I’m interested in hearing what Lemmings think about hunting. I started hunting deer years ago because I wanted to be a part of the process, like if I couldn’t handle killing and gutting an animal I shouldn’t be eating meat. IMO, it’s much more humane than what factory farmed animals endure. Less suffering overall than most natural deaths. Overpopulation causes disease and starvation and we killed off their predators, so we kind of owe it to nature to fill the ecological gap.
Also, I fucking love it. I watch the sun rise, think, record birds I’ve seen, think, watch squirrels play, think a bit more, and sometimes, I get some food.
Idk. I’m not looking for approval or trying to change your mind, just wondering what people think.
I actually kind of dont like it as a past time. Its just very time consuming. Its an early morning activity if you want to maximise your chances. It takes a lot of focus too, which i can struggle with.
Doing it with friends and family, getting to immerse myself in the less tended to parts of the land, and getting food for me and everyone is what makes it worth it to me. Its also a little humbling if you are doing it legally and being a good sport about it, which is good chance to respect our other brothers and sisters as they are and not just as objects or fiction.
From a ecological managment standpoint, taking of areas so an herbavore herd can safely graze on non-crops and help maintain that part of the ecosystem is really cool to. Not everything can be industrialized (in fact i think we should deindustrialize a lot of the food industry, but that is a tough path), but also not space for wildlife can be kilometers away from any human structure (though more space would be good for our planet too).
We fucked up the wolf populations so its our moral imperative to control deer populations.
I live in an area with an out of control whitetail deer population. I don’t have it in me to hunt, but I’m all for people deer hunting to curb the population. Most folks I know who hunt also eat their kills or give away/sell the meat, so it isn’t wasted. A lot of local craftspeople use deer hide and antlers for knife making and stuff and there’s soooo many taxidermists. Almost every butcher shop around offers deer processing, too.
When I was a kid way out in the boonies, the wild coyote population boomed and the pack actively started hunting me and other small kids and killing livestock like crazy. The folks in the surrounding areas thinned the pack when the game commission wouldn’t do something about the problem. I was totally fine with that hunting too because I didn’t like coyotes stalking me and preventing me from playing outside.
I know some people who pheasant hunt and it’s never bothered me because, again, the corpses aren’t wasted.
My grandpa crow hunted and he took me with him once and II had researched crows beforehand because I was excited. I learned how smart they are and refused to let my grandpa shoot them. We just sat there and watched them hang out and figure out the decoys we had set up.
If humanity subsisted off hunted food, we would eat the last wild animal before the first afternoon of the first day. Hunting is a selfish, needlessly cruel, unsustainable practice.
“I don’t like facts!”
hunting for food is ethical, over killing, killing for profit, killing for sport are not.
It is a perfectly fine thing. Humans are part of the ecosystem. We are predators and fill that niche. So long as we do so with attention paid to ensure it is done sustainably then there is nothing wrong.
I’m pretty simple.
Hunting to eat it? Great. I love me some deer sausage.
Hunting to chopoff its head and mount it on your wall like some ghoulish asshole? Go fuck yourself.
I feel like trophy hunters don’t show any respect to the animal, while hunters for eating do.
I’d add hunting because humans eliminated all natural predators and we need to control the population to prevent disease and starvation.
Yes. That’s true as well.
the impact of hunting for food is so far below the impact of industrial agriculture and other things, it’s fine
Hunting for food is fine.
Hunting for trophies is not.
I get a lot of down votes for this but it’s important since we wiped out natural predators. One of my favorite days was cooking up some venison my students; we had a field day or whatever and no the meat came from another hunter.
I almost died when a a bunch crossed over the highway in the middle of the night. Tokyo drift instincts kicked in lol. Thankfully a buddy bought a Jeep XJ and it saved his ass.
Then there’s this ongoing argument against firearms; do you shoot the deer that ran into your car or beat it to it’s death with a blunt object? And I mean this in a humane question, otherwise you leave it die suffering in pain.
I only go for kill shots. None of this trophy bullshit. I’m not going to make a game of chasing around a wounded animal.
A lot of people bring up the moral problems with eating meat, but I have barely any such issue in regard to wild animals, especially those overpopulating areas.
Of course, if a company ever made a big product out of reselling venison, we’d probably get perverse incentives where someone would start trapping and farming them. So, it ends up just being a homey domain of hobbyist hunters and all their family friends - but one I respect a lot.
There are already deer farms that sell venison and “guided hunts”. Most hunters are disgusted by them.
Do it responsibly and eat what you hunt?
Go to town.
Go hunt to your hearts content. We’re all part of the cycle.
not the answer you’re looking for, but: i haven’t eaten meat in five years, am the healthiest I’ve ever been, and no longer feel guilty about eating
Just like humans have done for millennia and are meant too. Hunt. Cook. Feed. Then shit.
Rinse and repeat.
