What are your thoughts on hunting?

[Asmodean]

In Oblivion too. Two feathers?! 

Yes. For a chunk of MEAT!  And The Asmo, he has OCD when it comes to looting, so as long as it can be sold for goldies, The Asmo will carry it out, even if he can barely move as the result.

[AnimatedDirt]

Thoughts on hunting:

True story.  When I was a kid, I had a BB gun that I an my friends played with a lot one summer.  We would shoot cans, model cars, coins, just about anything that would pop, go 'Ting', or bust apart.  I was shooting stuff on my own one day and was distracted by a bird up on the top of the street light.  Without thinking, I took aim and shot.  I hit the little sparrow smack in the head.  He came down like a rock.  My first instinct was that of excitement that I hit it.  It was a pretty good shot for the height of the pole and the distance if I do say so myself.  I ran to our block fence to peer over and see the bird and of course it was dead the moment the BB hit it.  There was a trickle of blood coming out of it.  A few moments later another sparrow landed right by the dead bird and just chirped and chirped.  Then another came...it broke my heart.

From that moment on, I cannot bring myself to ever hurt an animal in that fashion.  Rats and all those objectionable vermin even get sympathy from me when they get killed or die as a result of my doing.  My dog has maimed 4 opossom and killed two this year.  I hate having to put the thing out of its misery!  I feel bad even doing that.

I couldn't hunt.  I would have a VERY difficult time even if I had to hunt to eat.  For this reason I find it difficult to understand the thinking of some of my hunting friends that simply find it so funny and fun to kill animals.

I don't have issue with those that hunt for their sustenance.  My issue is with those that kill just for fun. 

[Amalthea]

Thoughts on hunting:

True story.  When I was a kid, I had a BB gun that I an my friends played with a lot one summer.  We would shoot cans, model cars, coins, just about anything that would pop, go 'Ting', or bust apart.  I was shooting stuff on my own one day and was distracted by a bird up on the top of the street light.  Without thinking, I took aim and shot.  I hit the little sparrow smack in the head.  He came down like a rock.  My first instinct was that of excitement that I hit it.  It was a pretty good shot for the height of the pole and the distance if I do say so myself.  I ran to our block fence to peer over and see the bird and of course it was dead the moment the BB hit it.  There was a trickle of blood coming out of it.  A few moments later another sparrow landed right by the dead bird and just chirped and chirped.  Then another came...it broke my heart.

From that moment on, I cannot bring myself to ever hurt an animal in that fashion.  Rats and all those objectionable vermin even get sympathy from me when they get killed or die as a result of my doing.  My dog has maimed 4 opossom and killed two this year.  I hate having to put the thing out of its misery!  I feel bad even doing that.

I couldn't hunt.  I would have a VERY difficult time even if I had to hunt to eat.  For this reason I find it difficult to understand the thinking of some of my hunting friends that simply find it so funny and fun to kill animals.

I don't have issue with those that hunt for their sustenance.  My issue is with those that kill just for fun. 

This reminds me of interviews/stories about people who go to war or commit murder for revenge. They expect a sense of triumph but the killing leaves only guilt and an anticlimactic emptiness. I remember feeling this way too when my childhood friends poured salt on snails and asked me to join in. Now, I can barely speak to those who take any pleasure in torturing/killing animals. Isn't it odd how some people can find this sort of thing "funny and fun"? It's worse than your dog attacking critters, we people have so much else to occupy ourselves with.

[lomfs24]

First off, I have to say that it finally clicked in this morning. This is probably the first truly international forum board I have ever been on. So I am adjusting just a little bit.

With regards to hunting, I am an avid hunter, my child is an avid hunter, my younger one, not so much. And that is fine. My wife used to hunt up until we had the two little tricycle motors. Then she stayed home and took care of them while I went hunting. Last year she started again and got her first deer in a several years.

Come on folks, we pride ourselves in being rational thinkers here right? Do you really think that hunters stalk and kill only the old and sick? If you are a trophy hunter you want the largest healthiest male, if you are hunting to put food on the table you are simply hunting for the largest, for quantity.

There was a study done here in the US on Whitetail deer. There are fewer deer killed by hunters throughout the entire hunting season across the country than there are killed by cars in the same year. And cars are a only a portion of deer that die more horrific deaths each year. Winter kill is a huge percentage of deer that die each year (freezing to death), disease and predators also take a huge toll. To a deer, a hunter is slightly more than an inconvenience.

Those that want to talk about nature. Wild game has predators, depending on where you live in the world, lions, tigers and bears, oh my! Humans are simply another predator that the wild animal has to contend with.

The hunting and I am opposed to are the people who go and shoot animals just for trophies. Like shooting elephants just for the tusks, rhino's just for the horns, deer just for the antlers and leaving the rest to rot. 

I even support varmint hunting here. Prarrie Dogs and gophers. If left unchecked they will completely destroy a pasture ground within a few years.

[xSilverPhinx]

Come on folks, we pride ourselves in being rational thinkers here right? Do you really think that hunters stalk and kill only the old and sick? If you are a trophy hunter you want the largest healthiest male, if you are hunting to put food on the table you are simply hunting for the largest, for quantity.

My father is a trophy hunter, and I never really did buy that excuse

[Pharaoh Cat]

This is the only kind of trophy hunter I have any admiration for:

[Asmodean]

This is the only kind of trophy hunter I have any admiration for:

Who, the fool in the furry brown suit? Or the other guy? 

[envilid]

My story is similar to AnimatedDirt's.

