Editor’s Note: The Greanville Post.com is completely opposed to so-called recreational hunting in all its forms, regarding it as a depraved and anachronistic activity without any social or moral justification. The contradictions surrounding hunting are legion. Ironically, many people who enjoy hunting see themselves as devout Christians (or whatever) and never stop to think for an elemental moment that taking a life for the sheer fun of it is a degenerate and cowardly act. The churches, as usual, remains officially silent. Bowhunting–the subject of the controversy below–is a particularly heinous variety of this “pastime”. In a majority of cases it guarantees a slow and painful death. Such considerations, of course, rarely enter the chidishly selfish mindscape of bowhunters, or the vast network of media, politicians, and public officials that supports them. The item below —a local Pennsylvania paper piece (11/2002) cheerfully trumpeting a bowhunter’s narrow escape—provoked a reply from animal activist Judy Brock. The paper chose not to publish her letter (typical of the whorish media and one of the many reasons we need to replace it with a new non-commercial system).
My friend Natalie Jarnstedt reminded me of this case, and I thought TGP readers might be interested in reading about it for what it says about the state of affairs in this small corner of this enormously fucked up society.—P. Greanville
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Judy Brock from Michigan submitted a response to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article in 2002 I call, The Spunky Poster-Girl for the PGC. Her letter was never published, but I always repost it once a year, because I liked it so much. The PG article and Judy’s response below. —Natalie Jarnstedt*
Long fall, longer crawl to safety [print_link]
Hunter escapes woods with broken back, ankle
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
By Johnna A. Pro, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Bowhunters Vince & Cathy Grgas: merrily shooting animals for fun.
Were she not lying flat with a broken back and a broken ankle in a trauma unit at Allegheny General Hospital, Athena Scanlon could be the poster girl for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
She loves everything about hunting with a bow and arrow: the woods, the wildlife, the wind whistling through the trees.
But Scanlon’s love of the sport is what got the spunky 31-year-old nurse from Kittanning into trouble Monday when a rung on an old tree stand gave way, sending her plunging 20 feet to the ground.
Injured, alone and unable to attract help, Scanlon crawled 75 yards through the woods to her car, pulled herself inside, and drove a mile to Route 422, where a passerby finally stopped to help her.
“I’m very lucky,” she said yesterday, groggy but still spirited.
Scanlon’s ordeal began after she returned home from her job at Armstrong County Memorial Hospital in Kittanning and headed two miles away to a favorite hunting spot. Because she finishes work a couple of hours earlier than her husband, Pat, she often goes out alone to the woods.
“She loves to hunt as much as I do,” Pat Scanlon said.
Although Scanlon’s husband had previously warned her that the stand she headed for was getting old, it was closer to her car than other tree stands. Scanlon thought the spot was perfect for watching the deer, foxes and turkeys that populate the area. And she tried to be extremely cautious.
As Scanlon made her way up the tree ladder, she checked each rung, including the top one, before proceeding. All were sturdy.
But when Scanlon put all her weight on the top rung and prepared to hoist herself into the stand, the step gave way.
“It just went. I landed on my feet. My back just compressed. I landed on my feet, then my butt. I knew my ankle was broken,” she said. “It was just like slow motion. I knew what was happening, but I froze.”
For a few minutes, Scanlon lay on the ground on her back calling for help, to no avail.
She was on her own and the car was 75 yards away. “I got on my hands and knees and crawled,” she said.
As she made her way to the car, Scanlon remembered that her keys could activate the car alarm. She managed to get them out of her pocket.
“I kept putting the car alarm on trying to attract attention.”
Apparently she was successful. A teenager on an all-terrain vehicle drove by twice and Scanlon thought he was going to get help. But he never came back.
A plane flew overhead. It was getting darker and colder. Scanlon knew she had to get to the car. Once again, she started to crawl.
At the car, Scanlon managed to pull herself inside, but with her right leg broken, she was unable to push the gas pedal even as she got the car started.
Instead, as she partially lay across the seat in pain, she used her hand to push her right leg down, putting enough pressure on it to move the gas pedal.
With all the strength she could muster, Scanlon steered the car a mile out of the woods to Route 422 and pulled over, figuring she had a better shot of getting help on the highway.
She flashed her lights and blew her horn trying to attract attention.
- Having lotsa fun. Cathy Grgas with dead squirrel. Draw your own conclusions.
“It was 5:38 p.m. when someone finally stopped,” she said. “It was 4 p.m. when I fell.”
Within minutes an ambulance was at the scene and so was her husband, who happened by on his way home from work and saw his wife’s car.
Scanlon was flown by medical helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital, where she will undergo surgery today to repair the fractured joint in her right ankle.
She also fractured a vertebra in her lower back, but that most likely will heal without surgery. Doctors expect that she will wear a brace for 12 weeks but the prognosis is good.
“She should be able to walk again and go hunting again,” said Dr. D.J. Phillips, the orthopedic surgeon overseeing her case. “That’s a hefty fall, 20 feet.”
Phillips said that Scanlon’s injuries should serve as a reminder to all hunters to practice caution while in the woods, and be particularly careful about the condition of the tree stands they are using.
“We see a lot of these kinds of injuries this time of year,” Phillips said. “She’s one of the ones who will get up and walk around. But we’ve seen a lot over the years who didn’t.”
