If you had to hunt to eat meat would you be a vegetarian?

Yep.

I would have a more balanced diet.

No, I would not stop eating meat. 80% of the meat I eat now I harvested and processed myself. I would eat less meat if I had to buy it.

If I personally had to, then yes, I would remain vegetarian.
However, if you mean “you” as in your family or people in general, I may eat more meat. If I could talk to the person who is killing my food to find out their hunting practices, I would be able to make an intelligent decision about if I think it’s morally correct for me to eat it. I believe part of the reason animals are here is for humans to kill and eat them. I don’t believe we have the right to systematically torture them, as the meat industry currently does.

I met a girl in high school who said that she wouldn’t eat any meat she didn’t think she’d be willing to kill herself. Which made her a vegetarian. I thought that was so wonderful that I decided to try live by it myself. I’ve never, unfortunately or fortunately (I’m not certain which…) put that to the test, but I’ve thought it through and I like to believe that I’m true to it.

“I met a girl in high school who said that she wouldn’t eat any meat”

Yea, I had that same problem.

@ChazMaz rimshot

@Likeradar you bring up a good point, I agree with you there. If it were my husband or another family member killing the food, I would eat more meat. I’m too much of a sissy to kill anything or anyone, but I would feel a lot better about eating meat if I knew exactly where it came from. Factory farming is what turns me off to meat – I don’t actually believe that we are built to be vegetarian by nature.

So, I guess I am retracting my first answer if it applies to those around me.

Without a second’s hesitation. I eat meat, but the idea of killing for it makes me want to run out right this minute and buy a head of lettuce.

If I had to hunt for my own meat, I’d probably starve. If you were a vegetarian in this scenario, would you have to grow your own vegetables? If that were the case, I’d probably starve either way.

yes you have to personally do it yourself

I’d probably be more likely to eat meat.

I don’t eat it now because I don’t like current mega-agricultural methods (callous cruelty, unnatural conditions, unnatural diets, growth hormones, antibiotics, inhumane and sloppy butchering) and I don’t like to eat poop.

(About a decade ago, when hundreds of people fell ill from eating fast food hamburgers contaminated with fecal matter spread during processing, the government response was to require that hamburgers be cooked at higher temperatures to kill the bacteria, rather than require that the shit on the meat be minimized.)

If I had to hunt for my meat, I would still eat meat. I have no moral problem with eating animals for sustenance. Your own mileage may vary.

I’d have to get used to it, but eventually I’m sure I could do it. I have no moral issues with killing animals, only with the way in which they are raised/killed by the major agriculture companies (which I consider unnecessarily cruel).

I would like to know if all the vegetarians here also make sure that all the other products they use are made by companies that do not use animal testing. There are lists on the web. Until I looked, I was unaware that Arm & Hammer tested on animals. And Suave. Many are companies I would not think of, because they don’t produce make up. Just sayin’

if i had to i would. i would hunt with a bow and arrow, i hate guns, their unnecessary. i would take animals that are old and ready to die anyway. i wouldn’t waste one piece. i would kill it as quick as possible

If I had to I would. I’d eat BRICKS if I had to.

Nah, but I would do as the male lion does.That fucker’s got it made.Let the female do all the hunting, get the best part of the meal & then bang her brains out. What a brilliant life. He’s the mane man!!

It would be tough to hunt around here, all there really is to hunt are roosters and tourists. But if I was in a place where I lived near good hunting grounds, I would go all Ted Nugent on this bitch and be wearing a deer scrotum as a necklace by the end of the day.

I would probably reduce my overall consumption of meat, but not stop entirely. Hunting in a reasonably game-rich environment is still less labor-intensive than gathering.

@daytonamisticrip The hammer on a gun can remain cocked indefinitely, But you can only keep a longbow drawn for a short time. And when you’re hungry and tired, you’ll pretty much settle for whatever crosses your sights.
Guns are actually better suited to quick, humane killing: arrows typically sever arteries, causing massive internal bleeding. They’re safer, too, since falling on a gun will give you a bruise, but falling on a broadhead will slice you open.
In both cases, the critter is going to race off into the woods and you’ll spend the next hour or so tracking it.

If I had to hunt meat I wouldn’t eat much. With my poor eyesight I would never be able to catch anything. Maybe I could learn butchery and do that task for someone who’s good at catching but doesn’t have the stomach to deal with the carcass.

@downtide We might make a good team: the last time I tried to clean something, I nearly lost my lunch.
Though good hunting practice calls for the entrails to be buried where the animal fell. I’d have to bring you with me, and that would mess up the game patterns.

@daytonamisticrip, like @Nullo said, a gun is much more humane than a bow and arrow. It can take up to an hour+ for an arrow-stricken animal to die, whereas an animal shot with a gun in the kill zone will die rather quickly. Also, you run the risk of eating tumors and contracting diseases if you eat older, near-dead animals.

It ultimately comes down to a simple question: do you think you are more important than an animal?

@Nullo Don’t bury them, the parts you don’t want to eat or wear, use as pet food or bait for bears or mountain lions. Bear and mtn lion are good eats, and have fat most non predator game animals lack.

