I'm leaving this forum.

[WhistlingBadger]

Why do you hunt?
Do you live in a primitive environment and there no store close to you?
Forgive me I just don't understand the need..or the desire to kill.?

Please don't use the excuse.. to cull the population. If we lived in balance with nature, the wolves and bears would do that.

Oh, mercy, I'm not sure this is the place to go into that. But I will try. I suspect you don't really want to know why I hunt; you seem to just want to criticize me for doing so. But you asked, so I'll do my best. I am happy to talk about these things; if anything I say sounds angry, I don't mean it that way. But I do feel the need to be rather blunt, so forgive me if this comes across as offensive. Again, I don't mean it that way.

You asked forgiveness for not understanding the desire to kill. Not necessary. I hunt for many reasons; I suspect a lot of them would be incomprehensible to you, and that is OK with me. But as for not understanding the need to kill, I think you might be conveniently forgetting a few simple realities.

Yes, I live close to several grocery stores. But guess what. That meat at the store? That was a live animal, too, and it probably lived a rather horrible life, and someone killed it. Those vegetables at the store? Animals died so those veggies could grow. Yes, even the "organic" ones. Nothing, including you, lives without something else dying. That's just the way the world works. If you buy meat at a store, you are still responsible for the death of that animal; you're just hiring someone else to do your dirty work for you. I prefer to do my own killing, and embrace the reality that, by the very act of eating, I am taking responsibility for the death of another living thing.

So. I go out in the wilderness with my bow or my rifle. I learn an animal's habits, blend into its environment, match its skill against mine, and, if all goes well, remove that animal from the flow of life, pack it out of the wilderness on my back (or if I'm really lucky, drive up to it and load it into my truck), bring it home and butcher it, so its body can feed me and my family. Sometimes, as an added bonus, I get a pretty set of antlers to hang on my wall or a pretty fur that I can make into beautiful things. More often than not, the animal wins and I come home empty-handed. And yes, I love and savor every moment of the experience, including the sadness and elation of the kill. I love and respect that animal in a way I suspect you couldn't possibly understand.

Oh, and yes, culling the population is much more than an excuse. But since you seem to have bears and wolves all figured out, out there on Barbados, I will refrain from disturbing your peace.

If you really think that you are on some sort of moral high ground because you go to the supermarket and buy meat from an animal that was killed by someone else at a feed lot or factory farm, you probably live in a different world from me and I'm not sure there's anything for us to discuss. But I have answered the best I can.

 

[Airwreck]

Wow someone is rather defensive.
Please don't pejudge me when you don't know how I live.
I have not eaten meat for years unless I grow my chickens. I grow everything else.

I just was curious why you feel the need to kill.

Didn't expect a soap box.

 

[arconfederate]

Wow someone is rather defensive.
Please don't pejudge me when you don't know how I live.
I have not eaten meat for years unless I grow my chickens. I grow everything else.

I just was curious why you feel the need to kill.

Didn't expect a soap box.

Why do you feel the need to kill your chickens? That's the same reason that I hunt.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Wow someone is rather defensive.
Please don't pejudge me when you don't know how I live.
I have not eaten meat for years unless I grow my chickens. I grow everything else.

I just was curious why you feel the need to kill.

Didn't expect a soap box.

Well, I'm glad that my answer provided you with some entertainment, at least. I assume you do kill those chickens (or hire someone to do it for you) before you eat them. So we aren't really that different, are we? I must say I envy you, living in a climate where you can grow most of your own food. I wish that were an option here, but the Wyoming climate just isn't very cooperative.

Yes, someone is rather defensive. The way you asked your question struck me as aggressive, and it was directed at me personally. When you ask a question like that, it is probably reasonable to expect a certain amount of defensiveness. And of course, motives can be complex, especially on issues of life and death. If you ask someone to explain something of that sort, it is probably reasonable to expect that their answer might be longer than a sentence or two.

I assumed your question was sincere, so I answered as honestly and thoughtfully as I could. You responded by ridiculing me. If you didn't want an answer, why on earth did you ask? No hard feelings, but I think we're done here.

 

[EllRog]

Wow someone is rather defensive.
Please don't pejudge me when you don't know how I live.
I have not eaten meat for years unless I grow my chickens. I grow everything else.

I just was curious why you feel the need to kill.

Didn't expect a soap box.

I think he answered your question pretty well considering the way you asked it

 

[Jessa+BlueBoy]

I can see both sides of the argument. And I would rather (personally) hunt or raise my own food then buy from grocery stores. Because - The meat at the store is FACTORY FARMED. The animal lived and died, with no access to the outdoors. Cramped, dirty, and disgusting living conditions... so much more - but I won't go into that now.

Also, you have a point @Airwreck, since you don't eat meat often. But still, I see both sides completely.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

@Jessa+BlueBoy I like your new signature. It is much friendlier than the last one. Is the betta Blueboy? I got it wrong with the golden retriever, but I'm pretty confident I have it now.

 

[Jessa+BlueBoy]

Thank you! And yes, that's Blue Boy.

