“At the heart of the North American model was the idea that wild birds and animals could not be privatized. They should be held in public trust for the benefit of all citizens, not special interest, managed by government as renewable resources, and harvested sustainably or otherwise enjoyed with equal access by all on public lands. This idea evolved out of court cases, state laws, and, eventually federal laws. The court cases placed the welfare of most wildlife in the hands of states to manage; migratory birds later became subjects to an international treaty under federal jurisdiction”  (Sterba 95). 

At the heart of this passage is the dilemma that we can blame for the deer problem in the US. Times of low deer populations stemmed from the fact that no one could exclude others from hunting deer because of the “public” nature of their ownership. Times of high deer populations (such as the one we’re currently in) stem from the public’s misunderstanding of the costs and benefits of allowing deer populations to get out of hand due to the moral implications of trying to prevent or solve that problem. This problem occurs because what the government does with wild animals is, ultimately, up to the citizens who are willing to fight for what they want.

“They were his standards in all except the shooting. He had his own standards about the killing and they could live up to them or get someone else to hunt them. He knew, too, that they all respected him for this. This Macomber was an odd one though. Damned if he wasn’t. Now the wife. Well, the wife. Yes, the wife. Hm, the wife. Well he’d dropped all that. He looked around at them. Macomber sat grim and furious. Margot smiled at him. She looked younger today, more innocent and fresher and not so professionally beautiful. What’s in her heart God knows, Wilson thought. She hadn’t talked much last night. At that it was a pleasure to see her” (Hemingway 2021). 

This entire short story makes my skin crawl with the blatant and unapologetic sexism displayed by the male characters. This passage seals it all up in the most frustrating way where the narrator explains Wilson’s internal thoughts in the moment. This passage concretely associates the professional hunter with the idea that women are similar to wild game. They must be considered only for their physical value. In the preceding paragraph, it is explained that Wilson keeps a large cot for the explicit purpose of hunting the wives of his clients as well as the animals.