Let’s start with a loose definition of an oxymoron, a contradiction of terms in the same word, sentence, or utterance. Take the word, ‘sportsman’ for example.
A recent Sierra Nevada Ally piece by Kelsey Penrose centers on efforts by two hunters and a game warden to remove an entanglement from the impressive antlers of a mule deer. It adds some fluff…that sportsmen care passionately about ‘wildlife’, contribute financially to help fund the Nevada Department of Wildlife, benevolently kill ‘wildlife’ to avoid ‘overpopulation’ (an assertion that is not true, most animal populations can control their own population) ….and the like.
It is true that sportsmen voluntarily purchase a hunting, fishing, or trapping license, apply for and purchase tags (necessary to be able to make a kill of a deer, bighorn, elk, or pronghorn), volunteer for projects like building and maintaining guzzlers (remote self-collecting water ‘stations’), and hold annual banquets for fundraising purposes to support ‘wildlife’ management in Nevada.
A naïve member of the public might reasonably assume, then, that sportsmen have an unqualified empathetic high regard for all animals and birds the public would regard as ‘wildlife’.
Unfortunately, not so. There is a dark side.