My feet made a slight crunching sound as I walked across the freshly fallen leaves covering the path. It was past legal shooting light, 30 minutes past sunset, so I had unstrung my bow and was hustling to get to the hot plate of food waiting for me at home. As I was walking, a slight breeze picked up, and the air was filled with the repugnant smell of rotting meat.

I stopped dead in my tracks. I stepped off of the trail to try to find the source of this smell. Step by step I drew closer to the stench until I came upon the culprit. It was what appeared to be a deer that had died at least three or four days earlier. As I glanced over the deer, I noticed a hunter had shot the deer. I was saddened by the fact that this meat would go to waste, but anger boiled through me when I noticed someone had removed the antlers with a saw. The only explanation was that someone shot the deer, took the antlers and left the rest of the deer to rot.

There is no animal other than a human that would kill something so useful and then waste so much without a second thought towards the animal they thoughtlessly killed. An eagle kills only enough to feed itself and wastes nothing. Wolves, like eagles, gorge themselves, eat until there is nothing left, again wasting nothing.

This waste comes from the bad habit of killing things for fun, which is completely unique to humans. There are many hunters who kill purely for a rush or to have what they concider a good time. I don’t understand why we believe that because we are at the top of the food chain, we can do whatever we want without consequence. One should still respect the rest of the animal kingdom.

The saddest part is this waste happens all the time, not just when an animal is killed. Think back to how much food you and your family throw into the garbage each day. The amount is quite staggering. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, on average, each American produces 1,600 pounds of garbage a year.

There are simple ways to fix this problem before it gets any worse. The first step is to be more aware of throwing food away. I’m not saying you should force it down, but instead prepare or buy less food next time. For those of you who are hunters, don’t kill something you are not going to eat. It is truly the No. 1 rule of hunting in my book, and it should near the top of everyone’s list.

After reading this, many of you will decide to place all the blame on hunters, but not all hunters are bad; the fault is not theirs alone. I know numerous people who would never dream of killing an animal without eating or using every last bit of it.

The best way to fix this problem is to look around and get some inspiration from nature. Follow the example of the wolf and the eagle.