Does any one eat meat and is anti-hunting?

[afro-elf]

If so why?

[eowyngirl14]

i eat meat all the time, yet i am also very against hunting. i never really saw how hypodritical that was until now. i was a vegie for 15 hours once! then i ate a big mac...

thats a good question. i guess itsbecause when i was about 4 i went to my uncles house as he has abig deer head on his wall. and i thought it was fake until he told me he killed it and we were eating it for dinner. ya. that kinda scared me for life.

[Elvengirl]

I eat meat and I wouldn't have a problem if I had to hunt for my food to survive. I was vegitarian once but it was more for health reasons than to save the cute little animals. I would never kill and eat an animal that I raised and had as a pet. I love animals and get very attatched to my pets.

Now I am against hunting, just for the sport. To go out and kill an animal just for the fun is cruel and should not be done. But that is different than hunting to feed yourself or your family.

[Snowdog]

I like meat and am pro-hunting. True culling of the herd.
Otherwise you get the antibiotic fed slaughterhouse meat that is from the big meatpackers.

[Aden]

I do believe that hunting must be stopped since it's no longer a means of survival. I do eat pork and veal (but I don't think anyone hunts pigs anyway)

[Insidious Rex]

I dont hunt because I dont really see the sport in camafloging yourself and shooting a deers brain out from 200 meters with a high power rifle. wheres the fun? wheres the competition? maybe if you hunt with like just a knife or a bow and arrow or something.

However... i LOVE venison so Ill gladly take some when friends go hunting. its SO much better then store meat.

[Ruinel]

I was a vegetarian, now I eat meat ocassionally. So, I qualify to post here now for the once a month or so flesh that I devour.

I actually fish occasionally (yes, fish is meat!), and i see nothing wrong with that.

I do not hunt. Though I am not opposed to hunting, as long as it is regulated. The problem is that humans have reduced or eliminated the natural preditors of these animals (such as deer) in an area. And then the prey herds need to be managed. That's where hunting comes in. It is a necessary evil, IMO.

[Starr Polish]

I eat meat and support hunting, since both my dad and stepdad hunt. Howeve, I cannot stand it when I tell someone about the venison my dad prepared and they go "Eww! That's gross! how could you be so mean?" as they bite into their hamburger.

The cow made into that hamburger was treated much more poorly than the deer my father shot. Also, at least I know that the deer was cleaned under sanitary conditions, because I've actually seen my dad quarter the meat. Can't say tht about the cow.

[Bombadillo]

Yes, cows are treated terribly. My aunt once went to a slaughterhouse. I'll never ever be able to understand her reasons in going.
To make a rather long, gruesome story short, she's a vegitarian now, and she collects anything having to do with cows.

[Sister Golden Hair]

I am a meat eater. My brother deer hunts every year (bow hunting) He has never recovered a deer, but he has shot them. I'm not against hunting. I understand that without it to control the deer population, they would suffer a much crueler death of starvation at the hands of nature.

[Guillaume le Maréchal]

I love this topic! For some reason people get so worked up about Bambi and Thumper, like Bambi and Thumper can really talk and like they really love their mommies. I don’t know what’s more cute, Bambi and Thumper or all the people that get so worked up over them.

Now I am against hunting, just for the sport. To go out and kill an animal just for the fun is cruel and should not be done. But that is different than hunting to feed yourself or your family.

I’m more frightened of people who kill animals without thought or respect. I’m against slaughter houses, but, what the heck, I still like hamburger.

I do believe that hunting must be stopped since it's no longer a means of survival.

Hunting has always been just as much about the sport as the survival, even when people had to depend on certain products from hunting.

The problem is that humans have reduced or eliminated the natural preditors of these animals (such as deer) in an area. And then the prey herds need to be managed. That's where hunting comes in. It is a necessary evil, IMO.

I used to think the same way until I read Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Alminac (Oxford UP, 1966), which I highly recommend to anyone truly concerned about the environment. Leopold refuses to see the natural world as a kind of portrait we humans hang on our walls. This attitude separates human beings from nature, and in doing so alienates human beings from a reality that we are as much a part of as ducks and bucks. People have always been part of the environment, and conservation of the environment is not so much the saving of nature, but the saving of ourselves. Thus any activity in which people attempt to involve themselves in the natural progression of the environment, far from being a necessary evil, is a necessary good.

