Hunting for Sport: Do you do it?

[Donnie]

out of my entire post, this is what you respond to? what, did it look like a low hanging fruit or something?

Look, I've been restating the same thing over and over again for the last 3 hours. I am very tired and don't have much fight left in me. If you guys want to believe that hunting is necessary then so be it.

[Xl House lX]

Never! I find it utterly disgusting. I wish all the world would just become vegetarian. Sure the animals might be less intelligent than humans but if you think about if for a second, they can still feel pain, horror and fear. I would never do that to another living being and I havent eaten animal meat since I was six.

If everyone was a vegetarian, there would be so many damned animals on this planet that society as you know it would totally change. In slaughter houses cows are killed instantaneously, no fear, no pain. Sure, there are some places some where the animal does feel fear before death, but chances are if you go to Mcdonald's today and eat a hamburger there the meat from the cow(s) it came from probably died without fear.

Regardless though, I do respect your choice to be vegetarian, I'm sure you get WAY more fiber than me

EDIT: Rethinking about the cattle in slaughter house, cows might feel fear if they understand exactly what is going on. Not all of them may though.

[aimil]

having outliers in our society doesn't make the concept necessary. If you can't afford meat then by all means go hunting, I've never disputed that you should be able too. However, every hunter on this site can't use that excuse, if you can access the internet then you can afford meat.

---------- Post added 2012-11-05 at 02:31 PM ----------



Probably the 8th time I've said this, I don't support the treatment of cattle, i just understand why we have it.

Mate seriously, only because you "understand" why the treatment of cattles is shit doesn't make it any better? Hunting is still much more morally correct IMO, and I love animals, the outdoors and everything about it.
I feed the wild animals so I get a healthy population of them and make sure their kids will be able to survive harsh winters as an example and keep them safe from predators. When doing this I get many (hopefully "happy" deers) which lived a free and good life.
Then I can each autumn go out and kill a few grownups, KNOWING that they had a good life and haven't been standing about eating themselves fat just to get ready for slaughter ....

The problem should be directed to the care of today's "animal-farming", that is wrong treatment of animals.

[Awake709]

Yes, nothing like the thrill of a hunt from ANY animal.

[smelltheglove]

Look, I've been restating the same thing over and over again for the last 3 hours. I am very tired and don't have much fight left in me. If you guys want to believe that hunting is necessary then so be it.

i think you missed my point. people - including myself - have given plenty of reasons that it is not a bad thing, maybe even a preferable thing. yet you never respond to those reasons. you just keep saying "nope, no reasons here!" and cherrypicking lines that you can respond to with "still not necessary!" you are being willfully obtuse or disingenuous at best tbh

[Noobadin]

I remember finding a deer foot in a bale of hay one time when feeding my parent's horses.

Well you don't see that everyday lol

Yes it is, there are not enough Deer to support the needs of our population. What cattle go through is horrible, but we need that influx of food. I'm all for making the living conditions of cattle better. But with the human population growing efficiency is more important that quality it seems.

You right they couldn't, just like how the normal cattle population couldn't support our eating habits, hence why they're bred. So if we start to breed deer like we do livestock, I'm certain we could support the population on venison.

[Donnie]

i think you missed my point. people - including myself - have given plenty of reasons that it is not a bad thing, maybe even a preferable thing. yet you never respond to those reasons. you just keep saying "nope, no reasons here!" and cherrypicking lines that you can respond to with "still not necessary!" you are being willfully obtuse or disingenuous at best tbh

None of the reasons posted make hunting necessary. The only one that is even close if the population argument, but honestly reintroducing native redators to areas in which Deer populations are out of control could easily fix that.

Aside from that, the reasons given have been:

- I like the grandeur of stalking my prey
- I get cravings for wild animals and don't like grocery store meat
- I enjoy nature and being a part of nature
- I like having a relationship with my food

None of these make hunting detrimental to the well being of our society, hunting is a vanity done out of preference, not necessity. Unless you are poor of course.

[~Mynta Swirl~]

Never! I find it utterly disgusting. I wish all the world would just become vegetarian. Sure the animals might be less intelligent than humans but if you think about if for a second, they can still feel pain, horror and fear. I would never do that to another living being and I havent eaten animal meat since I was six.

While I respect your opinion, in some areas, hunting is absolutely needed. In my state, more people die from car accidents caused by deer, than any other automobile related injury. Even with all of the hunting within the state, the populations are at very dangerous levels.

[xylophone]

None of the reasons posted make hunting necessary. The only one that is even close if the population argument, but honestly reintroducing native redators to areas in which Deer populations are out of control could easily fix that.

Aside from that, the reasons given have been:

- I like the grandeur of stalking my prey
- I get cravings for wild animals and don't like grocery store meat
- I enjoy nature and being a part of nature
- I like having a relationship with my food

None of these make hunting detrimental to the well being of our society, hunting is a vanity done out of preference, not necessity. Unless you are poor of course.

So we should reintroduce cougars and wolves to populated areas where white-tailed deer are overpopulated?

[Donnie]

So we should reintroduce cougars and wolves to populated areas where white-tailed deer are overpopulated?

No culls are necessary for urban areas.

[Tojara]

I've been hunting since I was 14 years old and it really is a great thrill. It's population control for some species so I am totally okay with that aspect of hunting. In a lot of areas deer, coyotes and other animals get completely out of control depending on certain factors. So there is that aspect.

My family has never hunted just for the kill though. We typically go duck, goose or moose hunting and a very small reason for that is the actual sport. We actually love eating those animals and about 95% of the reason we go hunting is to load up our freezers with meat. The meat is very lean, tastes good and is probably slightly cheaper than getting the same amount of meat from slaughtering something like a cow.

