Huntress mom straps 9-month-old daughter to her back and takes her on expeditions while she kills animals with bow and arrow
A huntress has raised eyebrows across the internet after revealing how she takes her nine-month-old daughter on hunts and even has a custom "hunting outfit" for their expeditions. The 30-year-old mother, Rebekah Stephens, from Ohio, fell in love with hunting when she was just seven years old. She would accompany her father on his hunts and grew to adopt the traditional pastime, according to a Daily Mail report.
Rebekah told the outlet how she takes her daughter along with her during the expeditions armed with just a bow and arrow. Furthermore, she even bought her daughter a "cute" outfit to wear on their trips. "I hope that she loves to hunt and fish as I do; she already adores the outdoors," she said.
The young mother was only 10 years old when she had her first hunt back in 1999. She grew up feeding on the animals hunted by her father. Now, Rebekah is an accomplished huntress and has taken down deer, turkeys, and rabbits over the years. Her biggest kill till now has been a whitetail deer which weighed just over 14 st 4 Ib. Her kills are usually used to eat or incorporated in home décor or clothing.
"I was brought up in a small town in New Jersey and my father taught me how to hunt and fish at an early age," Rebekah said, explaining how she felt grateful to her father for encouraging her to enjoy the outdoors. "Even at a young age I was obsessed with the outdoors and took to it even more than my brothers. I'm extremely thankful to have a dad who thought girls could hunt too. As a little kid, I knew it simply as a way of putting food on the table, we didn't buy beef, we always had deer meat. As I got older, I saw it as a way to escape the outside world and relax."
"I love everything about hunting, but I've always loved being outdoors," she continued. "It's peaceful and I see so many things in the woods that others never get to see. I'm also providing food for myself and family. Lastly, money from my hunting license goes towards funding conservation."
Speaking of involving her young daughter in the hobby, Rebekah said, "Although I'm not sure it's a hunt I did shoot a few rabbits in the backyard and took my daughter with me. Her first official hunt was youth turkey season when I took my friend and her daughter turkey hunting. We had to be there before daylight, so I got my daughter up early, fed her and drove to the spot we were hunting."
"We had a ground blind (tent) set up to sit in and wait," she continued. "She did extremely well for an eight-month-old baby and was very quiet the whole time, for five hours."
Meanwhile, Rebekah tries not to let negative comments from strangers bother her. "Some people love it, yet others think it is too extreme and dangerous. Some have even wished ill on my life for taking my daughter hunting," she said. "I get quite a few anti-hunters saying things like, 'how would you like it if someone hunted you and your baby' and other things along the lines of, 'how can you teach an innocent baby such horrible things like hunting?'. I try not to let it bother me; it can be tough at times, but strangers online don't know me, so really cannot judge me."
On that note, Rebekah said she has high hopes for her daughter Isabella, who is extremely well behaved on hunts. "I hope that she loves to hunt and fish as I do; she already adores the outdoors," she said. "However, if she chooses not to hunt and fish, I will respect her decision. There is always much respect in taking a life. If you haven't been in my shoes and lived this lifestyle, you really can't judge what is best."
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