Might make you want to shoot a Spotted Owl or eat a baby seal.

In any event, hunters in normally sportsmen friendly South Dakota are voicing upset over a hunter’s safety manual that offers instructions on how to avoid offending non-hunters and animal rights activists.

In a series of photos, the manual emphasizes steps that hunters should take to avoid offending the non-hunting public, including not wearing clothing with visible blood in public and covering game carcasses and dead animals when hauling them home after a successful hunt.  More troubling to some critics, advice on keeping firearms out of sight to avoid scaring or offending people who don’t like guns.

While some see the guidelines as an attempt at courtesy, in an open carry firearms state like South Dakota, a growing number of hunters are expressing offense of their own at instructions that cast America’s proudest hunting traditions and even gun ownership as something to be hidden out of shame or secrecy.

When transporting game, be sure to keep it covered to avoid offending others.

–South Dakota Hunter’s Safety Manual

One hunter, after taking the course with his son voiced concern about having an intrusion of political correctness in an area of rural living that has long been embraced as a family and cultural tradition of the American outdoors.

“It just makes a guy kind of mad to be preached at or have it treated like it’s some kind of crime that we have to cover up and keep hidden from the public in order to prevent someone from being offended.  Especially when you’re trying to pass along something that’s been special to you and your family to the next generation, I think it’s the wrong message to send that we have to be scared of offending someone or that we have to go so far out of our way to be discreet about something that is part of American life.”