WhitetailedDeer_TrophyHunting_Tompkins_Shannon_PorterTX_15June2020_Reel4021.mp3

Shannon Tompkins [00:00:00] One of the things I saw through my career was, and that frustrated me, to be, more than frustrated me, was this focus on trophy deer.

Shannon Tompkins [00:00:20] And, you know, the the whole, it was fed by, it was fed by outdoor writers, it was fed by television, and it was fed by magazines focusing on that.

Shannon Tompkins [00:00:37] And as, you know, as, as wildlife managers figured out that they could produce, artificially produce, heavy-antlered deer, it became very, very valuable and that became the focus.

Shannon Tompkins [00:00:58] It became, to me, it always seemed, it became kind of perverted, it perverted hunting.

Shannon Tompkins [00:01:07] It became more about the antlers than the experience, or more about the antlers than the animal, or about the landscape, or the whole, the whole, you know, the whole package of what honest hunting is, and the, the benefits, the values of that.

Shannon Tompkins [00:01:34] Yeah. I watched, you know, as we all did, you know, how deer hunting's changed in Texas over the past 50 years.

Shannon Tompkins [00:01:50] It's a ... you know, there are a lot of people out there who, a lot of deer hunters out there, who have never hunted anything other than deer. And their concept of deer hunting, of hunting is, you know, sadly, for some of them, is you know, climbing in, driving a four-wheeler to a box stand and sitting in front of a feeder.