Is Going Hunting WRONG?

a positive no.

for one, it keeps down the deer population in my area

hence, less deer related car accidents

Unless it is a matter of survival, I am personally opposed to hunting. I think it takes a certain kind of person to enjoy killing animals…not the kind of person I’d ever like to be.

I think hunting is wrong only if people do it for pure sport and aren’t going to eat and use whatever part of the animal they can. I don’t like it and I’d personally never do it… And I have trouble understanding people that do it… But yeah.

I do not think hunting is wrong as long as the meat is not wasted. I also like the practice of the ancient Hawaiians and other peoples close to the land who gave thanks to the animals and the land for the bounty provided by the hunt.

Dick Cheney hunting lawyers on a farm where animals are set up—an abomination. I suspect, most hunters do not consider that hunting though.

I don’t believe hunting is wrong, if the animal is being used for food. Most hunters respect the animal they kill, and appreciate what they get from it. I do believe it’s wrong if your just doing it for bragging rights and a head to mount on your wall.

Deer jerky says no.

I was hunting for my car keys just this morning. That was okay, right?

I wouldn’t go as far as to say hunting is wrong. It isn’t something that I would ever do because it would be very hard for me to kill an animal. I have a younger brother who hunts and I have a friend who hunts and both of them use as much of the animal as they can (the hide, the meat) with very little waste so I guess I can see the merit in that.

I know there are locations here in Arizona where they have hunts every year to control animal populations to prevent overgrazing and possible spread of illness in the herds so I understand hunting for that reason too.

I like to eat lamb and beef but those are domesticated animals and I guess I place a distinction between wild and domesticated animals when it comes to my food sources.

You know one thing that really bothers the hell out of me though? Big game hunters that go on Safari’s and kill exotic or possibly engangered animals for trophies.

I think hunting (for food) is more honest for anyone who eats meat. It creates a more direct relationship with your food source, which is good in any case.

I have never hunted, but I think I would prefer it. A hunter friend echoes some of the statements here, characterizing hunting seasons as a “harvest” since it supports healthy depredation of populations.

As long as the animal dies somewhat quickly, kevbo is right about that. Hunting, in a lot of cases, is actually more human than the way most animals are killed for food. Unfortunate, but true. If I had to hunt to eat meat, I’d probably become a vegetarian, because I couldn’t ever kill an animal.

I think we should hunt each other in order to control the human population.

@kevbo that’s why I say I’m allowed to eat meat. I have killed it, I have butchered it, I have eaten it. I have felt it in its environment. I haven’t raised it in intensive conditions and forced it to grow by feeding it shit loads of chemical crap. I haven’t injected it with steroids as it grows in the egg, or when it’s born.
The meat I kill and eat is wild, and happy.
I have gotten very upset before when seeing an inexperienced hunter go out in the field, and not being capable of dispatching their quarry properly, injure animals and put them in pain.
No one (sensible) likes killing animals, no one likes seeing them in pain. I actually fell in love with hunting because it’s a very basic primitive thing where you’re in the wilds stalking your prey. It is the best way to get back to nature.

^just as soon as I’m done with this doobie^

that was for my man, petie

@augustlan not everyone who hunts/has hunted enjoys killing animals, aka me.

and my father and brother and all the people I’ve hunted with for that matter.

Well lots of cultures still hunt for their daily food supply which is ok if it’s controlled and they don’t hunt things to the point of extinction.
But I do have a problem with people hunting for fun. In Australia we cull vermin, supposedly Govt controlled? Things like wild brumbies, camels, goats, pigs, water buffalo.
They stopped culling salt water crocodiles a few years back and now we are overpopulated with the buggers, even to the extent that they eat an occasional local or some unfortunate tourist.
So yes some controlled hunting I can accept, but what really gets me angry and it takes a lot! I recall a couple of years back camping off to one side of a bush track, and hearing multi gunshots in the night.
The next morning coming across six various sized Kangaroos lying dead on a remote bush track, finding females with dead young still in their pouches. Some idiots out joyriding and shooting our native wildlife just for the hell of it, BASTARDS…
Not forgetting that the Kangaroo is an emblem on the coat of arms for our country…
Oh yes they are control culled for human consumption and the pet food market…
An excellent question!

@cage If you don’t enjoy the sensation of killing an animal, why do it? There are other ways to enjoy the outdoors. Let me be clear, if I had to hunt in order to survive, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I do not, however, understand doing it for pleasure. Eating the meat is a byproduct of the ‘sport’, not the reason for it.

If I had to hunt my food I’d be a vegetarian.

For sport, I think it’s wrong. For survival, no.

I’ve only ever even fished once, and I didn’t enjoy it one bit. And I wasn’t about to eat anything I caught in the East River, let me tell you.

Only the hunters will survive when the shit hits the fan.

@augustlan for some reason hunting adds to the idea that I’m in the wild. I like the idea I’m being more in touch with my roots, and I’m very happy to know I’m taking the life of an animal that has had a very happy life and will be treated with respect through its death and beyond. Something a lot of animals don’t get these days.

