hunting-opinions

Ok this is a controversial one, but after discussing it on skype, I would like to see the general opinion of people on here regarding hunting, hopefully it will make for some interesting discussion. Now when I say hunting, I mean the act of stalking or sighting an animal, and then carrying out an action which results in the animals death, for example releasing a dog, pulling a trigger, releasing an arrow or even just throwing a heavy object. I say this as there are many ways in which people hunt and for any reasons. On a side note I would also like to hear hat people think of hunting in the respect of pest control, and for spot, the contrasts between the two and attitudes to them in a modern society. I know this is a subject that allot of people may feel passionately about, so sorry for bringing this up if it spirals ;D

My own personal opinion is I find it very sad when you see someone hunting as a "sport", then having their photo taken with the dead animal afterwards.

In respect of fox hunting, while I appreciate there has to be some degree of control over these animals due to the damage they can inflict on livestock - I dont think chasing it through fields on horses and with packs of dogs is a good way to do it. If its a pest and needs to be controlled, just shoot it on sight if it comes onto the farmers land where sheep and other livestock are grazing and at risk.

I'm against hunting, unless it's necessary for food/survival. When it's killing an animal for sport I just find it pathetic to be honest, there's no honour or achievement in shooing dead an animal for fun, it's so grim imo that people kill for enjoyment.

Yeah, if you consider killing animals for the sake of killing animals to be fun then you need to get out more - read a book or take up model railways or something.

That covers trophy hunting, which I thoroughly agree with, that is pointless slaughter. That is what people think of when you hear the word hunting, however what about for the purposes of pest control? Also you mention for food, every year in my village there is a large game bird hunt, (which by the way I don't take part in), every bird shot during this hunt is plucked, cleaned, cooked and eaten.

No matter what pest control is a necessity, some people do infact find it fun to kill, I don't share their opinion on the act, however I cannot fault what they do, just the motive behind it. (by the way when i say pest control I mean the shooting of feral birds, corvids, rabbits, rats and minks.

I just find the idea of shooting animals for fun thoroughly distasteful. Even if game birds are eaten after a shoot, it doesn't make the social / leisure aspect of it any more pleasant. Would we even eat pheasant and grouse if they weren't cultivated for shooting?

I don't think the shooting of 'pests' is justified either. Just because we've decided something is our land or our crops shouldn't give us the right to just pick off any unfortunate animal that wanders onto it.

I'm often amazed by the apparent disregard a lot of country dwellers have for nature.

Killing living things for fun is abhorrent, I don't care if it's "traditional", if you find pleasure and enjoyment from needlessly killing a living creature then you're lost and should be shunned from society.

Killing pests on the other hand is a necessary evil. It's all well and good taking the high ground but if pests weren't dealt with, we would have a bigger crop shortage problem than we already do. It's not a disregard for nature, it's protecting our food supply.

I'd argue that country dwellers have a larger respect for nature than urban people, they can admire nature and use it to create new things. People that live in the country have a much healthier relationship with nature, they know that nature provides food and heat and clothing, they understand the circle of nature, of predators and prey. People that move to the countryside and complain about nature are the problem. The people that complain the animals are making too much noise on a night.

CGM said:

I just find the idea of shooting animals for fun thoroughly distasteful. Even if game birds are eaten after a shoot, it doesn't make the social / leisure aspect of it any more pleasant. Would we even eat pheasant and grouse if they weren't cultivated for shooting?

I don't think the shooting of 'pests' is justified either. Just because we've decided something is our land or our crops shouldn't give us the right to just pick off any unfortunate animal that wanders onto it.

I'm often amazed by the apparent disregard a lot of country dwellers have for nature.

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I would argue in the country there is a far greater respect for nature, just because you live in a rural area doesn't make you a 6 toed monster with a shotgun. I will give an example, we kept our horses in a luvary yard, naturally there were rabbits on that yard, the problem got rather bad, so bad in fact that one horse that belonged to a different family got its hoof caught in a rabbit hole and as a consequence broke its leg. The vet came along, but it had to be shot. After this there was a cull by the yard owners, and the problem never happened again. To hunt they used birds of pray and air rifles, possibly the most humane technique.

Crows and other corvid species cost farmers thousands per year by damaging crops, if they were not culled to the extent they are today, food prices would rise, or farmers would suffer.

