In my fox research for Kitsune-Tsuki and Kitsune-Mochi, I came across this clipping of a hunting trip gone wrong.
I understand that people hunt, some for pleasure and some by necessity. (My husband grew up in an area where hunting provided much of some families’ diet.) But hunting should be quick and clean and respectful.
A hunter in Belarus apparently opted to save a bullet by bludgeoning a wounded fox to death, instead of shooting it cleanly. The fox fought back.
Pretty valiantly and violently, it seems, because in its struggle it managed to catch the trigger, and the fox shot the hunter.
The fox escaped; no word on whether it survived its injury. The hunter did, after being taken to hospital.
I don’t typically cheer about people being injured, but it’s hard to feel too sympathetic toward a man who was both inhumane and stupid enough to use a loaded gun as a blunt weapon. (Original story here.)
Foxes. Don’t mess with them.