@jonsblond someone said that to me actually and he meant it. Imagine being trapped on a desert island with fish and boars and stuff. The guy who just sticks to the coconuts will be dead in a week

@cage I’m happy my man hunts. It’s my turn to learn (I do fish though). The day will come, just hopefully not in our lifetime.

I am an ex-hunter, but I find people who want to condemn hunters don’t know what they are talking about. Most of my friends still hunt, and as a proud carnivore, (well, technically an omnivore) I enjoy a good cut of meat, and wild game is darn tasty. Hunting serves a purpose, it keeps animal populations under control. If you don’t like hunting, don’t do it. I don’t like chinese food, so I don’t eat it. I also don’t condemn those that do like it. To each his own. Why people feel the need to enforce their personal morals on others confounds the crap out of me. Hunters have to have a permit or a license to kill their prey, and no decent hunter will leave an animal to suffer, nor will they engage in the immoral practices of poaching, hunting out of season, killing protected species, or any other such illegal activity. Calling it a sport doesn’t mean you are a bad person. You can enjoy the sport of hunting, and still eat the creature that you killed. Back when I was a hunter, I killed all sorts of wild creatures. They were culled with respect and mercy.

I think it would be funny if it was proven that plants could feel pain, because what would the vegetarians eat then? Hey did you hear that, it sounded like a stalk of asparagus screaming in pain.

I think I know a few vegetarians who would have no problem surviving on coconuts for a week.
Check out life on the Cocus Islands, they use all parts of the coconut for just about everything…

@mij okay, take away the coconuts?

@evelyns I can see the pain my plants suffer when they are not watered. I hear ya!

Who’s to say that that carrot isn’t as cute as that pig, or that corn stalk doesn’t feel like that cow.

I don’t know any hunters that don’t eat the meat that they kill.

In fact, I have a pigs heart and liver in my frizzer now. We didn’t kill it, but it came from the farm my hubby works at. Nothing goes to waste.

As long as I continue to occasionally eat meat I would be a hypocrite to decry hunting. After all, chances are that the deer that was shot in the forest enjoyed a far better life than the chicken, cow, pig, etc. that was slaughtered in a factory farm. Just google factory farming if you’re somehow ignorant of the incredible abuses most livestock go through. That said, it does disturb me that anyone could kill for the “sport” of it – that is someone whom actually gets pleasure from killing. But otherwise, I don’t have a problem with it.

I don’t think hunting is wrong. I have been quail hunting before it was fun. I got up early on Thanksgiving and went out to a farm with my uncle and his brittany spaniel. They dog chased them out of fencerows and we shot the poor little birds. We took them home cleaned them, stuffed them and cooked them alongside the turkey. They were delicious. Thats the only time I hunted and it is a good memory for me.

I guess where I grew up at has contributed to the way I feel. A lot of men and women in family and community hunt. The local newspaper prints pictures of people and dead deer, turkey, coyotes, fish etc. There will be pictures of 8 year old kids with a gun and dead deer with the caption “Timmy’s First Buck” or some shit. It just seems normal to me. Im a fan of venison that I get regularly from local sources so I rely on hunters for my deer roast and jerky meat.

Some animals need to be hunted because they are nuisances such as introduced and native species like nutrias, feral hogs, and coyotes. This animals can invade ecosystems and reek havoc.

Do you get pleasure from killing that fly buzzing around your face? What’s the difference?

In no way am I condoning killing for the sport of it, just making a comparison. It seems ok to kill an ugly bug, but not a cute pig.

Whatju huntin for?

Kill it,cook it,eat it, no problem and no moral quandary.

Can’t generalize the term HUNTING.

For every decent hunter out there that adheres to some sort of moral code there are armies of rednecks with plenty of beer cans, Mossbergs and nothing to do with a buck but to drag the head to their local taxidermist and leaving the rest of the animal to rot. (Couldn’t use it anyways cause 3 or 4 guys discharge at it with 4 different guns, ooorah).

And as long as Palin shoots wolf babies from a helicopter I think there should be a differentiation in terms. I have no issues with Fluther-compatible hunting, e.g. as mentioned before properly and skillfully dispatching your quarry and eating it.

Unfortunately, I am not so sure that this really represents the majority of hunters in the US. Otherwise we wouldn’t have farms with masses of Quail with clipped wings and helicopter hunting tours in Alaska.

@TaoSan I find your generalizing term rednecks offensive. I know plenty of people who would qualify as rednecks, that are hunters, and do NOT employ the tactics you describe. Next time, try calling them scumbags, I don’t know any people that would qualify as scumbags that do anything worthy of respect.

Like, you know, celebrities. Those are some real scumbags. They get paid massive amounts of money pretending to be something they are not. Especially the ones that support quasi-terrorist organizations like PETA.

I’m militantly opposed to handgun ownership within city limits.

But I support hunting. I see nothing wrong with it.

@evelyns_pet_zebra

It is my understanding that the term redneck is not ambiguously applied solely by regional origin, but also has a certain mindset as prerequisite

@TaoSan,love the answer“certain mindset as a prerequisite”,top quality retort.

Whats the best way to hunt beaver?

@oasis

With Appletini-traps and glitzy sports cars!

