The Bears of Manley: Adventures of an Alaskan Trophy Hunter in Search of the Ultimate Symbol
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
The Bears of Manley a 448 page, hardcover book by Alaskan, Sarkis Atamian, is exciting entertainment for hunters. This is not a typical Joe Hunter went afield, stalked his quarry, shot his trophy, hunting book. The Bears of Manley includes stories of an Alaskan trophy hunter and his quest for the ultimate trophy and his hunts which did not go as planned. The book also gives enlightening and absorbing answers to animal activists, and a stirring response to antihunters. Sarkis Atamian's numerous academic research papers and articles, concerning the philosophy and psychology of hunting, has contributed to Mr. Atamian being a recognized authority in the field.
From the Inside Flap
Polar bear! What fascination there is in seeing those two words. What magic in the sound of those three syllables! Instantly, word and sound project a spectral image - a floating, weaving, ghostly form, moving eternally through limitless desolation of polar ice - invincible, grand, and awesome in power and beauty. There isn't a true hunter anywhere who has not confronted polar bear in his secret fantasy world and yearned to see that dream become a reality.
Every detail of that magnificent beast was sharply visible. His long neck lowered, his huge, tapered head close to the ice, sniffing for telltale scent of prey or danger. The slow shuffling gait, punctuated with a rhythmical thump-thump, barely echoed off the ridge as his huge paws landed softly on the snow, bouncing masses of hair enveloping them.
I could see his rippling muscles beneath his shaggy coat, and beneath muscles I could sense the incredible power and fury of his might. From time to time, he swung his head from side to side. Dark shadows cast by jagged ice revealed a trace of vapor from his breath clouding his shiny, jet-black nose. He lumbered closer, filling my luminescent frame of ice. Forelegs, frozen stark still without a trace of motion, now looked like two columns of concrete painted white. From his frozen, immobile stance, it was obvious he must be sniffing for scents having little to do with scotch or cognac. What had brought him to such a sudden halt? Had he heard the slither of George's bolt or my turning scope? Had a stray wisp of air carried our scent to him? Or was it the supremacy of primordial instinct over belabored cogitation?
One does not kill bear by shooting at its legs. If he only walked forward one or two paces, he would be off that pedestal of ice and lower down, where I could see him in proper alignment.
I didn't have a shot; that's all there was to it.
(continued)
I knew what they were thinking from the way they looked at me - how could a bloodthirsty hunter like me, lusting for cruelty and running right into a nifty opportunity like that, let the bear go? A couple of them asked me point blank. I told them that it was the only decent thing to do, since I had not hunted for it, but merely blundered into in the middle of the highway while driving a truck. How could anyone possibly deserve a trophy under such conditions? To let it go was the only decent thing to do, since I didn't want it for food.
I knew what the law said about the conditions of the hunt. They were precisely spelled out in voluminous rules and regulations. But where were the outlines stating what hunting ethic and fair chase were and why they were sporting? These phrases suggested, more than they defined, what they referred to in a general sort of way.
One of the great intellectual hoaxes of our times is that we can't legislate morality. Of course we can and we do all the time. There is no question about that. The question is, whose morality? If it isn't ours, "there ought to be a law against it." The bottom line is always morals, no matter how well disguised. The next to the bottom line is ethics. Any good legal philosopher will shoot down all I have said because he will say it is wrong, which is an ultimate resort to morals, not legality, hereby proving how right I have been all along.
The problem in our secular society is that what is legal may be immoral or unethical, and what is illegal may be moral or ethical. This is true in many areas of life, but it is especially true in hunting, and it is at the heart of the hunting and antihunting controversy.
The Bears of Manley: Adventures of an Alaskan Trophy Hunter in Search of the Ultimate Symbol
The Bears of Manley: Adventures of an Alaskan Trophy Hunter in Search of the Ultimate Symbol,Sarkis Atamian,Publication Consultants,1888125012,Hunting - General,Literature: Classics,Sports & Recreation,Atamian, Sarkis
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