Which animals will you kill, or have killed on your behalf?

In My Humble Opinion
1

A while back I read a book I found interesting, discussing our complicated relations with animals. Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat.. I thought about this book when, in a recent thread, some posters took me to task for quickly disposing of a litter of bunnies in my yard - instead of allowing my dog to eat them or trying other things.

So I wondered if folk would be interested in discussing what sorts of decisions they personally make as to where they draw the line, and whether they think their line reflects anything other than their personal preferences.

I considered making a poll, but wasn’t sure what categories to include. So, instead, I’ll offer a few examples hoping to get the discussion started:

Will you kill insects? What kinds?
Do you fish and eat your catch?
Do you kill mice/rats in your house?
Would you kill lab mice/rats for dissection? Lab monkeys?
Will you have squirrels, skunks trapped in your home, if you know the trapper will kill it?
Do you approve of animals being (hopefully humanely) raised and killed for you to eat?
Will you hunt/approve of hunting for food/skins?
Are there some categories of mammals you will kill (e.g. mice) but others you won’t (dogs, cats…)?
Will you eat beef, lamb, and pork, but not horse?

I’m presuming that most of us would agree that it is NOT appropriate to kill animals that are endangered - absent a pretty good reason.

Me:
-I generally don’t go out of my way to kill anything above insects - and generally only mosquitoes and ticks - outside of my home/yard. Or ants in my house.
-I don’t hunt or fish, but I don’t think badly of folk who do and eat what they kill. Catch and release fishing strikes me as kinda cruel.
-I eat meat only a couple of times a week - mostly fish. But my decisions reflect my thoughts on nutrition, humane husbandry, and ecological impacts. I don’t see a difference between farming pigs as opposed to dogs or horses.
-If vermin - rabbits/chipmunks/mice - come onto my property, I will likely try to dissuade them from doing so, but if that fails, I don’t mind killing them or having them killed.

But hell, I also support voluntary euthanasia of people! :wink:

So how complicated are your relationships with animals?

2

Flies and mosquitoes, I will kill with a vengeance, with the more inventive means the better. I am fine with almost any other insect - even hornets and wasps. And I am generally totally chill with spiders, unless they be Sparassidae.

I’ve never eaten an animal I killed, in fact, I can’t remember ever actively killing any non-insect animal of significant size, such as fish or anything above the size of a mouse. If I did catch fish, and it were legal to eat, I would, if it were clean.

I would eat deer or other animals if I shot them, but I’ve never been a hunter.

3

I am a meat eater. I would kill or let others kill on my behalf various animals for food. And I think hunting for food is more ethical than factory farming.

Animals that spread disease.

Animals that destroy crops.

Invasive species that endanger native ones.

4

Cockroaches are the only thing I kill with malice – they just have no respect for boundaries. Insects that are helpful (spiders) or harmless (lightning bugs or moths) are tolerated indoors, outdoors I leave them all alone unless they attack first. Honeybees are exempt from that rule, welcome even when they do attack.

I don’t hunt, mostly because it begins at 4 am & I don’t much like wild game.

I do kill animals for meat, culling purposes, or extreme nuisance problems. I consider it ‘the circle of life’, but I really prefer eating animals I’ve never met so I generally shop for meat.

I don’t expect others to kill insects/animals (or not) as I do, but I believe all killings should be done as humanely as possible (not a fan of bow hunting as it too often leaves the animal wounded). I also disapprove of killing from fear – for example, many people kill every snake they see because they’re afraid of snakes, which seems like a really odd reason to kill something to me.

5

I am an adult onset hunter, I didn’t grow up with it. Big and small game, fish too. The largest was a cow elk. I don’t go out of my way to kill other animals, spiders get a reprieve but black widows are really the only kill on sight animal, I don’t want them around my family. I’ve laid traps when I had mice problems, glue traps seem inhumane but I can see when someone starts to think that’s a good idea in frustration. Just check often, and be ready to complete the job please.

Lots of people say “I understand hunting for meat, but not trophies.” It’s a false dichotomy. 99/100 hunters will kill the larger buck if two are side by side, and a majority want the antlers on their walls. But that does not mean they don’t want the meat, few people would hunt if they didn’t get that out of it. And in fact most states have laws requiring you to take a certain amount out. I would argue that it’s not strong enough, here it’s just the backstrap and front and hind legs, and if you’re leaving heart you’re missing out. Bones are excellent for marrow or stock. I take liver and haven’t tried kidney but think I should next time, at least once. Not interested in washing my own intestines, and sometimes you can’t carry everything out even if you want to. I’m sure there’s people who go to Africa and aren’t interested in the meat, but also the importation laws are rather strict so you really can’t bring it home, and it typically gets donated to locals.

I’d love to try horse. They’re super controversial out here. Ranchers want to exterminate them, , but the horse lobby gives them protections greater than actually endangered animals. I think a middle ground is best, they should be hunted as a game animal which means highly regulated seasons, tags, and method of take. They’re not native and absolutely detrimental to native wildlife.

