@Dutchess_III It blows my mind, because hunting can be cheaper depending on your method, a reason many take part, and secondly, the killing of one animal during a hunt to feed me versus buying part of an animal that was killed somewhere else by someone else both result in the killing of an animal to feed me.
And you’re conclusion is false. Many hunters do not hunt just to be killing it or just for fun. We eat what we kill. And what any individual considers fun is totally subjective, but for hunters it’s a matter of directly supporting their own needs through their own efforts, and the satisfaction that comes from being self sufficient (it’s up to you whether you want to define that as fun). And, regarding the fun of hunting, if it costs the same to go do something I enjoy that puts food on the table, as it does to spend the money and effort buying food, then it only makes sense to do the former.
It’s like you’re condemning the hunter for killing stuff, because there are other non-hunter-hunters killing stuff to sell to them. That’s like saying bowls are for sale at the store, why do people make their own on pottery wheels? It’s not JUST going out and killing stuff, it’s fending for one’s self and taking satisfaction in doing so… same as making leather goods, knife making, just about any type of arts or crafts. You could go pay someone to frame your photos, or you could frame them yourself. The finished product hanging on your wall means that much more to you when you did the carpentry and framing. Ever considered designing and making your own bag? Same thing, using your own abilities to acquire the things you want and need. What’s the payoff? Not just fun, development of the skills necessary to make and do those things: hunting, pottery, sewing, carpentry, etc.
And if all the cattle are free range and live real lives, then what’s the difference between bob shooting a not-so-wild cow and me shooting a wild deer? Then are you not condemning hunters for doing exactly what farmers do? The only difference I can make out, since you say the cattle live real lives, is that hunters feed themselves and their families while farmers kill animals to sell at market to feed themselves and their families.
My next question is, could you actually hunt to feed yourself? There’s a significant difference between having the will to pull the trigger and killing something, and being able to track an animal after it runs off to die because you didn’t hit the heart. You have to stalk your prey and get in a position to shoot it, or call ducks in to land within range. Can you do those things? If so (and I’m going to assume you can), then you are a capable hunter as well, but you prefer the efficiency and ease of buying what someone else hunted/killed over doing it yourself.
It sounds to me like you support the hunters that raise livestock and then hunt them down in a pen, versus self sufficient individuals that hunt them in the wild. I only say it sounds this way, because perhaps I am missing something. It seems to me that you have drawn a conclusion or formed an opinion about hunting and/or hunters without actually being one or knowing why it is they choose to do what they do. You just have your conclusion as to why they do what they do (i.e. just for fun). I only bring this up, because it makes me wonder how many people draw such conclusions with virtually no experience or relation to those they are projecting their conclusion on.