Social Question

Dutchess_III's avatar

Is there a connection between sport hunting, and killing for no reason, other than for fun? Please read details.?

Asked by Dutchess_III (46811points) September 7th, 2015

I know this is going to start a fire but a recent post got me to wondering again.

The jelly posted this article, then pulled some excerpts from it, and posted them.

The last line, which I have italicized and bolded notes that when they placed the fake animals on the shoulder of a road leading to a popular gun club, drivers were twice as likely to swerve to hit the animals than were drivers on other roads.

Do they just do that for “fun?”

Is there a connection between sport hunting, and wanton, mindless killing?

Thank you you know who you are for the following which I copied and pasted from your post. It isn’t really necessary to read it to answer this question, but I wanted to give credit.

******************************************************

“The study was conducted by Nathan Weaver, a student at Clemson University in South Carolina (article on the study) wanted to examine the reason behind the declining rate of box turtles (article on the study).

There was a similar study done by Mark Rober of NASA, again with fake turtles on the shoulder of the road, This is what he did:

• He alternatively placed a rubber animal—and a leaf as a control object—on the shoulder of a road: a turtle, a snake, or a spider.

• He watched one thousand cars pass by and annotated the drivers’ reaction.

He found out that 94 percent of drivers did what anyone in their sane mind would do: keep driving on their lane. Remember that the animals were on the road’s shoulder, way outside their driving path. They didn’t pose any danger whatsoever to the drivers’ safety.

On the other hand, six percent went out of the driving lane to run over the animals. Think about that: sixty out of one thousand drivers actually went out of their way to kill a living thing that didn’t represent any danger to their lives—and possibly risking their own lives in the process.

89% of the 6% were SUV drivers.

He did the same experiment with a leaf (0 hits), a tarantula (29%), a snake (27%) of 1,000 drivers.

He did the same experiment with a leaf (0 hits), a tyrantula (29%), a snake (27%).

He did the same experiment on the shoulder of a road leading to a popular gun club. He found that the chances were equal that the turtle would be hit as the other animals , but the chances of a driver swerving out of their way to kill them were nearly double.

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4 Answers

stanleybmanly's avatar

Isn’t that pretty much the definition of sport hunting? I suppose you can hunt for trophies, if you’re hunting for food, I guess the fun is in dining.

Dutchess_III's avatar

No. The biggest argument is “We’re hunting to feed our families!” I was kinda tempted to ask the hunters, who were eating double cheese burgers at Braums the other day, why they do it.

elbanditoroso's avatar

Too little data, in my opinion, to make an opinion.

I’ve got methodology problems, too. How big was the turtle? How big was the tarantula? How big was the snake? If I am going 55 mph, do I really have the visual acuity to focus in an pick up that this is a tarantula? I seriously doubt it.

I would also suggest that both snakes and tarantulas are seen as dangerous, poisonous animals. So I think at least one reason for swerving is that the driver thought he was doing the world a favor by killing reptiles and insects that were dangerous to humans.

If he were doing a serious experiment, he would have compared ‘sympathetic’ animals like rabbits or foxes to ‘unsympathetic’ animals like skunks.

Bottom line to me is that the experiment was flawed, the choice of animals was flawed, and the conclusions are meaningless.

He might get an A on his term paper for creativity, but as a scientific study that reveals anything useful, not a chance.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

Strange, I don’t mind hunting but always stop and pick up turtles in the road to move them where they will be safe. I even avoid hitting snakes. I’d like to see how many stopped to move the turtles.

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