brewha: When a parachutist makes a dive, he is not intending harm to another creature.
Martini: My only experience with firearms was taking pot-shots at pigeons and rabbits, with an air-rifle, in my early teens. When I eventually managed to hit one, seeing its lifeless body took all the fun out of it for me. I kinda hoped that would be a normal reaction…but apparently not?
Animals are on this planet for the same “reason” we are: the end result of evolutionary processes that began with single-celled creatures competing for survival.
Is there another reason they’re here?
That is where you are wrong. The animals in question are certainly aware of the fact that they are prey. You seem to be ignorant of the fact that people are predators,
How about a bow? I understand that’s a popular permutation of the pastime.
I’ve heard boars are the most dangerous type of animal to hunt. Far from being a defenseless target, wild boars (I hear) are easily able to fight back and kill a hunter. And the hunters usually butcher them to eat.
Perhaps I should wait for you to actually state an argument, but this post looks like it might be heading in the direction of one.
Are you now saying that harming another living creature is wrong?
It sounds to me more like using human ingenuity to outwit animal self-preservation. Still not quite a sport. The animal’s only chance is based on the hunter’s incompetence.
How do they justify it? They do it for their own reward and entertainment. Not yours.
Seems simple enough for me.
Are you a vegetarian? Do you wear leather?
I’m with you on this one.
I grew up hunting in Wisconsin and shot my first buck with a bow & arrow when I was 14. I didn’t feel remorse or sadness when I killed the deer but I remember thinking I don’t really get why this is supposed to be enjoyable. In fact it’s kind of creepy having people congratulate me on killing an animal. It’s like finding an exterminator or guy who works at a slaughterhouse not out of necessity but because of the thrill. Kind of sick.
I haven’t been hunting in over 20 years but still have relatives that do and still have to wonder what kind of mentality it takes to take pleasure from it.
They opened a huge Cabela’s here a few years back and I went to check it out just for fun. While there it just kind of struck me as eerie that everything in this massive store was dedicated to the destruction of wildlife. And not just tools to get the job done, but thousands of items to make it easier for you. If the fun of it is the challenge then why seek out accessories to make it easier?
Again, I don’t condemn killing wildlife and in a lot of cases it is a necessity to control population and it’s probably a good solution to the problem,
however I just don’t understand the mentality of the hunter and find it morbid that they find it pleasurable and something to pat eachother on the back for.
Yes, if it done for the harmer’s amusement, or entertainment, or whatever you want to call “hunting” when it is done as a hobby!
You act like humans never face any danger when they’re big-game hunting. Have you ever seen what a rhino can do to a human? Or even a big old bird, like an ostrich? There is an element of great risk involved…it’s not like they’re going up to baby lambs in a petting zoo and blowing their brains out while the animal looks at them with big velvet-painting eyes.
Note that I do not approve of big-game hunting, more for the “endangered species” aspect than any moral disapproval of hunting in general.
I didn’t see you objecting to the premise of this thread.
As in hiring a fellow to lay out rotting meat throughout the summer and then take you to that place in the fall so that you can shoot the bear that became accustomed to feeding there.
In any event, stalking can be done without killing – shoot with a camera.
Hunting for food is reasonable enough. Hunting for species management often may be reasonable, depending on what other measures are or are not being taken to manage populations. Hunting solely for trophies is sick.
It falls well within the spectrum of normal, which ranges from “ick. that wasn’t very nice” to “cool. I’d like to do that again”, as far as I can tell. There’s also abnormal reactions such as “WAAH! The horror! The horror! I’ll never be able close my eyes again without seeing the BLOOD!!” and “I have a raging erection! Must… Kill… Again… Must kill… More! Must kill… Bigger!”.
I’ve never personally hunted anything but I can definitely see the attraction in the technique, the equipment, the landscape, etc. Shooting an animal at the end of it all purely for the trophy - I’m with Martini Enfield. It seems a shame unless it’s a fairly common animal that you are going to eat or otherwise make use of, or a pest species. When I finally move to the woodlands of scandinavia I’ll probably shoot the odd deer and whatnot for venison, but I can’t see myself bothering bears or whatnot.
Shit. A guy could do it with his bare hands and I would still find it reprehensible unless it was self-defense or self-preservation. The whole idea of killing anything for sport is just completely fucked up.
I have no problem with hunting under certain circumstances. If the animal is used for food, then IMHO it is better then going to the grocery store.
I understand the desire to stalk and the feeling you would get when you track that buck, but what I will never understand is the desire to kill it. I have seen, deer, moose, elk, bear and various other animals in the wild, and the need to kill them has never crossed my mind.
I have no respect for those who hunt for bragging rights. In my area there are limited amount of hunting tags released a year, a person who is just out to kill for the trophy is potentially taking one away from someone who needs it. I have known families that needed to hunt to supplement their groceries, and if they couldn’t get a tag they would do it anyway.
Pigeons and rabbits are pests, so I don’t see a problem with shooting them as long as you’re not intentionally trying to torture them in the process (ie, shooting wings/legs off). A good hunter wants to take an animal with as little suffering on the animal’s part as possible- a clean shot through the head, heart, or lungs (depending on animal), for example. A Big Game Hunter is applying the same principle on a larger scale- It’s like the Olympic event of hunting, basically. You have to be really good to go on Safari, and if you’re on Safari then you know how to shoot and so the animal isn’t going to suffer. And it keeps a lot of locals employed acting as bearers, guides, porters, translators, etc. So one Elephant can keep an entire African community employed purely so a Rich White Guy can shoot it (the Elephant), and when you look at it that way I think Big Game Hunting can be justified at least partially under the “Creating jobs for people” category, even if you have a problem with animals being shot in general.
Because it seemed to have been made playfully, with no real harm intended to the animals. If you’ve read the whole thread, you’ll see I do object to the fuckwad who finds it fun to club bunnies with a 9 iron!
That depends on the species, and on the degree and type of contact with people that a particular animal may have had.
Yeah, I saw that. What a moron.
For clubbing bunnies, everybody knows you outta use the sand wedge.