Some men hunt for sport, others hunt for food...

[Jescissa]

But is hunting for any reason right these days?

On the infamous Yahoo! Messageboard on religion, a woman brought up that she used to hunt deer for food, yet at the same time felt sorry for ending another creature's life (the thread was about regrets and whether it is just humanity that has this feeling, or whether all the Earth's creatures have regrets). She felt that hunting for herself and her family was more sustainable than the current 'production-line' way of raising animals for meat products because every part of the animals she killed were used and she wasted nothing (she also didn't have to pack it in plastic and cellophane, another eco-plus!)

However, another poster criticized her for feeling remorse about her actions and said that "feeling remorse for premeditated murder" is bizarre and if she felt that badly about it, she should resort back to supermarket meat which is "easier". This poster also said that hunting these days is done more for sport than for food and this woman should just resign herself to the fact that she does this because she enjoys it, because it's a hobby.

Setting aside their personal argument for now...is personally hunting for food/sport a good thing? I'm in the middle on this one.
Hunting for food feels like it's a good thing - we're so apart from nature these days that there would be very few people who could steel themselves into killing a creature for food, so over-hunting wouldn't be a problem (right now, anyway).
Hunting for sport, however, makes me a bit niggly. I don't relish the idea of a creature being hunted down and killed for fun, particularly if there is no use for the dead creature after the hunt is over. That, to me, is a waste of life.

Any and all thoughts welcome I don't know whether I've truly made my mind up on this one!

[morgana]

Hmm, well I know for certain that I believe hunting for sport is just wrong and horribly wasteful. As for hunting for food when it would seem it's no longer necessary, I'm uncertain. On the one hand, yes most meat (excepting the organically raised animals) is highly over-processed and loaded with crap that we don't need and is bad for us. But, as stated in the parentheses, there IS organic meat (and veggies) which are gaining so much popularity that you can now find them even in the chain supermarkets, so you COULD simply buy organic rather than go out and kill the animal yourself.

On the other hand, I once knew someone who forced himself for a time to live solely off of animals he had hunted, so as to make himself really SEE what it is that he is eating. The idea being that when you just go to the supermarket and pick up your side of beef, you don't really acknowledge the fact that an animal died so that you could eat it, and so therefore you don't have to worry if you don't use the whole animal, or even the whole portion of meat you just bought. It taught him not to take for granted what he was eating, and to not be wasteful, which I DO think is something everyone should learn.

I am however still very much on the fence about this topic as I know that I myself could never go out and kill an animal who hadn't done anything to try and hurt me. I do definitely try to eat all the food that I make or order at a restaurant, or at least take it home and eat it later as leftovers, because even if it doesn't have meat in it, it would be just as wasteful to toss out half a plate of salad, or a serving of mashed potatoes when (as everyone's mother has said at one time or another) there are starving people all over the world who would be grateful for even the smallest bite of it.

[Willow]

I just posted about this somewhere else.

I can't answer the poll because for me it isn't a right or wrong. For some people it is a sport, and I don't like that, I think they should eat and use what they hunt. As for food, I don't mind if people hunt for food. Yes you can buy it at a store, but it is a way to make yourself realise that for you to eat another being had to die. Even with organic food youare still separated from the idea of killing.

For myself, only if it was a matter of life and death. I can't kill (I have tried and let me tell you, that was a lucky chicken). However, I bet that if I was starved I could probably knock off a squirell or two. Good discussionn topic!

[forgotten oceans]

I voted for food only. Sport doesn't seem right, why would anyone need to kill something just to make himself feel better about him. Hunting for food is not really a problem for me, it's just when it starts crossing over into poaching that ticks me off. If you're starving or your family is starving, well that's another matter, but if you could just as easily eat a chicken any time of the year, then why poach? I've hunted out of nessesity before, but not poached, I made due with squirrel, rabbit and catfish. I just don't get why anyone would want to kill something for fun, sad world we live in.

[Lotus]

This is a tough one...honestly. I am not a vegan and do sustain myself with meat......I feel no remorse for eating the cow, pig, chicken, or fish so, why would I feel remorse for some other animal that I ate?

Hunting is necessary sometimes even if it is for sport. The Deer population here sometimes is too large to sustain itself and the are a danger to drivers. For this, hunting for sport is a good thing and the hunters are doing a community service.
I *do* think things should be regulated and the are regulated.....you need a hunting pass and can only hunt during hunting season.

Hunters like my dad have a different mentality about it beyond just doing it for sport. Every buck he has taken down he has eaten or used in someway. Sometimes (as I recall when I was younger) he'd donate the meat to the homeless shelter or nursing homes. He'd also hunt wild turkey and other game. I'm not sure you could do this anymore.
In Spain, I was disturbed by the bull fights until I found out that the meat from the bull went to needy families. Bull fighting is really cruel IMO.

BB
Lotus

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Hunting for sport? bad in my opinion IF the parts are wasted. I was going to mention what Lotus did about deer being overpopulated.

Hunting animals that are near endangerment? BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD.

Otherwise... meh?

[Kitsune]

Hunting for sport... Bad!!!

Hunting for food... Good!!!

