For some students, hunting hits a bullseye

The closest most Penn students have ever come to hunting is probably watching Looney Tunes' Elmer Fudd try to catch that "wascally wabbit."

But this past Monday, when most were still recovering from their post-Thanksgiving celebrations - or beginning to study for finals - high school students throughout Pennsylvania got the day off in honor of the first day of deer-hunting season. The season runs until Dec. 13, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

For those with the proper license and training, hunting animals in the wild is a recreational activity, a way for families to spend time together in the great outdoors.

While he was a high-school student in Lancaster, Penn., College sophomore Lynndon Groff often had no school on the first day of the season and would make the four-hour drive west to hunt with his brother, father and grandfather.

After waking up at 5 a.m. and dressing up in camouflage and a fluorescent orange vest and hat, Groff would spend up to 13 hours shivering up in a tree or prowling the woods for bucks.

"It's really exciting, because you put so much effort into it - but at the same time I don't think it's so much about the kill," Groff said. His family eats what it shoots and donates what it doesn't finish to a homeless shelter.

Engineering sophomore Stephanie Klebba is also an avid hunter. She's been shooting guns since the age of five and got her license when she turned 12.

"I live in a very rural area," said Klebba, whose hails from Almont, Michigan, an hour north of Detroit. "We hunt in my backyard for deer, but if we want to go more up north, more land more area, we might drive two hours north."

Like Groff, Klebba's family eats everything it shoots - from elk and venison to pheasant and bucks - which is something Klebba is very proud of.

"I know that the stuff I'm eating is natural and not hormone-injected beef . a lot of slaughterhouses can be really inhumane" she said, adding: "We rarely buy meat at my house."

Hunting may be an ordinary occurrence where Klebba is from, but most at Penn are as likely to go shoot a deer as to meet Elmer Fudd.

"A lot of people here have never been exposed [to hunting]," Klebba said. "I just found a lot of people had misinformed opinions on guns and ownership of guns."

Groff agreed, "If I tell people I own a gun, people look at me like I'm crazy," he said.

Even so, many students find the "sport of hunting" an oxymoron.

"I'm personally against it," Wharton freshman Evan Schoenbach said.

"It's just being cruel," he added. "You're depriving the animal of its future just for sport."

Those who do hunt, however, see it less as a waste and more as a part of life.

"It's about being with family and friends in the woods and enjoying nature and pursuing the hunt," Groff said. "Once it's over you have nothing to look forward to, but it still feels good you accomplished what you set out to do."

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