Tigers on the hunt

“I don’t walk around campus in camo stuff, but if you get to know me, and you’re a friend of mine, then you would know it is something I like to do,” he said.

Michael Chou ’10, another hunter, also said that he does not often discuss hunting with fellow students.

“Particularly in a diverse environment like Princeton, there is a concern that some students might find hunting offensive,” Chou, who hunts in both Michigan and Ohio, explained in an e-mail.

While student groups like the Princeton Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) criticize hunting on moral grounds, hunters argue that their pastime can be ethical in certain circumstances.

PAWS president Will Fisher ’10 said that his disapproval of hunting stems from a glorification of the practice, which results in part from a misunderstanding of what hunting involves.

“People think you just shoot an animal, and it falls down,” he said. “Half the time, it doesn’t happen. Animals will be shot, and they’ll run off and won’t be dead ... I think it should be made very clear what the image we’re talking about is, because in the absence of [that image,] it’s very easy to think that in hunting nothing is really harmed,” Fisher explained.

But student hunters, who noted that they have not experienced excessive backlash, said they take steps to ensure that their hunting is ethical.

Stephen Lamb ’11, who has been hunting birds since he was 10 years old, explained that ethical hunters have respect for animals they target and always try to minimize their suffering.

“In all of hunting, there’s a major respect for the animal you’re shooting,” Lamb said. “The worst thing you can do as a hunter, besides being unsafe, is to shoot an animal and leave. You have to be able to respect the animal and track it down and kill it as quickly and harmlessly as you can.”

Topol said that ethical hunters always give their targets a chance to escape.

“If you want to hunt ethically, you give whatever you’re hunting a sporting chance of getting away,” he said, adding that “a lot of the challenge of hunting has to do with being able to learn animal tracks and game trails ... Doing something like that is more ethical than trying to lure animals close to you.”

Fisher said he thought the relatively small size of the hunter population, combined with more pressing and ethically dubious issues that draw the attention of groups like PAWS, could account for the lack of discussion about hunting.

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“[PAWS] is not concerned with hunting because it’s not nearly as prevalent as people who consume animal products, and, more importantly, it’s not nearly as permissible,” he said.

Fisher explained that the PAWS activism does not target the specific means of killing animals, like hunting, but rather focuses on broader ethical issues and attempts to undermine animal exploitation altogether.

“We want to attack the roots of the tree ... There’s no point in someone agreeing with me that hunting is bad and then having a hamburger for dinner,” he said. “I know very few people who don’t eat animal products [but] who think [it is] okay to hunt.”

Lamb noted that he believes hunting is only justifiable when hunters consume what they kill, rather than hunting only for sport. He added that he actually faces more criticism for eating meat than for hunting.

But, Lamb noted, because he is willing to hunt for what he eats, he finds that people “respect” him more.

“The hunting aspect is kind of surprising in that people say, ‘If you eat meat, you’d better be willing to kill it,’ ” Lamb explained. “I can say I am willing — I hunt.”

Lamb said that though he has not experienced open hostility for hunting, it has left him vulnerable to certain political stereotypes.

“Hunting is associated with conservatives ... I classify myself as a moderate,” he said. “I’m very socially liberal. I’ve lived in southern California and am a product of where I’m from. That’s a big misconception people have of me. They think, ‘Wait, he’s at Princeton; he’s smart. Why does he hunt?’ ”

Chou also noted that his hunting has sparked certain ridicule.

“[People] just think hunting is sort of outdated,” Chou said. “They say, ‘Oh, you hunt? Who still hunts?’ ”

But Lamb said that the stereotypes, rather than stigmatizing or insulting hunters, can actually become a source of respect.

“[The stereotypes] are not distressing,” he said. “It’s kind of fun to play off misconceptions at times, because people are always surprised. They say, ‘I respect this person; he seems like a smart guy.’ ”

Topol added that hunting is not just about the act itself but is also an opportunity for the hunter to be closer to nature and to escape from urban life.

“The fun of hunting is not about going out and being able to kill something,” he explained. “That’s not fun for me ... Being out in the woods and being away from everyone else for a few hours or a few days is really what I find enjoyable.”

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article misidentified Marty Topol's class year.