Catch & release fishing is a sport I have mixed feelings about, seems unnecessary. Especially trout who have high mortality after release, though there are steps you can take to reduce this.

6

Yep. Most kinds if they get into my house. Butterflies might get a reprieve (I once allowed swallowtail larva to eat most of the dill I planted one year). Bees I would have professionally removed if possible, I’d prefer not to kill those, but pretty much any other form of arthropod (can’t forget spiders, scorpions, centipedes, etc.) in my home will be eliminated. Outside it’s live and let live outside of potentially dangerous aggressors like wasps.

I have been known to do so, although I mostly find fishing utterly boring. I am willing to clean, gut, and cook fish other people catch while I’m doing something I’m actually interested in doing.

Yes.

I have no problems dissecting something already dead and have done so, from large grasshoppers to frogs to fetal pigs. Lab monkeys…? Hmm. Given a reason to do so I suppose I could/would.

In the past my spouse and I have managed to trap and release squirrels and bats. My spouse once caught a couple of deer mice in our home and later released them. I’m not a big fan of killing critters if they can be relocated instead. I have had to kill an injured, aggressive, VERY pissed off raccoon that got into my home but mostly I’ve been able to have them trapped and relocated. Or at least trapped and removed. In one case I know a neighbor later had the raccoon for dinner. I really don’t care what the person taking them away actually does with them as long as it doesn’t involve animal torture.

Yes. I have been known to refuse meat that I believe was raised inhumanely. I also have refused to eat threatened species, definitely will not eat endangered.

Yes.

I don’t my self hunt but I have hunter friends. I have traded my leather working and other sorts of skills for game meat. Given I’m a leather worker it’s a bit hard not to approve of hides and skins.

As I’ve said, I’m not particularly eager to kill things but given a need to do so I doubt there are any I wouldn’t, if I had to.

Actually, not a big fan of pork… I’d probably try horse. When I was in France the people I spent time with, knowing I was American, never offered me horse as they know it is largely taboo here but if I had had the chance I probably would have tried it. Cat or dog would be harder, but if I was in a survival situation I probably would… if the cat or dog wasn’t a pet of mine. It would be really, really, really hard to eat a pet.

Oddly enough, I am repulsed by the notion of eating turtle or tortoise. I just don’t regard them as edible even though they are. Also, given the amount of time they take to get to size it just doesn’t seem sustainable, they’re very slow growing. And quite a few of them are endangered or threatened so that takes those species off my menu.

7

I will kill just about any insect unlucky enough to find its way in my house. Usually that’s ants and roaches. Spiders, I’m a little meh on.

I haven’t fished in a long time, not since Grandpa was alive and he and I were on speaking terms. I didn’t really enjoy fishing. He wasn’t a pleasant person to be around.

Yes. Mice.

No.

People actually eat skunks?

Yes. Hopefully humanely. I’ve started trying to buy pasture-fed eggs when I can afford it. They seem to taste better, too.

I will never hunt. I don’t approve of hunting, but I do recognize that the deer population needs to be kept down.

I kill vermin like mice and rats, but no, I don’t kill cats and dogs. If I owned a farm, I probably wouldn’t kill foxes, either. I like them too much.

I eat beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and such, but no, not horse. People actually do that? Ew.

8

I kill pest insects: flies, skeeters, sugar ants and the like. I finally convinced my wife that spiders provide a service, so she quit killing them.

I used to hunt many years ago when I was a yoot in Alaska, but our hunting trips were mainly an excuse to go drink in the woods and I never shot anything.

I am not against hunting for food, especially for subsistence. I am firmly against trophy hunting. My grandson recently showed me a photo of a place where his brothers set out bear bait for the sole purpose of being able to shoot a bear. I told him just how disappointed I would be in him if he participated in that effort.

I have caught many fish and eaten most of them. The ones left over in the freezer and no longer edible have gone to either the local zoo or raptor rescue place.

I agree with the Alaska Native take on catch-and-release: Don’t play with your food.

9

Thanks for all the responses. If you are willing, please feel free to explain why/how you make the distinctions you do. For example, a recent poster says “Ew” to the idea of eating horse, but will eat beef, lamb, pork…

10

I am a hunter by nature, although I didn’t grow up in hunting country, or with hunting parents. So I hunted grasshoppers with my hands, bees with glass jars, and birds with a camera. (Birdwatching is basically hunting, the “capture” is just virtual.)

That being said, I don’t like killing things, and try to avoid it.

I kill blood-sucking insects. I’ve also poisoned insects and ants nesting in my house, and killed flies, and the occasional yellow jacket. I’ve used pheremone-laced sticky traps to kill household moths, and similar devices to kill Japanese beetles in the yard. I have helped destroy colonies of spongy-moth larvae, and other tent caterpillars.
That being said, I remove small numbers of wasps/bees from the house, and when we had a giant yellowjacket nest in the eaves, I waited until they died over winter, and just avoided the ones that wandered inside. I mostly ignore spiders in the house, but remove harmless flying things.