Now I am a bit torn on a subject like this. It sort of repulses me when I went hunting and I watched people kill a moose, cut off it's rack and leave the meat to rot. To me purely trophy hunting seems like such an absolute waste and it makes me a bit sick.

Yeah I do it, but not purely for the sport aspect. When we go hunting we actually walk and hike in the wilderness. People around here sit in a tree, throw out hundreds of pounds of carrots and bait things like deer. To me that really isn't hunting at all.

[xylophone]

No culls are necessary for urban areas.

I think the problem people are having with your argument is "it's unnecessary." No shit, know what else is unnecessary? Video games, movies, all other forms of entertainment, any good that can be defined as a luxury item, this website, most models of cars, and a hundred other things. There is nothing unethical about hunting as long as you eat what you kill and you follow standard sustainable practices. In many cases, like others have said, eating wild game can be even more ethical than eating farm raised animals.

[Flimsy]

Never have nor never will especially not for sport.

[Obby]

if by sport you mean kill it take antlers and essentially throw the meat away never now killing and donateing/giveing the meat to family members and friends is different

[BlahBlahFrigginBlah]

Holy shit, man....it's going in one ear and out the other with you.

I quit. You are too stubborn and don't want to understand/comprehend what you are reading and what others are telling you.

thats why i quit earlier, he's just been trolling for several pages now

[Nathreim]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittman...estoration_Act

The money from the above bill and others like it have contributed more to the conservation of game animals in America and their habitat than all other organizations combined. 5.5 billion has been collected since 1937 which has purchased millions of acres of land for national parks.

Endangered species from around the world have been saved because hunters imported them to the US. In the 70s the Scimitar Horned Oryx went extinct in its natural habitat but because of game ranchers in Texas they have survived. Total population of Oryx in Texas in the 70s was 2,700 now its more than 12,000. All reintroduction attempts from various organizations started with animals purchased from these game ranches. Nilgai antelope also faced extinction now they thrive in there home habitats because of game ranches. Nearly half the entire population of Blackbuck antelope survive on game ranches in Texas. Whitetail deer, Wild Turkey, and Pronghorn antelope have all gone from nearly extinct to thriving in the US because of the billions payed by hunters that goes to their conservation.

Hunters have been a negative force in the past that cant be disputed but in the last 80 years hunters in America have become a large and wildly successful force for the conservation of natural habitat and species.

[Jackmoves]

None of the reasons posted make hunting necessary. The only one that is even close if the population argument, but honestly reintroducing native redators to areas in which Deer populations are out of control could easily fix that.

Aside from that, the reasons given have been:

- I like the grandeur of stalking my prey
- I get cravings for wild animals and don't like grocery store meat
- I enjoy nature and being a part of nature
- I like having a relationship with my food

None of these make hunting detrimental to the well being of our society, hunting is a vanity done out of preference, not necessity. Unless you are poor of course.

I don't mind natural predators, we got wolfs, bears etc, but introducing them into new territories is creating other problems, one which we already see here is the fact that wolfs go after sheeps for example. Which makes the owner of said sheeps well pissed for obvious reasons.

Another animal that causes problems are mooses, which is a pretty common animal here, all our major roads got proper fencing to keep them off the roads but you still have accidents, getting a moose through your front window is pretty much hastala vista, you are lucky to get out alive.

Wild boar, they breed like rabbits, they cause absolute havoc, they will ruin a garden in a couple of hours, this also creates conflicts with locals.

Animals can coexist side by side with humans, but it's not as simple as you make it out to be.

[Aalyy]

I don't hunt and never could unless I needed the food. I think eating meat is optimal for human health and I realize that taking life to give life is just how the world works. Still, I prefer to be respectful about it and I see no sport in bloodshed. That said, hunting has been essential to human survival since humans first appeared on earth so I think it's natural for some to be hard wired to enjoy it. Esp men. We may not all have to hunt down our dinner everyday but it's hard to deny evolutionary instincts like that. I'm glad my bf doesn't hunt and has to desire to do so though.

---------- Post added 2012-11-05 at 04:25 PM ----------

Fact: Prehistoric man ate far less meat than we do today. Want meat? Go to a supermarket and buy some that's already been slaughtered. Hunting for food is obsolete in this society. Enough animals suffer in some pretty poor conditions so you can have access to fresh meat.

Our prehistoric ancestors ate meat. There is even evidence to show that the extra protein and fat allowed us to evolve such large brains. Now if we move on from our ancestral species to early and modern humans the evidence for meat eating is clear. Of course adaptability is one of the main things that allowed humans to prosper so different populations ate varying amounts of meat. The ones who ate the least meat were the ones with the least access to it though.

Vegetables are an important part of our diet but it doesn't make much sense that such a grueling demanding lifestyle like early humans lived would have been fueled through vegetation. Meat is also very nutritious which a lot of people forget about. You think healthy you think low fat, low calorie veggies. That's not really the whole picture. Meat is also very nutritious and is a completely natural food that we evolved eating.

[Marxman]

I'm far from a PETA supporter, but I do have a mental block against killing for sport. If something isn't bothering me, I'd prefer to leave it be.

Except spiders. Fuck spiders.

[FathomFear]

I'm a vegan myself. However, if someone decides to eat meat then I respect the decision to hunt over, say, buying meat from a grocery store. While I don't inherently object to eating meat (I'm a vegan purely because I think it's healthier) I do object to the practices of most big businesses in the meat industry.

In most cases, the guy who goes hunting for food has a much smaller carbon footprint than huge cow/pig farms that are raising animals in pretty horrible conditions. If we're going to complain about anything, this is what needs the attention the most. Not some average joe hunter.