I recently heard a radio news interview discussing bear hunting season in Pennsylvania, and the announcer stated that “x number of bear are expected to be harvested.”
Harvested?Are you kidding me?
We harvest tomatoes; we kill bears.
I am not giving any opinion about whether we should–or should not–have a bear hunting season in Pennsylvania. I don’t know enough about the topic to make any case for it.
I know enough about language, however, to know that those who are talking about bear hunting season in terms of harvesting bears are trying to soften the facts that humans kill bears. If you’re man (or woman) enough to go out in the woods and kill a bear, then admit that’s what you’re doing. You’re tracking down innocent animals with the intention of killing them.
The majority of people who hunt do so for sport, not because they need food or because they want to help control the bear population. They do it simply because they like the idea of going out in the woods and killing living creatures.
What I find ironic is that we’re killing these animals in a premeditated and planned fashion and trying to label it as something innocent; however, plenty of shows on television talking about animal attacks on humans (including bears, elephants, and sharks) are portrayed as a deliberate attacks: “Are sharks targeting human beings?,” “Are we becoming food for bears?,” “Are elephants retaliating against us?”
Yeah, animals are out to get us, but we’re merely harvesting them.
Wait, I guess I do have an opinion.
–Paul
Everything Language and Grammar 