What are your thoughts on hunting?

[Buddy]

Penn and Teller did an Bullsh1t episode on PETA. Don't know how much of it is true, though.

Oh yea I remember that. It was really funny and a little scary at the same time.

[Tank]

Penn and Teller did an Bullsh1t episode on PETA. Don't know how much of it is true, though.

Oh yea I remember that. It was really funny and a little scary at the same time.

I think that pretty much sums up Penn and Teller!

[xSilverPhinx]

Penn and Teller did an Bullsh1t episode on PETA. Don't know how much of it is true, though.

Oh yea I remember that. It was really funny and a little scary at the same time.

I think that pretty much sums up Penn and Teller!

That's why I like them

[Gawen]

I eat meat. Love the stuff. Back in the day I hunted...for food. For about $40 I could get roughly 80-100 pounds of venison, and that would last 4 or five months...double that for an extra $25. I never hunted for sport. I could care less about antlers or a prime specimen of a pheasant. What I care about are the Peta type idiots that think it's just great fun to run amuck in the forest clanging pots and pans while people hunt.

[OldGit]

Right.  In England nowadays you can be walking with a shotgun across farmland, with permission, and get harassed by these idiots.  You may learn afterwards that they then went to the police and accused you of threatening them with your gun.

[Sgtmackenzie]

Hunting is big business in Michigan.    One of the very few big businesses..... 

I think that controlled hunting is necessary, that the meat should be used whenever an animal is hunted - if not by the hunter, there are always groups or individuals that are willing to take the donations.    The deer population is growing so fast that farmers are having issues with the destruction of crops and vehicle/deer accidents are so common that nearly everyone has a story or three about when they or someone close to them hit a deer.

However....

I have only gone hunting for deer once with a gun in my hands, and took one deer.   I couldn't eat the meat, even though my family did - and I am not vegetarian.   Something about actually taking the life wasn't up my alley, and I haven't been out hunting since.

[xm1]

Hunting is big business in Michigan.    One of the very few big businesses..... 

I think that controlled hunting is necessary, that the meat should be used whenever an animal is hunted - if not by the hunter, there are always groups or individuals that are willing to take the donations.    The deer population is growing so fast that farmers are having issues with the destruction of crops and vehicle/deer accidents are so common that nearly everyone has a story or three about when they or someone close to them hit a deer.

However....

I have only gone hunting for deer once with a gun in my hands, and took one deer.   I couldn't eat the meat, even though my family did - and I am not vegetarian.   Something about actually taking the life wasn't up my alley, and I haven't been out hunting since.

Yeah when I use to live in the vicksburg/kalamazoo area you would know hunting season had begun because of the increase in sirens out in the country.  People were getting hurt often.  Two men were even found dead a field over from our house one season.

So far I have only killed one deer with my truck.  The other two times the deer caught it in the butt and scampered off leaving me with a 'minor' repair to the front headlights.  This was all not intentional though I know a few who seem to go hunting that way.

Last night my wife came home with a pile of processed deer.  Her family are all hunters and they manage to kill enough to spread around the whole family.  I am okay with it but the duality of it bothers me.  I love the aspca, I am the go to for cat adoption among friends, I sometimes still think peta does good things, and I could never kill a deer myself intentionally.  But if i had to in order to survive, I would NOT use a bow.  The few I know who do this I sometimes will hassle them for it.  Such a disturbing method to track a bleeding animal.

 

[Guardian85]

Modern compound bows, crossbows or firearms. As long as you have the skills to make a clean, efficient kill, and the patience and disipline to wait for that perfect shot, it doesn't really matter what you kill with.

[Asmodean]

As long as you have the skills to make a clean, efficient kill, and the patience and disipline to wait for that perfect shot, it doesn't really matter what you kill with.

Strategic nuclear weapons.

[Guardian85]

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing... 

[Tank]

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing... 

And when did that happen in reality? 

[Pharaoh Cat]

I happily eat meat.  If I had to kill and butcher on my own behalf, I would, but I don't, so I don't.

Hunting for trophies makes no sense to me, not for moral reasons, but for psychological ones.  The only trophy that would mean anything to me would be the beast I killed with a knife in a fair fight.  Hell, I think if I killed a mugger in a fair fight, I might be tempted to have the corpse (or at least the head) stuffed and mounted.  But shooting something that can't shoot back just doesn't feel like glory to me.  Now, if I found myself in a gunfight with a sniper and won, I might be tempted to stick the head on my wall.

[Asmodean]

I happily eat meat.  If I had to kill and butcher on my own behalf, I would, but I don't, so I don't.

Hunting for trophies makes no sense to me, not for moral reasons, but for psychological ones.  The only trophy that would mean anything to me would be the beast I killed with a knife in a fair fight.  Hell, I think if I killed a mugger in a fair fight, I might be tempted to have the corpse (or at least the head) stuffed and mounted.  But shooting something that can't shoot back just doesn't feel like glory to me.  Now, if I found myself in a gunfight with a sniper and won, I might be tempted to stick the head on my wall.

A person after The Asmo's little black heart! 

[Squid]

I live is small town south Texas and we have A LOT of deer.  Even with hunting season in full swing the deer are often overpopulated and in search of food and other resources they wander onto highways, into the city and munch on the neighborhood greenery.  It's extremely common for me to drive to work in the morning and see several mauled deer carcases on the side of the road that were hit the night before.  In this instance is helps for population control but, like now, even hunting hasn't made a significant enough dent in the population.  Disease has also become a problem as well, as it does with many large populations of organisms.  Without hunting I think it would be quite worse then what it is now.

[Will]

I think so long as the hunter does everything conceivable to prevent the animal from suffering, it's okay. I feel the same way about farming. I like animals and I like eating animals. This is the only logical compromise I can think of.