I’ve heard a lot of talk about it being an “evoluationary need,” and that we’re just preprogrammed. Bullshit. There are plenty of times I’d like to pop a cap in my boss’s ass… or fart in public, but I don’t because I’m a human being. I have the ability to reason and exercise good judgement based on a sense of right and wrong–that is what separates us from the (other) animals. I’m not here to force my morality on others, I’m just seriously questioning yours.
This was far too brilliant to go unacknowledged.
As far as bear baiting goes, where I live it is a common practice.
Why not just hunt with cameras, using all the skill but not killing? Or is the primary point of hunting to actually kill?
May work fine for some species, but not deer. There are too many deer. Our illustrious ancestors (who I know have done some great things for us, but this isn’t one of them) killed all the wolves and other deer predators to protect their herds of cattle/sheep/whatever. With no predator, deer herd get huge. With no predator, deer herd become menace. And there are still Dingus McGee’s out here that’ll shoot a wolf as soon as they see one rather than let them do their work as a predator. Best thing to do is to cull the deer herds before they eat themselves out of existence. It sounds like faulty logic on the top of it, but it actually does make sense if you think about it.
On a somewhat related note, what’s everyone’s opinion on this Actual Occurence? A friend of mine once hit a doe one night driving down a country highway. When the Highway Patrol showed up, the first thing out of his mouth was “Who gets the deer?”
Yes, it does make sense, in that culling Dingus would be a no-no.
You are assuming that your view of right and wrong is the only one there is. It is not.
I, and many others, do not consider hunting at all wrong. I am no more wrong to kill a deer than a mountain lion is. It is wrong to hunt a species to extinction, but modern game management does not allow that to happen.
I think it hypocritical in the extreme to eat meat and then denounce hunters. At least the deer I eat have lived a wild and natural life. That pig, chicken, or cow you eat was born solely to be slaughtered and then wrapped in nice sterile shrinkwrap and sold with no more thought than one gives to selling tomatoes or floor wax. Think very hard on your morals.
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Film doesn’t taste very good.
There’s nothing wrong with that if state law allows it. It’s not like they purposely ran down the deer with a car. That would be wrong, and quite illegal.
Apologists for the leisure hunting lobby seem to be very fond of using human evolution as a reason for their pleasure in extinguishing life for th’ thrill of th’ brag alone.
It is also part of our “evolution” to make war on our neighbours simply because we want their bit of soil. It is also part of our “evolution” to despoil our planet in the name of profit, greed of course being “good” and ensuring that Tribe A survives while Tribe B goes all to hell.
Being a member of the Predatory Ape species of Planet Earth is just one big bowl of laughs over th’ cooling corpse of an animal – or a human – killed because it’s in our “nature”.
Feh.
-Well, here in Alaska, there’s a substantial “waiting list” in most areas for large animal “road kill”.
When, say, a moose is hit by a car and killed- or injured badly enough to need to be killed- the Troopers have a dispatcher start making phone calls from the list. (Which is an official document and all.) The first one that can come out and butcher the animal gets half, the rest goes to the local Food Bank for the needy. Half a typical cow moose can still provide 200-plus pounds of excellent meat.
This not only provides meat for charity work, but cleans up what would otherwise be a considerable carcass, at no cost to the Troopers or taxpayers, and some fellow gets a couple hundred pounds of meat merely for the privledge of being awakened at three AM and having to drive forty miles on a twenty-below-zero morning.
Other animals are far less often killed on the highway, but on the occasions that a fur-bearer is- bear, wolf, coyote, etc- the carcass is delivered to a contracted tanner, and the hides are auctioned off during the Fur Rondy every February. Profits go to the Troopers and Fish & Wildlife departments.
-Are you aware of the concept of “renewable resource”? Can you wrap your mind around the possibility that a resource can renew itself in places faster than it can be expended?
Every living thing dies. The only question is, when it does so will it simply rot, feeding only flies and bacteria, or can it sustain a higher member on the food chain?
Renewable resource. Hmmm.
So, do you mean that life, when the need to pass some leisure time comes around, is just there to provide targets? Like a sideshow shooting gallery, where no matter how many ducks ya shoot, more will pop up, no worries?
That would be the primary goal.
Marc
For the record, I don’t own a gun and have never been a particularly avid hunter. I have hunted and killed various animals, including deer. Anything I ever killed was eaten by me, my family or friends. I decided to forego hunting for reasons of my own, but if I so choose, I will do it again and I don’t see why anyone thinks they have the right to deny me the privilege. I am a fisherman and have been for most of my life. I have killed and eaten a lot of fish in my time. Now, and again for reasons of my own, I catch and release—I will have to try that cath and release thing, although it seems needlesly hard on the fish. I still say that if an individual doesn’t want to hunt, then that individual shouldn’t do so. But that doesn’t give that individual the right to dictate terms to me or anyone else.
About the only time I’d do more than state my abhorrence of the sport of hunting is when we have a repeat of the disappearence of the Passenger Pigeon (to use an extreme example).
Hmm. Just re-read the OP, and it doesn’t dictate anything, just gives an opinion that opposes your own. T’is th’ way of the world. If we all agreed with each other, it’d be boring.
I wonder if the hunters in this thread, citing lack of natural predators, think that re-introducing wolf populations would be a better long-term solution to starving/pesky deer problem.
Ice Wolf - do you eat meat or use animal products?
Not feasible. I am in favor of wolf (and bear and lion) re-introduction into their native ranges, however ranchers certainly are not. Neither are suburb dwellers when Spot and Fluffy get eaten.
Further, whitetail deer have adapted very well to suburban and agricultural areas that have too high a human population for wolves thrive in. Coyotes can do well in these areas but wolves do not.
In any case, human hunting and wolf or lion predation can and do occur together without damaging the deer population. While it seems to cause squeamishness in those who think nature is just one big warm and fuzzy lovefest, deer have evolved to be renewable. They are a prey species and their speed at reproduction bear this out. In the natural scheme of things it is foolish to say that human predation is bad while that of other species is good.
You really want wolves running around our populated areas?
Marc
I enjoy hunting and killing deer. I like everything about it, and I like the meat. It’s satisfyin the way eating food from my own garden is satisfying, or the way it feels after I replaced the roof on my garage. It’s an accomplishment. I feel good that my hunting supports conservation and wildlife management. When I owned a farm, I liked raising the chickens we had for a few years before a fox got them. I also enjoyed killing, cleaning and eating them.
I liked when I shot a starving mange infested blind fox and disposed of the corpse so as to diminish the spread of the disease. I like shooting the groundhogs because it’s tough to do.
I like all these things, and their net effect for me, my family, the environment, wildlife in general, is all overwhelmingly positive.
You don’t like these things, don’t do them.
"You really want wolves running around our populated areas? "
Why not, I don’t own sheep. 
Deer can smell humans from quite a ways away, and they can run pretty darn fast also.
Besides, it’s more fair of a fight than killing cows in slaughterhouses. How do you think most our meat gets to us? Hunting is a hell of a lot fairer.