Gored Utah Man Finds Out That Payback Really Is Hell

Imagine
your legs giving out as something sharp tears through your skin, shredding
muscle and penetrating bones. Your heart races with panic as you see your own
blood. You feel yourself growing weak, and you try to catch your breath, but
you can’t move.

This
is what deer, elk, moose, and other animals experience when they are shot down
by hunters every year all over the U.S. And it’s exactly what Utah hunter Bradley Greenwood felt when he slipped
and was gored in the face and neck on the antlers of a 700-pound elk he’d
killed only moments before.

Greenwood
isn’t the only hunter who’s hurt himself drooling over a “big rack.”
With plans to place a billboard in Vernal, Utah, that shows an elk with blood
dripping from his antlers and reads, “Payback Is Hell. Leave Animals
Alone!” PETA is bringing attention to the fact that hunting draws blood on both sides. Every year, hunters hurt or
kill themselves, friends, family, and even strangers innocently hiking through
the woods.

©iStockphoto.com/rpbirdman

There’s No Sport
in Murder

Hunting
isn’t necessary for human survival, and so-called “wildlife management”
is a myth that often intentionally inflates “game” populations,
rather than the reverse. Wildlife populations are self-regulating, responding
to naturally occuring disease, the availability of food and habitat, and
prey-predator relationships. Hunters hunt for the thrill of it, often injuring animals
who manage to escape, only to die later from blood loss, infection, or
predation.

Now
that a recovering Greenwood knows what it feels like to gasp what you believe
to be your last breaths, maybe he’ll stop killing animals and agree with PETA
that compassion feels better than (bad) karma.