Killing with kindness: when hunters want to let you know they care

Abstract

‘Care’ is a term that hunters increasingly apply to diverse practices pertaining to their interactions with wildlife. In this article, we investigated the extent and durability of hunters’ use of care language, including appeals made to sentiment, relation, compassion, embodiedness and situated morality. After establishing the use of such language in contemporary hunting media, we discuss two case studies of contemporary sport hunting that tease out dimensions of care. These case studies show how hunters’ appeal to care is deeply problematic and oppositely, how these hunting forms bring out new relations and scopes of care with wildlife unanticipated by critics. Without discounting hunters’ sincerity, we note that hunters may use this language opportunistically rather than with consistent philosophical appeal. We conclude by discussing the possible role of hunters’ appeal to care language in mediating public acceptance of hunting.