number of outings we participated in, the quality of those outings, the conversations held with our hunting partners, our harvest success, shooting, gear, etc. .
During my personal reflections, the term “ethics” and how it plays out in the waterfowl hunting world came to mind. Ethics is a term used within the hunting community, however I’m not sure we’re all speaking the same language when using the word. I also find it interesting that ethics isn’t used as frequently within my other outdoor hobbies: fishing, boating, biking, etc. These two ideas triggered me to ask questions and do some research.
It didn’t take long to confirm my thought about how we’re not always speaking the same language when using the term and how prevalent the term “ethics” is within hunting the community – blogs on hunting ethics, state agency websites, conservation organization’s articles, aspects of hunter safety … The majority of what I found about ethics within hunting focus on what actions are ethical. An aspect not discussed is how an individual makes their personal decision about what is ethical.
For the process of making an ethical decision, I looked outside the hunting world to Kenneth Blanchard. Blanchard is a well-known expert and author within circles of leadership and management. While not connected to hunting, the process Blanchard lays out for ethical decision making easily connects to hunting. As hunters, we often find ourselves in a gray area, as not all of the decisions we make in the world of hunting are black or white.
To help reduce the gray, Blanchard (and others) suggest working through three questions:
- Is it legal?
- Is it fair to all involved, both long and short term?
- How will it make me feel about myself? Or, how would I feel if my decision was published on social media or in a newspaper?
While the process (these three questions) is easy, working through these questions with the decisions you face can be challenging.
Next month I’ll walk through a couple common hunting situations using the Blanchard process.