Great. A new parental worry--"What if my child wants to hunt bear?"

"Forty years from now our kids will be learning about this as history," said Larry Gauthier, one of Mr. Hoyt's buddies on the bear hunt. "Hunters should be included as an extinct species because we're falling away so fast, we need to be protected."

Except of course for the whole thing about "hunters" being merely a homo sapien practicing a skill set, and not actually going exctinct.

Hunting as a survival/support skill should be preserved, but I'm pretty sure it's one that would be picked up rapidly when it's needed, hunger being a great motivator and all.

But after four days, Samantha had not even seen a bear.

"Only thing we found is a frog," Mr. Hoyt said.

"And a dead snake," Samantha chimed in.

And yet they still want to go hunt bears. I wonder where all the bears went?

Actually, I don't have a problem with this except that they should be hunting for something they can will eat. I abhor trophy hunting.

I've eaten bear before. A friend of mine had an annual "Wild Game Cookoff" where just about any animal that can be shot at is eaten (chased down by copius alchoholic beverages).

Bear Fajitas, Deep Fried Mountian Lion Testicles, you name it, I've eaten it.

But do you eat insects, Balisong?

(and someone once gave me instructions for crockpot groundhog, but I just wasn't into multi-day recipes back then)

"We're trying to take down some legal barriers so kids can get involved earlier,"

Lovely!

Yeah, I think 12 is young enough - anyone should know by 12 years old that you are taking a living being's life.