83-year-old Dot Ela of Fryeburg, Maine, a great-grandmother and hunter, made the local papers this past fall after shooting a moose three days after taking her first deer of the season. Mrs. Ela is the grandmother of one of my pals from elementary school (I lived in Fryeburg for a few years in elementary school) and a longtime hunter with approximately 20 deer bagged over the years.

 

Deer are beautiful animals but have a well-studied negative impact on their environment, even when their population is at "manageable" levels, so I have no problem with hunters keeping their population numbers down. It's hard to find a less carbon-intensive meat- venison comes without most of the external costs farm raised meat is saddled with-- from the grains used as feed to the emissions generated trucking them from farm to feed lot to slaughter house. Venison has the added bonus of being free of artificial hormones or anti-biotics found in conventional meats. And moose meat is damn tasty.

 

Congrats Mrs. Ela!

 

 

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