@Nullo entrails make good eating for dogs. Or you could bring the carcass back to camp, I’ll gut it and put them in a bag and you can take them back next time you go hunting.

I’d probably eat less meat, for varied reasons:

I live in central Florida. The most commonly-hunted animals around here are whitetail deer, which are small; wild boar, which are farcking dangerous; and raccoons, which are disgusting. There are alligators as well.

I love venison. High in protein, low in fat. Venison gets a bad rap for just that reason – not enough fat for “flavor”. I disagree – you just need to learn how to cook it right. I make killer venison. It generally doesn’t take more than a couple of ounces of venison meat to sustain me – compare that to the average 10+ oz cow steak.

I’m not big on pork, but if I don’t have a choice other than to eat boar, I’ll eat it. Yay, bacon. Hopefully I’ll have a friend or family member that likes to hunt boar, because it requires having specially trained dogs, and I’m not that talented.

In all honesty, I’d probably barter my moderate skills at field-dressing and butchering for the meat, and learn how to tan hides as well.

Alright, I’ll haul the innards back. Take that, Conservation Department!

@Seek_Kolinahr I met a guy once who hunted boar with naught but a knife. You could try that. :D

OP, could you give us some background on why we would have to hunt our own meat? Are we talking regulation? A collapse of our present infrastructure? PETA persecution?

@Seek_Kolinahr Venison is my favourite meat too. My partner cuts it into thin strips and cooks it with cassis and blackcurrants. Very, very rich, you don’t need much.

There are semi-wild red deer in some areas near here – I say semi-wild because although they roam free they’re all owned by someone. No wild boars. We’d be living mainly on ducks, rabbits and pigeons.

@Nullo

After I’ve seen what those boar have done to my cousin’s hunting dogs, I think I’ll stay behind the stove, thanks. ^_^

I like the taste of alligator, too, but I question the nutritional value, and whether it’s worth the inherent risk of acquisition.

I am already a vegetarian.

It would have to be a matter of life or death for me to kill an animal or ask someone else to kill an animal for food.

@nikipedia Assuming an infrastructure collapse, it may very well be a matter of life or death. One stray mold spore in the granary…

@nullo wouldn’t even take that. Most of the hybrid grains and vegetables that are commercially planted and consumed today cannot reproduce outside of the Labs where they are genetically engineered. A couple growing seasons would see most of the food supply vanish.

@Nullo: I mean, even if the entire social infrastructure fell apart I think I could still survive on plants for months, if not years. Living in paradise helps. Most of what I eat comes from the local farmer’s market.

And check out this guy!

@nikipedia The biggest thing is, you generally can’t pick up a few ears of corn from the grocery, plant them in your backyard, and grow a cornfield. Our food is specifically altered to stop this from happening.

And… check out this guy too. I’ll see your Fruitarian and raise you a Paleo-Dieter..

@Seek_Kolinahr Isn’t that a GMO precaution? Keep the altered corn/wheat from spreading naturally?
@nikipedia Sadly, frutarianism is only a viable consideration for a small population living in a tropical climate, assuming collapse.

hmmm i dunno it depends on what’s available to catch and eat… i think i’d starve cuz i could never eat a cute lil bunny…but in asian culture its rumored we’d eat cats and dogs… and to be honest if I were gonna die…i’d eat a cat or dog… im sure sylvester is much easier to catch than tweety…

i mean some people even resort to cannabalism if the people die first…

@Nullo partially. It is also so that a farmer cannot keep some of his crop for seed for next year. That way he has to come back to the seed company and buy new seed every year.

I have no problem with killing, cleaning, and eating meat. I love venison. Some wild game is much much better than store bought meat. I also worry less about the antibiotics and hormones and stuff rumored to be pumped in farm animals. I love meat. Hmmm. I’m hungry.

Not intentionally, but my hunting skills may be not the best.

I would fish, but someone else would have to kill, gut and clean them. That would be about it for the animal protein in my diet.

No, I personally don’t see me ever eating meat under those circumstances Darn there goes my fried chicken. As a matter of fact I don’t see me eating fish if I to catch and skin and gut them. Or drinking milk if I had to milk a cow.

No doubt about it – there is no way that I could kill animals to eat meat. Same with fishing, couldn’t do it.

I guess if I did not have a choice but to hunt and kill my meat then I would do it. I have to have my meat! Vegetarian just doesn’t seem natural.

Can we hunt cow, pigs and chickens?

I have dreams about hunting and eating animals with my bare hands when I go to bed hungry. If there’s anything moving about on four legs left around, it might still take some work to make me a vegetarian. But, it’s something that I aspire to for health reasons.

No, but I would be a gardener so I could have fresh veggies in my venison stew!

yes.

I’m a vegan so this doesn’t apply to me but if people actually did this, yes they’d be more likely to become vegetarians.

Absolutely not. I went on hunts with my family when I was little, and I lived on a farm where we butchered our own food. I know where meat comes from, and I love it.