Hunting for sport, but donating the food to homeless shelters... I hadn't thought of it, but I wholeheartly approve.

Mind you, eating meat from a grocery store is good too, that's what I do.

So long as the meat isn't wasted... Myself, I eat so little meat, that I'd feel bad about cooking it, but luckily for me, I have a SO who actually eats much more than me in the meat dept, and he finishes whatever I can't.

[Ragnar]

I voted hunt for food.

I think it is much more environmentaly friendly than buying it from a shop.

No Auschwitz methods of slaughter, no masses of energy needed to keep them alive before hand, no need to feed crops to animals that could be used to feed humans, no transport pollution produced from farm to slaughter house, from there to the shop, no unneccessary packaging, no massive amounts of energy needed to keep them on the shelf for weeks, no Mothers driving 5 minutes by Hummer to buy half a pound opf mince, no land wastage for supermerkets and all that go with them., etc, etc.

[Jescissa]

I can't say I'm against hunting full stop because there are some species (like deer, moose etc) that are so big and have no natural predators that they can quickly overpopulate an area and need to be thinned out. Hunting for food seems to be a more sustainable method of getting meat. Going through the process of taking another life gives (some) hunters a respect for life which ensures that they don't over-hunt in an area and are more likely to use every viable piece of the animal they have killed.

Hunting for purely sport doesn't sit right with me. Sure there are people who enjoy the process of tracking an animal, learning its ways and observing creatures in the wild before taking the shot...but to kill an animal that can't be used for food, clothing and other useful items is a pure waste of life, in my eyes.

I know that if beef cattle and lamb sheep stopped being reared for human consumption, I'd have a real problem with killing an animal myself. I wouldn't know how to go about it, I'd probably end up vegetarian so fast the dust would still be whirling around my feet as I foraged in the hedgerows

[Rain ForestMoon]

Hunting for food is just fine, as far as I am concerned.
Our ancestors did so since year dot ( well, mine did, anyway).

BTW, meat from wild animals is so much better for our health than meat from domesticated animals (factory farming is even worse still).

Interestingly enough, fishing was not mentioned in the poll. Is fishing a form of hunting? I do fish when I get the chance (and eat the fish if there was success).

As far as hunting for sport is concerned: It is not something I would be interested in doing.

[Willow]

I am intertested in this population control thing.

If we let nature take its course, populations even out over time. Moose do have predators, wolves and wolverines, cougars...etc. Same with deer. Those animals also have regular lands, if they over eat themselves then there are a few years where the young don't live and the populations evens out while the land regrows.

As well with the roads, does hunting really keep more deer off of the road? What about deer whistles, not driving fast in the evening and at sunrise. And the occasional fence?

Just curious, i never drew a connection between hunting and things like that, I always thought it was best to let nature take care of it.

[Jescissa]

Interestingly enough, fishing was not mentioned in the poll. Is fishing a form of hunting? I do fish when I get the chance (and eat the fish if there was success).

Sorry, I should have made it clear! I counted fishing as part of hunting.

Moose do have predators, wolves and wolverines, cougars...

The problem with those predators is that in some parts of the world they've been eradicated. My aunt and uncle are Finnish and the wolf population is very low where they live. They said that the moose roam as free as they like and the only way to keep the population under control is to have controlled hunting seasons.

Nature will thin out overpopulated areas, but not before a lot of damage has been done. Yes, plants grow back and the moose don't have to be culled, but moose meat and reindeer meat are valuable sources of protein up there in the dark ol' north.

Deer have been known to jump fences if they really want to i.e. if the fence cuts across an established migrating path. If little creatures like frogs, hedgehogs and otters don't readily take to hedgehog subways and otter bridges beneath roads, it would be harder to try and turn around a larger animal like a deer.

Ideally it would be better to trust to nature to thin out populations...but aren't we humans a part of nature too? We are omnivorous creatures and a diet of meat, fruits and veggies is what we're designed for. Just as a lion would seek out a zebra for dinner, we eat fruit, nuts, veggies...and we (generally) eat meat as well because we all need protein to stay healthy.

[Ragnar]

moose meat and reindeer meat are valuable sources of protein up there in the dark ol' north.

Yes...I remember. And fish....TONNES of fish.

Between my Grandfathers trawler, and my Grandmothers reindeer we were allways....ahhmmm(?)...Well fed?

[Jescissa]

Yup, buckets and buckets of fish! Although I don't eat fish, so when I'm there I load up on reindeer steaks

I find cultural aspects of meat-eating interesting. My boyfriend has just come back from Nepal which is 80% Hindu, so the people don't eat beef and cows roam free all over the streets and wander into the roads. Over here we'd have no problem eating beef...yet when I went to Finland for the first time a lot of my British family had a problem with eating reindeer because of the association with Father Christmas! It was a bit strange at first, thinking I might be eating Rudolf, but I found that it actually tasted quite nice and I felt full for ages afterwards!

[Ragnar]

when I went to Finland for the first time a lot of my British family had a problem with eating reindeer because of the association with Father Christmas!

I was the one that ate Father christmas.

So no qualms over a few pesky overgrown antlered rats.