I have. Like @Broomstick I find fishing rather dull, however.

Yes, I’ve killed mice with snap-traps. I won’t use sticky traps, though, because I think they are too inhumane.

I had a lap job where I had to kill mice, and dissect mice and rats. Yeah, I’d do it again if i had a good reason to do so. This is when I discovered that I really dislike killing, however.
No, I wouldn’t kill monkeys. Well, I’d need a really damn good reason. I killed mice for basic research. I wouldn’t kill monkeys for that.

If I couldn’t just exclude them, yes, I would. I would attempt to remove and exclude them, first.

Yes. I buy meat. I pay a lot extra to get meat that I believe has been humanely raised and killed.

Yes. I think hunting is more humane than many fur farms, and honestly, than many factory meat farms.

Yes, I won’t kill endangered animals, nor animals that I believe to be highly intelligent. So I won’t eat monkey, or elephant, or whale. (I’ve had the opportunity to eat whale, and turned it down, despite generally liking to try new meats.) I have also cut way down on pork, as pigs seem awfully bright.

I regularly eat beef, lamb, and several birds and fish. I have also eaten horse, antelope, deer, elk, moose, and some other animals. I mostly avoid pork, though.

11

but, but… cranberry jello and m&m’s are such great toys…

I try not to torture live animals, however.

12

I kill pest insects. I do not spray indescribably. I hunt down and kill black widows.

I set snap traps if mice get into the garage (then dont get into the house, due to the cats, or if they do their life is measured in seconds).

I have spent time on the family farm in Sask, and killed a chicken.

I have done a little bit of hunting, only game birds to eat. I was part of a project to eradicate some diseased ground squirrels. I was a avid fisherman and yes, ate the fish.

I had to kill some lab animals in college. It was for science.

I will cheerfully eat all the common domestic meat animals. I will eat Venison.

13

Insects in my house bug my wife. I had some pause attacking the colony outside that was the source (as I suspect that individual ants are as to cells of a sentience of sorts) but I did what needed to be done.

Don’t fish.

Have killed mice in my house.

Did kill many lab rats in college. Have not killed monkeys. At the time probably would have been willing but not now.

Vermin in my house have to go. I would not accept a needlessly painful extermination however.

I do not personally hunt for food etc but I gratefully accept excess venison from those who do.

I accept the irrational nature of which animals I will and won’t consume. No interest in horse or animals that I can think of as pets. One son specifically won’t eat pork because he knows how smart pigs are. I know that pigs are smart, and octopuses too, and I’ll still eat a slab of pork ribs or grilled octopus without hesitation.

(Update btw - my puppy is currently getting treated for hookworms, giardia, and a rabbit parasite.)

14

I spare no pity or remorse for Japanese beetles, which must be slain unmercifully. Flies in the home are swatted without conscience. I look with contempt upon squirrels. There are solar-powered devices in the garden which send out audible tones designed to repel gophers and other burrowing animals. No doubt several have died of laughter at these futile electronic deterrents.

Spiders are given every possible dispensation. I rescue non-Japanese beetles when they fall into Pluto’s water dish outdoors.

15

Dying of laughter is still dying, though, so you must be doing something right.

16

Died? He invited his buddy’s over to check out his new jams.

17

I’ve killed and butchered elk. An intense experience for me. I have no compunction about bug or rodents–among other things I’m in construction and taking apart an old house that is infested is truly disgusting. As far as store-bought meat, I’d prefer to take the high road (grass-fed, etc., but we’re in Montana–most of the beef is local). Fish is tough–I need to eat more, but we’re killing the ecosystem.

18

Will you kill insects? What kinds?
I only kill those that are pests.

Do you fish and eat your catch?
I have done so. I would again given proper circumstances.

Do you kill mice/rats in your house?
yes

Would you kill lab mice/rats for dissection? Lab monkeys?
I have killed frogs and rats in the lab.

Will you have squirrels, skunks trapped in your home, if you know the trapper will kill it?
I killed one, let the other go (both squirrels, separate incidences)

Do you approve of animals being (hopefully humanely) raised and killed for you to eat?
yum

Will you hunt/approve of hunting for food/skins?
No problems with it, but I don’t bother.

Are there some categories of mammals you will kill (e.g. mice) but others you won’t (dogs, cats…)?
yes

Will you eat beef, lamb, and pork, but not horse?
Well, I’d try horse, but I don’t eat red meat anymore due to gout.

19

I have killed Roaches,ants and Rats in my house. Flies too. I only spray wasp nests on or near my house. They’re aggressive and will attack if anyone walks near them.

I leave spiders and bees alone. They eat insects and are helpful.

I enjoy watching bumble bees. They visit my lavender when it blooms. They’ve never shown any aggression.

I’ve hunted and fished. It’s a source of food. No different than buying steak at the grocery. I field dress deer and take to a processor. They butcher and wrap the meat.

20

I will kill anything that causes me a minor inconvenience (except my pets).

Life is not sacred and morality is arbitrary at best.