In my opinion I think the attitude if the hunter is more important than the act itself, you will get many game bird hunters that will hunt out of season or worse, injure an animal and let it free to die slowly. I was unfortunately faced with this problem the other day when a red legged patrage slammed into my barn with shotgun wounds, its not their season and I had to put the poor thing out of its mystery. Some respect nature, and some don't, I personally agree with game bird hunting only if the animal is eaten, pest control, because I've seen first hand the effects they can have in rural communities. Trophy hunting in the other hand is a whole other kettle of fish, its pointless slaughter! Especially as many hunters will take a stags head in field and leave the body.

I think it's disgusting killing for fun or sport.

However in the case of game to eat, I'm unsure where I stand, I find the idea of hunting an animal in the wild for food much less morbid then breeding and lining up cattle for slaughter.

Saying that I'm not a vegetarian, so even if I dislike the idea the way animals are treated before the are killed, i still eat meat, I'm just a filthy hypocrite.

I abhor any person who believes it's good to hunt animals for fun, sport and especially poaching; no animal should be made to go through that experience.

I'm not saying that it's true of everyone who lives in the countryside because it isn't but I've met plenty of farmers who definitely aren't in tune with nature and seem to want to shoot everything that moves within a five mile radius.

I don't think that pest control should be made illegal or anything but it's something I take every possible action to avoid. It stems from the idea that our needs as a species are far more important than others and I don't think it's necessarily the right attitude.

CGM said:

I'm not saying that it's true of everyone who lives in the countryside because it isn't but I've met plenty of farmers who definitely aren't in tune with nature and seem to want to shoot everything that moves within a five mile radius.

I don't think that pest control should be made illegal or anything but it's something I take every possible action to avoid. It stems from the idea that our needs as a species are far more important than others and I don't think it's necessarily the right attitude.

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Well surely our needs as a species are greater than others, to us anyway. After all to any species they are more important, I'm not saying all animals should be irradiated, but when they damage property or destroy farmers fields, we have to consider value. Its the curse of being a complex species.

I don't see the point in trophy hunting. The morons that go and shoot endangered animals need to be shot themselves. Picking up a high powered rifle and shooting an animal is not difficult so I don't see why they are proud to have shot something for sport.

Hunting for food and pest control is different. I am a meat eater and I would shoot an animal to provide food. I would not shoot it just for fun.

My cousin has been through all the training courses and he does pest control in local forest of the deer population. They cause a massive amount of damage to trees. Part of being allowed to shoot them is being trained to butcher the animal afterwards and none of the deer he shoot are wasted. People eat them. Thetford forest needs the deer population to be controlled otherwise they would have done serious damage to the forest.

I'm not a fan of "hunting" game birds that are bred to be easy to shoot and are just released from a cage in the morning. If they're genuinely wild, it's different but it seems unnecessarily cruel to release them just to be shot.

For me it's a case of what your going to do with it after you've killed it?
If it's killed to eat then unless your a vegetarian your a hypocrite, hunted to kill or killed in a factory the animal still dies, if you don't like that then don't eat it.

I find hunting for fun despicable and the imbeciles that ride around in red jackets blowing horns should be hunted themselves and ripped apart by dogs.
I also have the same issue with fishing.

I'm against hunting for fun. But as a meat eater, I'd be a hypocrite if I was against responsible hunting for food.

Dar said:

I'm not a fan of "hunting" game birds that are bred to be easy to shoot and are just released from a cage in the morning. If they're genuinely wild, it's different but it seems unnecessarily cruel to release them just to be shot.

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I would say that it's a bit more humane then lining them up for slaughter (except the breeding part, thats a whole new debate), but then I think of the hunters motives, and it just sounds like he gets his rocks off to hunting helpless animals, it probably would be much kinder and dignified to slaughter the animals then be used as the hunters play things.

on another slightly off topic note.
I think everyone who eats meat needs to think to themselves one day how it's actually treated before it's killed, it's just living in ignorance not paying any attention to the fact you are eating what was once a living thing, doesn't mean you should stop eating meat, we are engineered to eat meat, but I think everyone should have some insight, If I was to become vegetarian it wouldn't be because I don't think we should eat meat, it would be to boycott certain meat industries because some animals are treated rather crap before they are killed.

I think hunting wild game for food is more humane then most slaughter houses

One thing that we do is we get our meat from our local butchers rather than the supermarket. It does cost us a little bit more but their meat is great quality hopefully that translates to better quality of life for the animals.

usually butchers are great for that, the meat always tastes better as well from a good butcher

Fredward said:

usually butchers are great for that, the meat always tastes better as well from a good butcher

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It does, sadly our local one has gone