By Don Giottonini

While Thanksgiving is a time to count our many 21^st Century blessings, the first harvest celebration was, at its core, about the most basic element of survival: food.

At a time when many Californians proclaim to be increasingly committed to the virtues of locally grown, organic produce, it is also important to remember the critical role hunting and fishing has played in sustaining our population with food equally as organic and healthy.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, there are only a few primary sources chronicling the first Thanksgiving meal. These documents suggest that the original menu for the Plymouth Colony’s feast in 1621 likely featured corn, porridge and lots of meat – venison and all sorts of birds, including waterfowl, turkey and skies so full of small birds that a single gunshot could result in a harvest of 200 birds. The Wampanoag Indians, who shared the dinner table with the Pilgrims, also are believed to have heavy diets of fish and shellfish.

That meat, poultry and fish, was not purchased at the local Pilgrim Mart. It was the result of laborious time spent hunting and fishing, which back then were synonymous with the most basic skills an American could possess. Unfortunately, most of our society drifted away from any real connection with food and the virtues of hunting.

And while the locally grown and organic movement continues to be glamorized by the environmental community, this same crowd is often quick to vilify hunters for shooting animals that offer wild, natural meat that is unprocessed and free of chemicals.

This double standard not only ignores our nation’s revered hunting tradition, but also turns its back on the link between hunting and wildlife conservation. In fact, hunters invest millions of dollars in order to protect wildlife national parks and conservancies. President Theodore Roosevelt, a sportsman who created our national parks system, noted: “In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.”

In addition to Roosevelt, the likes of Ernest Hemingway and John James Audubon extolled the virtues of hunting.

They also play a role in keeping animal populations in balance. The vast majority of hunters operate according to a highly ethical code of conduct that respects and appreciates wildlife in a way that anti-hunting activists only pretend to possess.

Despite this vital role, the state’s regulations are increasingly hostile to the time honored art of hunting. In the past several years, state government and the California Fish & Game Commission, which woefully underrepresent hunters, have effectively waged a war on sound predator management and hunting.

This trend of overlooking the contributions made by sportsmen reflects California’s highly urbanized population, which is too often detached from the complex realities of nature. Hollywood films and lack of understanding – not science and biology – contribute to a perspective that naively views all wildlife as cuddly, friendly, fun-loving creatures to be protected at any cost.

But this view is now being challenged. In many urban areas like Orange County and Los Angeles, coyotes are attacking children and killing household pets. In the past month, Irvine alone has experienced four coyote attacks. Bear and other wildlife encounters are also on the rise statewide.

This Thanksgiving, we would all do well to reconnect with our historical connection to food and examine the many benefits of hunting as an instrumental practice that helps protect public safety and California’s precious wildlife populations.

Don Giottonini is president of the Sacramento chapter of Safari Club International.