Is Hunting right?

[SantoUno]

It's terrible, not right at all. Could you seriously be alright with animals being killed just for fun or sport? Absolutely horrible.

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

Anyone who hunts with a gun or a prissy bow and arrow is a pussy.


Real men hunt with KNIVES and GRENADES.

Psssh. REAL men hunt with nothing but a spoon.

Why a spoon, milord?

 

[Tommy.223]

The scenario OP described is repellent to me- hunting, albeit in the loosest sense of the word, animals for sadistic purposes strikes me as wrong.
I understand and support the sporting aspects of proper hunting, and I'm a strong proponent of hunting when it helps control the population of animals which have lost their natural predators.

...And,by some *ahem* coincidence,much of the hunting (at least in Europe and North America) is done for the aforementioned evulz,and nothing else.

Tell me that after a whitetail deer throws itself in front of your car on a January night and you have to walk two miles to the nearest farmhouse to call the authorities. Humans were stupid enough to kill off all the wolves which kept those stupid vermin under control, and now we're obliged to control the vermin ourselves. I'd much rather let the wolves do it personally but it'll be a while before they make a proper comeback.

unfortunatly they have once again legalized hunting wolves so i guess we are gonna have to start killing the vermin again.

 

[Tommy.223]

What's hypocritical is the correlation between the cuteness of the animal and whether public opinion is in favour of hunting it. If people were hunting rats with hounds in the same way as foxes, no one would care. But foxes are cute so it's not right to hunt them.

No one ever seems to care about fishing either. I fish myself, and no one ever looks down on me when you I them that. But deer hunting is evil apparently. Imagine if you caught a deer by dragging it through the woods by its lips?

i guess i'm an exception to your rules. i utterly despise foxes after 2 of my cats were killed by one. and i still don't like fox hunting.

this is more because of the redundancy of it though. it has been proven that it doesn't control the population like people claim it does. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_hunting#Pest_control]

and i don't like people who fish for no reason besides the joy of killing. if you were to kill them for food, fine, go right ahead. if you are to kill them for fun however, i really wont like that at all.

at my ranch we have been killing the fox's for a while (i still don't like it) but they almost eliminated the turkey population that is now barely making a comeback.

 

[VitalSigns]

No, its not even close to right.

 

[Julianking93]

I absolutely dispise hunting.

I don't get how killing another living creature that you share this planet with is considered "fun"

The only way hunting is acceptable to me is if you have to do it for food and there is no other possible way to get food.

 

[dnnydllr]

Hunting is a neccassary part of controlling the animal population. The area where I live used to be full of mountain lions. Now that they're gone, there are all kinds of deer running around. I couldn't even tell you how many people have hit (or been hit by) deer whilst driving. If not for hunting, these accidents would increase tremendously. There really isn't any other humane way to control the population higher. If you let it get too high, the food supply will be too low to sustain all the animals and they'll starve to death...

 

[Mcupobob]

I don't really hunt be we do kill woodpeckers and bluejays.
The woodpeckers tear up the property and the those bluejays won't stay out of the vineyard and keep eating the grapes and make a mess of things too.
I think hunting for fun is approite alot better than just raising em' in a slaughter house to be eating, I don't care either way though. Anmails also need to be kept in check too if we don't hunt the deer begin to take out drivers because their heards get pushed into the town and end up hurting alot of people and themselfs.

 

[Azraellod]

at my ranch we have been killing the fox's for a while (i still don't like it) but they almost eliminated the turkey population that is now barely making a comeback.

that wasn't my objection to it.

if you protect your farm from foxes by shooting them or poisoning them ect, then i can accept that. that is an effective method of population control, and though i don't particularly like to watch, i acknowledge it as effective.

however, fox hunting as in a bunch of people on horses commanding a load of dogs has been proven not to impact the fox population. it is just a waste of time, and is unnecessarily cruel since it doesn't achieve anything.

 

[Dr. Gorgenflex]

I never saw anyone hunt just for sport, atleast they eat the food, but personally I'm for hunting AS LONG as it's NOT for sport.

Ya as long as they hunt for some reason or another I'm fine with it. But people can do whatever they want, I don't want to stop them.

 

[RufusMcLaser]

I absolutely dispise hunting.

I don't get how killing another living creature that you share this planet with is considered "fun"

The only way hunting is acceptable to me is if you have to do it for food and there is no other possible way to get food.

