Catymology

I find it hard to believe that humans hunt moose, but they do it here in Minnesota as well as in Alaska and other places where there are more hooves than humans. Moose have been in the news, of course, because the woman who is running for Vice President claims to be able to field dress one. In case you assume that field dressing means putting on its orange hunting costume, be assured that it does not. Ahem!

What I didn't know about hunting moose could fill an encyclopedia. But a friend of my humans wrote an article that explains quite a bit:

Most Minnesotans are only a generation or two off the farm and nearly every Minnesotan knows somebody who still lives and works in farm country. Most Minnesotans have also eaten their fair share of venison chops and venison sausage and the notion that somebody who knows how to field gut a moose should automatically be propelled to the status of potential presidential material seems a little ludicrous to the average Minnesotan. Granted, a moose is a tad bigger than a deer, but the field dressing concept is basically the same. The difference being that one may have to immediately quarter the moose just to carry it out of the woods one quarter at a time or one quarter per person. That is one of the reasons why Minnesota moose licenses are passed out in fours: one moose for four hunters. People who know anything about hunting (which includes most Minnesotans) realize that Sarah Palin very likely did not field dress that moose by herself, unless the other members of her hunting party just sat around laughing and saying “let the maverick do it alone.”

Now I'm going to sit here on my table until dinnertime, and I hope it's not mooseburgers.



Check out the Friday Ark at Modulator for more fascinating critters.

Labels: moose, politics