Once she’s well, Scanlon plans to head back to the woods. “Archery hunting is wonderful. It’s so addicting. I have to go,” she said. “I don’t even care if I shoot something. It’s just so beautiful to be out in the woods.”
Next time, though, she’ll have an escort.
“She won’t be going hunting by herself anymore,” her husband said
Johnna Pro can be reached at jpro@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1574
LETTER TO EDITOR RESPONSE
Editor John G. Craig, Jr.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
34 Blvd of the Allies
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
I am writing about the article: Long fall, longer crawl to safety, featured on November 13th. This story was about a bow hunter, Athena Scanlon, falling from her tree stand while deer hunting. She broke her back and ankle and had to crawl to her car to safety. I only wish I could interview her about this incident. I would ask her about the experience she had with pain and fear. I would carefully point out that what she felt is only the beginning of what the deer experience when they are wounded by arrows, how they run away bleeding to death, with fear, crawl to their death, feel the pain and die slow deaths. I would mention how it is difficult for me to understand how anyone could “love” doing this to an innocent, docile animal for the purpose of recreation and classify it as “wonderful” and “addicting”. Yes, hunting activists say it is “wonderful” and “addicting”, but I fail to understand, especially since bow hunting causes a 50% wounding rate. Translated this means: for every deer shot with an arrow, 50% of them are wounded; not killed quickly. They suffer and die slow deaths: bleeding to death, infection from the wound, etc. Yes, deer feel pain and fear, just like this bow hunter did.
Thank you,
Judy Brock
*Natalie Jarnstedt is a well-known animal defense activist based in Connecticut.
Scanlon said “Archery hunting is wonderful. It’s so addicting. I have to go,” she said. “I don’t even care if I shoot something. It’s just so beautiful to be out in the woods.”
Too bad she can’t just enjoy the latter part of her quote!
I agree with the above note! Being in the woods is beautiful, why must she KILL creatures that are part of it? People need to learn to be still, and absorb, rather than have to put their damn human mark on everything, and destroy. As the above editor’s note says: hunting is …”a depraved and anachronistic activity without any social or moral justification”.
I never understood people like “sport” hunters who, while terrific as human beings in so many ways, seem to lack an “empathy” gene toward wild animals. is that a genetic thing, really, or a question of acculturation and education? We’ll never solve the riddle I guess.
Bob M., Burlington, Vermont
jeanValjean2 says: When it comes to “recreational” hunters there are only 2 choices: (1) they suffer from a fundamental lack of imagination, the necessary capacity to imagine what it feels to do the ghastly things they do to helpless creatures to themselves; or (2) they’re stealth sadistic sociopaths unable to feel compassion. In the former case they’re moral idiots, with their imbecility still catered to by powerful economic interests (gun lobby) and groupthink (fellow hunters). In the latter, they deserve to be exposed for the risk they represent to the rest of society as latent criminals. Either way not nice… Read more »
There are anti-cruelty laws that attempt to prevent people from harming or starving domestic animals. Why, then, is it OK to kill wildlife!?!?! IT ISN’T. Anti-cruelty laws should apply to all animals!!! People need to understand that Game Commissions deliberately propagate wildlife to assure an abundance of victims for “recreational” hunters. Hunting then causes the remaining deer to respond by reproducing dramatically. And people wonder why we have so many deer. It’s not the fault of the deer. Residents annoyed by deer should redirect their frustration toward those responsible for so many deer. Left alone, deer populations on non-hunted land… Read more »
Oh good grief – so tired of the suffering of this poh lil huntress/hunter. If there was a chance of injury to these woodland sociopaths, we would see a lot less of these blood sport folks sitting in tree stands. Love outdoors? Can’t enjoy the outdoors without inflicting pain and suffering and seeing blood? Then you are not a person who enjoys the outdoors, rather you are a degenerate human who hunts for the thrill of killing and hides behind “enjoyment of nature.” I love puppies and babies, but I don’t stalk, torture and kill them. Please – my family… Read more »
All deer that are hunted with bow & arrow suffer terribly, not only the ones that get away. Hunters often claim that deer die almost instantly, in no nore than a minute and a half: WRONG! All one has to do is read a bowhunting manual to learn that instantaneous death is a big lie perpetrated upon already braindead people, assuring them that bowhunting is a mere walk in the park! Depending on where the deer was hit with the arrow, times to start tracking vary from 15 minutes, to hours, and even days…deer have been known to survive for… Read more »
Longonghorn235 says:
Oh for cryin’ aloud get over it! It’s just some dumb animals that might otherwise be hit by a car!
I agree with Susan that people need to learn to be still and absorb, but, if they cannot, why participate in a sport that involves the suffering of innocent wildlife? If a sport in the woods is necessary, why not create a variation of the biathlon? Trail running carrying bow and quiver interspersed with stopping to shoot at man-made targets along the way? Archery skills could be honed without harming anything.
As to Longhorn235, I would advise him not to hang out in the woods or cross the street since he would probably be mistaken for a “dumb animal.”
Oh, for cryin’ out loud, Longhorn235 – judging from my Google alert on hunting accidents, you guys do quite nicely shooting and killing each other if a drop from a tree stand doesn’t get you first; maybe that, too, is better than being hit by a car… so keep it up!
I love hunting accidents.