Your views are incomprehensible to me, unless perhaps you are poorly informed. Is hunting for population control not adequate justification?
A lot of posts in this thread seem to implicitly assume hunting is done out of some sort of blood lust. I submit that this is generally not the case. I grew up in an area where hunting whitetail deer, wild turkeys, pheasants, and ducks (each within their appropriate season) was very popular, and many people traveled elsewhere to hunt more difficult game such as elk or mule deer. In each case the "sport" is carefully regulated and controlled for ecological reasons.
I am NOT a hunter. I find it frequently exhausting, always boring, and never particularly rewarding. I think Midwest venison is rarely worth eating. Turkey and pheasant can be, but aren't always.
Anyhow- the many hunters I know hunt for different reasons. In many cases it seems to be for the challenge, because these animals are not particularly easy to kill. Skill and preparation are often a factor and this apparently leaves many hunters with a sense of accomplishment, particularly when their effort pays off with a "trophy" kill of one sort or another.
I don't find it particularly rewarding, as I've said, but I can understand their motivation.

 

[Mcupobob]

Please describe for me then what defines a sentient being. And please do not quote a dictionary or wikipedia.

The thing is not that they're fully sentient. The thing is that,i repeat,they feel pain. And if hunter hunts out of his sadism,not neccesity to feed himself,there can be a lot of pain.

Sadistic hunters share a page with Dr.Mengele in my books,because... well,they like to hurt DEFENSELESS living beings.

DId you just compare hunters to concetration camps where the tortured jews? Try telling that to a survier of the holocaust and I think he/she would be very insulted.

 

[Kollega]

snip

Dude,i don't mean bears. But can squirrels or badgers eat you? Don't think so.

I guess that there's not too much of Friends To All Living Things here at the Escapist.

 

[axia777]

For food yes. For trophies no.

 

[axia777]

double post

 

[squid5580]

When it's done for profit,or worse - for the lulz,and involves butchering innocent animals...

NO,IT FUCKING ISN'T.

Only time when humans should go hunting is when they have nothing to eat or nothing to wear in -30 Celsius. Hunting For The Evulz is just unneccesarily cruel.

Do you eat meat? If you do, do you know that animals are raised in captivity to feed your meat craving desires? Do you know that most egg farms contain chickens that are caged their entire lives to produce said eggs?

I'm sorry but I have a problem with people who have a problem with hunting yet aren't vegetarians/vegans. It's incredibly hypocritical. Hunting is many times more humane then caged farming. I have to spend 8-48 hours (on a good hunt) out in the mountains, cold as hell, sitting there waiting for an animal or actively seeking one out in order to even be successful. Even then, if I do see an animal, it quite often isn't going to be one that I can or am willing to take. If it is under a certain age, I won't shoot. If it's of a gender that my permit doesn't allow, I won't shoot. If it's too old, I won't shoot. That's a pretty small margin to be successful.

If you really feel this strongly about hunting and its "evuls" then maybe you should read some of PETA's message about how animals are treated in captivity and join up with them. I don't hunt when I need clothes or NEED food. I hunt to supplement my family's meat (I could just as easily go and buy a package of ground beef or steaks). I don't have deer heads mounted on my walls but I do give the bones and such to a local butcher who makes use of them or knows individuals who can. Every part of the animal is used.

BTW, isn't farming of animals done basically an incredibly toned down version of "hunting for profit"?

I agree that hunting for "the lulz" as you put it is asanine and stupid, but hunting for profit (selling the meat) means that all animal farmers in essence should be put out of business.

BTW, I hunt with both a 30.06 and with a compound bow. Guess I'm only half "evuls" then. Which do you consider more humane, having the animal lose its heart and lungs instantly and dying within seconds, or having a half inch hole punched in its side and piercing its lungs so that it slowly suffocates and bleeds to death? That's the difference between using a hunting rifle and using a bow. Honestly it's hard to take you seriously when you speak like that even though I know it's for dramatic effect.

Couldn't have said it better myself. If you are eating what you kill it is no worse than going to your grocery store and pickin up a burger. At least you know where it came from. The animal had a chance (since hunting even with a powerful gun isn't as easy as people seem to think) and if the hunter is a real hunter the animal didn't suffer much. Not like our bred domestic animals that spend thier days living in thier own shit until they die.

 

[A random person]

If it's for food, I think it's rather justified. If it's for sport or any other reason like that, it's just pointless killing.