I lived in the backwoods of a small town and would take the BB gun out and shoot at stuff on the summer days. I shot at a lot of stuff but the barrel on the gun was coming off of the stalk to the side, so I missed a lot (though I don't think this affected the sites). I shot at a bird way across the field, broke the branch it was on and saw the bird fly away, but I was so close and it felt pretty awesome. Then I shot at this squirrel in the tree eating an acorn it dropped the acorn and ran up the tree.

After awhile I was laying on the hood of our jeep in the sun. I heard this crash of tree limbs breaking and falling and ran over to find the squirrel lying on the ground twitching with a hole in its stomach I felt awful. To ad to that I wanted to put it out of its misery (hopefully it was already in shock), so I pumped the gun up as many time as I could and pointed the barrel at its head. Bad idea since I just left a BB sized dent in the side of its head.

I ended up taking it to my mom who thought it was sad and had it in a towel until it died.

I do not kill insects/arachnids unless they are poisonous or infesting the house like spiders sometimes do, but I've also always wanted to be an entomologist. So I now can't imagine harming an animal knowing that it is most likely self aware to some extent. (and I know insects are probably not self aware)

[Pharaoh Cat]

(and I know insects are probably not self aware)

Maybe not but they flee so I conclude that they fear, and the essence of physical pain is fear.  (Without fear, sensation is just sensation.  Fear turns it into pain.)

I rarely kill insects but now and then I will do so, if what the insect is doing or where it is doing it is intolerable to me.  On those occasions I strike swiftly and with overwhelming force. 

[envilid]

(and I know insects are probably not self aware)

Maybe not but they flee so I conclude that they fear, and the essence of physical pain is fear.  (Without fear, sensation is just sensation.  Fear turns it into pain.)

Though it may just be a sort of instinct brought on by evolution for survival. Though we are about in the same boat just the possibility that it is scared or the fact its another living life form I do not like to harm them.

[Siz]

I rarely kill insects but now and then I will do so, if what the insect is doing or where it is doing it is intolerable to me.  On those occasions I strike swiftly and with overwhelming force. 

Agreed. No animal, plant or insect has any more or less claim to life than I do. I just have the ability and power to forego my sentiments if an animal annoys me, or I otherwise have a want for anothers' death. I won't loose sleep. But I certainly don't consider 'for fun' a good enough reason to kill anything.

I would have no problem living off the land and killing for my own food or clothing. In fact I would be happier doing so given that some animals are forced to endure excessive discomfort to end up on my plate. I have a conscience, albeit variable. If we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

[Asmodean]

If we're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

[Happy_Is_Good]

I have hunted for years and I have come to believe that Hunting is cruel, but Hunting is also necessary.  So I have also come to believe that if Hunting is both cruel and necessary, then why not do it right and enjoy the doing well (and suffer the NOT doing so well)?  So, to me Hunting in it's raw form is very dramatic – many highs and lows – I figure it's as close to Bi-polar depression as you can get without actually experiencing it. 

But I do not practice Hunting raw – I refine it.  My kills are clean and without much suffering, and I demand those who hunt with me to do the same.  I am a wildlife surgeon, and I am proud of this fact.

Really...I do not hunt so much as to help others hunt: I am a Hunting Guide.  I like being a guide, for it brings in a few bucks and lets me peer into people's souls along the way.  Specifically, I guide Duck Hunts on the "Down Low" in Eastern Texas.   I do not advertise. 

When people hunt they bare their souls.  Eventually, I always ask them why they are hunting, and I figure there are just but a few good answers.  But...let is start with the worst answers! 

Some say they hunt to make them "Men"...or whatever.  These are the worst.  Killing a duck that I "call and decoy" in does not a man make.   Maybe when these guys figure out that standing ducks over decoys is no easy task, then they will change – but I've never seen it.  And they kill sloppy, too.

Some insist that the hunt for "FOOD": what a joke!  You are paying me $350 a morning, or evening, to help you hunt for food...from a skinny, wild duck?  I mean, if you get 5 pounds of meat, then you are incredibly lucky...I just don't see how this has anything to do with "FOOD"!  I mean, go to the Super Market!

Some insist that they do it as an art (and these are the majority of my customer nowadays).  I can agree – duck hunting is an art (and it's really hard)!  These guys/gals are usually the best prepared, and the best shots by far – they hit solid.  They not only score more ducks, but they tend to see how I actually do it – call them and lead them to the decoys.  Last year, I had an Australian woman take the call from me and lead them in...I was quite impressed.  Good show!  I cooked a redfish dinner for her that night (which she caught), and she gave me all the ducks – which I marianated and cooked later. Fair Trade!

I used to do deer hunts, too – but I gave it all up this year – I've got other things on my plate (so-to-speak).  Nevertheless, I do miss Hunting, and what it may teach us about the Human Condition.

Just me.

[carley]

I'm okay with hunting for food. We live way out in the country and see so many dead deer that have been hit by cars. My neighbor hunts and gives us venison sometimes. The meat is really good and it's much healthier than beef you would buy in the store. I don't agree with hunting just to kill something, though. If you take a life, make the sacrifice count. Use the meat to feed your family. Also, I don't think I could personally kill an animal. But I can cook them up.

[Pharaoh Cat]

Oddly, I only yesterday saw the parallels between hunting and fishing in terms of pride of accomplishment.  To fish successfully one needs knowledge, patience, the right equipment, and luck.  To hunt successfully, one needs those same four elements.  I guess I was a little silly to equate hunting with combat.  I saw the gun and thought soldier.  Silly.  A gun is a landlubber's fishing pole.