It also will offend the non- and anti-hunting folks who hear "baiting" and think about hunters shooting a deer with its head stuck in a pile of corn.

Whether you think "they" are here or significant or not, anti- and non-hunting groups already are here in Alabama and in great number. They're just not extremely vocal here because the majority tolerate hunting as long as it's done in a legal and, in their mind, ethical manner ... and that doesn't include "baiting."

I've had civil conversations with non-hunters about this over the years. Every one of them has said something to the effect of, "I don't care for hunting but know it's going on and will continue, but shooting a deer eating something dumped out on the ground or in a trough isn't right." That's the gist of their belief and it goes straight to the heart of what a lot of people including hunters believe is ethical or non-ethical hunting.

We can say "This is the South, they're not going to change our traditions and lifetstyle!" but they can. They already are with other things in society. We can split hairs about wild vs. fences, food plots vs. native browse vs. a corn feeder, putting out minerals or deer pee drags, sitting in a shooting house vs. stalking and so on for years. But the bottom line is that one thing - baiting, shooting a deer over or near a feeder and/or bait-food - gives a lot of people the wrong idea about hunters and ethics.