Come to think about it, if vegetarian options were available, it would be wasteful to hunt and butcher animals on any regular basis. maybe just on special occasions

Nope! I don’t mind killilng what I need to eat. : )

It would take me a bit, but I could do it. I know how, just have never killed. The gutting, skinning, butchering, and cooking I have no problem with. Aris is my husband, let him hunt, I’ll do the rest.

Oh, and I have no problem fishing. There’s meat for you!

@zophu There are still animal population levels to regulate, even if we could come up with a healthy all-rabbit-food diet in the aftermath of this meat-robbing catastrophe. It would be even more wasteful to let all of the recently-predatorless prey species to eat themselves out of a food supply.

Speaking of rabbit food, did you know that if you ate nothing but rabbit, you’d starve to death?

True story. There isn’t enough fat in rabbit to allow the body to absorb the protein of the meat. You’d literally eat yourself to death.

Absolutely not. I feel like its robbing us of our instincts that people are so fat and lazy these days. Bring on the slaughter!

People should know how to kill their own food. Basic instinct.

@Seek_Kolinahr That’s actually quite helpful. Mercifully, I have more body fat than is entirely good for me, so I’d have some time to subsist on rabbit, while looking for something more lipidic .

I think if you had your rabbit with a side of guacamole, you’d be okay. Don’t quote me on that, though.

I would eat less meat, or barely ever any, because I don’t think I’m much of a hunter and I don’t have the skill or competence to prepare meat from scratch. I couldn’t be arsed, it’s probbaly easier to grow vegetables.
But I wouldn’t become a vegetarian, because in most cases, this practice adheres to moral and health issues, and my main beef (No pun intended lawlz.) is that I would be too lazy to go hunt, or learn how.

@Symbeline See? That’s why we go out and hunt cows. They just stand there for pete’s sake. Hell, I heard that in some places people actually go out and tip cows over. I personally think that’s a stupid and cruel thing to do, but if a cow will stand still for being tipped over, I guess you could walk up to it (or stand back a bit) and shoot it. I’m pretty sure there is some website we could find that would show us how to cut it up, and after a few tries we could probably get the hang of it.
Ribeye anyone?

@Trillian You go cow-tipping at night when theyre asleep :P
Cows can be aggressive.

@meagan you know, now that you say that, I say something on discovery channel once about they ere trying to get bull semen and were using a mechanical bull somehow. The bull ended up breaking it, and as a matter of fact, I have seen a rodeo. You’re right. Those bulls are really ornery. So, I vote we stand back a bit. ;-)

@Trillian I thought that the scenario suggested that no animal would be domesticated or kept for the purposes of consumption based on having to hunt it down, so I’d probably get arrested for shooting a dairy cow that’s meant for milk.

@Trillian You don’t even need a gun to disconnect a cow. Just some rope and a mallet.

@Symbeline, oh all right. I think the cattlemen’s association will kick up a fuss, but ok. I was just having some fun anyway. Sigh. I hoped one or more would take my joke and go another step.
@Nullo What is the rope for?

They had to shoot a wild cow at the California State Fair this week.

@YARNLADY That’s a shame. Those wild pigs are no joke too.

@Trillian The rope is to keep the cow in place.
I’m afraid that I didn’t get your joke.

Missouri, like many other states, has a shoot-on-sight law for wild pigs. Mormons, too, technically, but that’s superseded by federal law. You are free to take as many as you can, using any weapon at your disposal, on foot, mounted, or in a vehicle. I dare say that it would be legal to hunt them with a rocket launcher from a helicopter, if you were so inclined. If the strap on your thinking cap is loose, you could even try to kill one barehanded.

@Nullo That’s ok, the joke was for @Symbeline.
I guess those pigs are rally a danger. I saw something on, I think, the History channel. There were guys from three or four different states talking about it, and they had pictures of a couple of them. Those things are huge and have tusks! I wouldn’t want to run afoul of one without some heavy firepower and a handy tree.

@Trillian I don’t get it either, sorry. I did see that funny episode on Beavis and Butthead about cow tipping though.

I imagine I probably would, yes. However, it would depend on a coupls of things, for example, would I be able to get hold of other foods easily? Would my health suffer at all? If getting hold of vegetables and other foods that don’t need hunting, killing and gutting was simple enough then I would happily cut meat out of my diet. If it was a case of I had to eat whatever came my way, I would live by the saying “beggars can’t be choosers” (to a certain extent, obviously there are exceptions to this rule) and so, if I was hungry enough, I would have to get used to hunting, killing and gutting. I would be very unhappy doing so though.

NO.

Yes! If I see it while it’s alive, I can’t eat it! And, I definitely couldn’t kill an animal.

@Sunshyne276 I would bet that If you were locked in a room with nothing but a rock and a sheep for a week or so, you’d change your mind. :D

I sure would! I am tempted to become a vegetarian if I have to cook a whole chicken-Ick. I actually tried vegetarianism once. I ate no animal products at all for three months. I don’t think I ever felt healthier in my life.

No. I think it’s hypocritical to divorce yourself from the reality of the food that you eat.

When I was a vegetarian, I was always tempted to start eating meat if I could hunt, kill and clean it myself. I have since done that and it makes me feel better (not 100% okay – there are lots and lots of moral issues with eating meat) about my carnivorous habits.