Wow you know your stuff,when was the last time you hunted quality beaver?

the quality population is overhunted :)

So I keep one as pet :)

Nice,nice,i love a nice tender beaver at this time of year.

Okay, gross. Can we get back on topic, please?

yeah, that last one overshot a bit :)

Of course hunting isn’t wrong. Whether for sport or for food. It’s called the food chain, and we certainly aren’t the only things hunting animals. Nature isn’t all nice and happy fun times, you know.

@dynamicduo If you say hunting for sport isn’t wrong, it certainly isn’t right, either. There’s a reason it’s called the food chain – and hunting only for sport has nothing to do with it.

Just don’t hunt deer with an Uzi. Most of the south could use more bow hunters to thin out the deer near the expressways. Better a dead deer than a dead motorist.

@DrasticDreamer – hunting for sport increases one’s skills at hunting, so that if the hunter was hunting for food, they would be more successful. But even if the hunter never hunted for food, I still believe there is nothing wrong with hunting for sport. Honestly, so many animals die all the time from diseases, other predators, etc, that as long as hunters don’t hunt endangered species, or follow rules regarding number of kills per year, I don’t see an issue in it.

Hunting as a hunting of animales is wrong.I don t agree with that.Hunting as to be up to something is OK…..Lets eat only veg..

We are top of the food chain,if we choose to hunt and then eat our quarry then there is no issue.
Random slaughter is an issue.

Hunting is so right. We are hunters by nature. It teaches respect for nature and has taught me not to waste food. The food you get from hunting is also better than the crap you buy at the store that lead a life of suffering.

I had a vegetarian friend tell me, ” The reason I don’t eat meat isn’t just because I love animals, I am a vegetarian because I hate plants and think they all should die. What better way to kill them than to eat them?”

i’m a vegetarian, but i don’t see why a person who eats meat would have a moral problem with killing the animal for the meat. i think hunting just for sport is pretty shitty – i mean, i think killing anything and calling it sport is a really disgusting thing – but hunting to actually make use of the animal isn’t any worse than eating meat you buy at the grocery store.
hunting is more humane anyway. it’s better to kill the animal quickly than buying the same animal after it’s been more or less tortured and shot up with chemicals. plus you can probably make more use of it when you’ve killed it yourself. not that i know much about hunting, as i don’t hunt down my veggies (or even plant them myself for that matter…) but still.

When I was growing up we were pretty poor. We hunted to be able to eat. We couldn’t afford food all the time. We ate all we killed, and I still felt bad for what we killed. There is a huge difference between shooting an animal and walking away, or just taking the head, and killing an animal quickly, hopefully painlessly, and then cleaning the animal and butchering it.
I don’t hunt now, because I can just walk to a store that stocks dead animals. I always felt bad for what we killed, and was thankful for the food we got from it.

@tiffyandthewall you could make a game of hunting your veggies. Just go to the store in a camo outfit and hiking boots, and stalk the asparagus. If you could tell some good puns to the people around you, then it would be fun for everyone. Life’s too short not to have fun.

@evelyns_pet_zebra I have a vegetable prison in my backyard. I do allow waterboarding at times. I also need to execute a few now and then to make room for more prisoners.

I’m opposed to hunting purely for sport. Especially these guys that post up in a deer stand over a feeder and just wait for the poor deer to wander up unexpectedly and BAM! I think if you’re going to hunt, you should stalk your prey and really work for it and then eat the animal in it’s entirety.

I think hunting for sport is not a good thing. Hunting for food is a good thing

Hunting for food will get you healthier and fresher meat than you can get at the grocer and at most butchers. You know where the hunted animal was raised, you don’t have to worry about injected hormones and antibiotics, and you usually can have a good idea from the habitat what it is that that animal has been eating all its life.

In times past, the hunt had not only survival, but also somewhat religious or spiritual overtones.The prey was killed with honor and thanksgiving, and all parts were used, from the hide to the sinews and bones.

The answer is YES.

Hunting is actually really important, in terms of wildlife management and species population health.

1) Hunters pay fees and taxes that go directly toward funding management of natural resources. This includes habitat improvement, special projects such as reintroduction/restocking of species, maintenance of state and federal parks/forests, etc. If you’ve walked or birdwatched in a state or federal park/reserve/forest, you can thank the hunters for helping maintain it.

2) Humans have extirpated the carnivores that would ordinarily keep the deer (and other species) populations in check.

3) Hunting is a prime wildlife management tool. In the East, deer populations have exploded, resulting in growing numbers of auto accidents (in PA, deer are the #1 cause of car accidents). Many of the species hunted in this country are overly abundant, due to human activities. In PA and WV, you’re looking at 80 deer per square mile, which is insane! This overpopulation causes increased stress and disease, leading to unhealthy populations.

4) In addition, human encroachment creates more “edge” habitat, which is the type preferred by species like deer, turkey, grouse, and raccoons. Because edge habitat is so close to human settlements, these species propagate, compete for environmental resources, and become nuisances once they infiltrate people’s gardens, fields, orchards, and garbage cans.

Hey Alena D! Haven’t seen your lovely avatar in a while. :)