Hunted

Someone once told me that rapists scope out their victims and deliberately choose certain type of person; who they view as easy prey. By sizing up their victim in this way, they gain control of the situation. When I heard about this, it really upset me, and I wondered if my persona could make me the victim of this violent crime once again. Once a rapist selects their target, they stalk him/her and plot their attack. Then they ambush their victim in a variety of ways such as coercion, date rape drugs, and violence.

There is a common misconception that rapists rape for sex. This is wrong. In fact, it is noted that rapists have access to legal sex; many of them have wives or girlfriends. Rapists rape for power. Serial rapists might even do it for sport, for some type of twisted thrill, that is perhaps comparable to the jolt of excitement kleptomaniacs cite to explain their addiction to stealing. After committing a rape, the rapist does not care that they just traumatized and possibly destroyed a living and breathing being. The rapist didn’t even consider that their victim was an individual with thoughts and feelings. The rapist only cared about one thing: getting what they wanted through control and domination.

This scenario reminds me of a legal activity that is commonplace and widely accepted in our country: hunting. Much like the rape scenario, hunters select their prey, and stalk the target animal, whom usually has no clue that it’s even being watched. Hunters use a variety of techniques in order to get close to and ambush their prey: camouflage, guns and ammo, flashlights, and the list goes on and on. Once they have their sights on an animal, there is little chance it can get away before the the terror and inevitable death ensue.

In today’s society, hunting is not necessary for survival; most people get their meat from a grocery store. Hunters don’t contest this fact, many say they do it for the thrill, for the sport. Some don’t eat the meat and sometimes they kill just so they could stuff the animal and make it into a wall trophy.

Hunters never stop to think about their prey’s psychological pain; the terror and anxiety the animal, a beautiful living breathing soul, feels in its final moments. Many will even argue that hunting isn’t inhumane and going for the heart is an instantaneous death. I will argue that they are wrong. I have been prey, I have been hunted.