 

[FishFinatic77]

Why do you hunt?
Do you live in a primitive environment and there no store close to you?
Forgive me I just don't understand the need..or the desire to kill.?

Please don't use the excuse.. to cull the population. If we lived in balance with nature, the wolves and bears would do that.

Wow someone is rather defensive.
Please don't pejudge me when you don't know how I live.
I have not eaten meat for years unless I grow my chickens. I grow everything else.

I just was curious why you feel the need to kill.

Didn't expect a soap box.

Quick disclaimer, I don't hunt, nor could I ever bring myself to intentionally kill any living being.

I understand where you are coming from, but I just wanted to say one thing. Which animal do you think has a happier life? The deer living in the forest, or the cow who lives in cramped, filthy conditions and never sees the sun? I think the answer is quite clear. So, if you go to the supermarket and buy the meat there, you are encouraging the awful treatment of their animals.
Just think what would happen if everyone went out and hunted their own food! The meat farms would go out of business. There would be no more animals suffering. All the animals that people consume would have lived wonderful lives out in nature. Wouldn't that be so much better than what we have now? Isn't that what you would rather see?

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Quick disclaimer, I don't hunt, nor could I ever bring myself to intentionally kill any living being.

I understand where you are coming from, but I just wanted to say one thing. Which animal do you think has a happier life? The deer living in the forest, or the cow who lives in cramped, filthy conditions and never sees the sun? I think the answer is quite clear. So, if you go to the supermarket and buy the meat there, you are encouraging the awful treatment of their animals.
Just think what would happen if everyone went out and hunted their own food! The meat farms would go out of business. There would be no more animals suffering. All the animals that people consume would have lived wonderful lives out in nature. Wouldn't that be so much better than what we have now? Isn't that what you would rather see?

That is a beautiful vision, but it isn't quite as simple as that, either. I'm not on any kind of high horse about being a hunter. I realize that hunting isn't an option for most people, and I buy plenty of meat from the grocery store, too. There simply are too many people for us all to be hunters and subsistence farmers. A herd of wild deer or elk just doesn't have the capacity to produce as much food as a feedlot or a chicken factory, and if everybody depended on the wild animals for food, they would go extinct very quickly. So, those factory farms, regrettable as their conditions are, do provide a lot of people with needed protein.

Like most things, it's complicated. There are a LOT of people in this world. It's hard to see that as a bad thing, since I myself generally do my best to avoid dying or seeing others die. My wife and I even went so far as to add a new human to the world population. I generally see plagues, wars, natural disasters, and other population-reducing events as very bad things. But as long as there are so many people around, we will need those corporate farms to feed them all. I just wish they would treat their critters a bit more humanely, like living things instead of like protein-producing machines.

 

[emeraldking]

Well, hope that everybody overhere get along just fine after a discussion about hunting. For I also understand both thoughts. My grandfather of my mom's side, has been a hunter as well. It provided them food. They used to live in Indonesia where a lot of wild animals live in free nature. In my own situation, I don't have to hunt for food. And oh yes, I'm a meat eater as well. But don't mind eating vegetarian as well. I love animals for what they are. And respect them for living next to humans. But if you know how nature works, a kill is a part of it. We're mammales ourselves. Don't forget that either. We still do the same but mostly in a cultivated way. But killing to survive (we consume animals) is a part of our nature as well.
But again, I do understand both thoughts that have been mentioned overhere...

And again, let's be friendly towards eachother but stay honest. A group hug is in place overhere...

 

[Colin_T]

View attachment 127652

and the werewolf sneaks in and seeing the meerkats all huddled up in a nice bite size mouthful, chomps them all up. Bahahahaha, got them before the mods got me

 

[Fishmanic]

@Colin_T

 

[FishFinatic77]

That is a beautiful vision, but it isn't quite as simple as that, either. I'm not on any kind of high horse about being a hunter. I realize that hunting isn't an option for most people, and I buy plenty of meat from the grocery store, too. There simply are too many people for us all to be hunters and subsistence farmers. A herd of wild deer or elk just doesn't have the capacity to produce as much food as a feedlot or a chicken factory, and if everybody depended on the wild animals for food, they would go extinct very quickly. So, those factory farms, regrettable as their conditions are, do provide a lot of people with needed protein.

Like most things, it's complicated. There are a LOT of people in this world. It's hard to see that as a bad thing, since I myself generally do my best to avoid dying or seeing others die. My wife and I even went so far as to add a new human to the world population. I generally see plagues, wars, natural disasters, and other population-reducing events as very bad things. But as long as there are so many people around, we will need those corporate farms to feed them all. I just wish they would treat their critters a bit more humanely, like living things instead of like protein-producing machines.

Yes, I know that what I wrote could never happen. But, I wanted to illustrate a good side to hunting.

 

[HoldenOn]

I went vegan for like 3 years because I didn't like the way animals are treated on a large scale, not to mention the several negative impacts eating to much meat has on your body. It's also really bad for the enviroment.