Of course, this involvement doesn’t have to be hunting. I have as much respect for birdwatchers and amateur wildlife photographers (Aldo Leopold armed himself with a camera outside of hunting season). But hunters do have a unique connection to the environment by their intimate involvement with it. They don’t see just game; actually, they see, hear and breath the natural world where they hunt their game. For the most part, hunters are more involved with their environment, and thus more concerned about overall conservation than the bleeding hearts who think themselves above nature and, by consequence, above their own human nature.

I dont hunt because I dont really see the sport in camafloging yourself and shooting a deers brain out from 200 meters with a high power rifle. wheres the fun? wheres the competition?

I have to agree with this. Today’s hunters are little mamas’ boys’ compared to those who hunted wild boar or lion in medieval days. Now that was hunting!

...I've actually seen my dad quarter the meat.

I’m not against hunting or hunters, but this does bring to mind something that I am against in connection... I’m against the way hunters smell, especially after they finish the above mentioned job.

[The Gaffer]

This issue is slightly different in the UK, where the pro-hunting lobby is identified with a charming group called the Countryside Alliance. I say that because they are basically an upper class lobby group trying to maintain a feudal system which allows them, for example, to force their employees to attend political rallies on pain of getting the sack.

The Government are trying to ban hunting with hounds (it was in their manifesto) and the CA are conducting a very effective rearguard action. It's turned into a rather undignified "town versus country" thing. Uz townies durrnt understand the ways o the coun'ry. They claim that 50,000 jobs would be lost if the ban was enforced, but I just think that's a pile of nonsense. It's not as if fox hunting is economically productive; it's basically a hobby.

So anyway, I eat meat, but not foxes. I'm in favour of anything that winds up these people, especially when they comes a-trepassing over me taters without so much as a by your leave.

Hunting for food, though, I don't have a problem with.

[Hemel]

The latest adverts, scattered along the roads here in the UK, are trying to depict 'ordinary' people as loving hunting too. What they're talking about is fox hunting with hounds - and frankly I just cannot understand how this can ever be justified. My opinion is that it is cruel, and there's an end of it. I cannot see how we can consider ourselves a civilised country while we permit such things to happen.

What I would like to know is why everyone's interests can't be served by drag hunting. So by getting a runner to lay a trail for hounds to follow. I'm sure a runner could find just as many obstacles and challenges for the riders as a fox, but also can make sure that potentially dangerous areas are avoided (and also people's pets). I can't see how this would affect 'livelihoods' either, because surely the structure would remain in place - only the quarry has changed. I'm sure too there are plenty of cross country runners who'd welcome the chance to do this.

So does anyone know why this never seems to be an option?

Btw, by rights I shouldn't be here - because I don't eat meat either. But that's not through any great campaigning reasons ... I just went off it

[Valandil]

Interesting... about the LAST thing that comes to mind when I think of hunting is fox hunting. I guess no one eats the fox anyway, right?... except the hounds. Don't know if any joggers would like that prospect (a couple movies come to mind). Maybe someone can invent a high-priced video game that simulates a fox hunt - and it can become all the rage among the elite set. If that helps them stay in touch with their heritage...

When I was a boy, my grandpa and uncle were really into hunting and fishing. The hunting was small game - rabbits and squirrels (country squirrels - not city squirrels!) - and they went on the table!

To me though - there's a big difference between putting meat on the table (whether you're there to see it happen - or it just gets served to you or you buy it at the market) and setting up an animal to be torn to shreds by a pack of dogs. Does seem a bit strange these days.

[Earniel]

I eat meat and I am against hunting as it is done here today, which means mainly for entertainment. I'm not against hunting as a means to get your (daily) food and I'm not against hunting as population or pest control, but breeding and releasing a number of animals a year in the wild so people can shoot them can hardly be regarded as that IMO.

I've read that yearly about 3 tonnes of lead enters the environment as a result of hunting, it makes me wonder whether they actually hit something once in a while or whether they shoot at every falling leaf or so.

Furthermore in the past there have been a number of events here where hunters shot pet cats on purpose, because they are considered rivals in the hunt. Oh so very mature! In one case that I remember a family found their own cat shot right before their home. Luckily it's hardly common practise but it does put a stain on people's perception of hunters.

And then there is the IMO, downright pathetic (but far more rare) practise of poisoning often rare predator birds for the same reason that they are hunt-rivals. Luckily the fine for this is quite considerable so not many are tempted.

[Hemel]

Don't know if any joggers would like that prospect (a couple movies come to mind).

I've just realised how what I said sounded!

What I meant .... was that the trail would be laid some hours before the hunt started ... so the runner pulling the drag would have plenty of time to get to the pub and put his or her feet up before the meet and before hounds were released.

Yes, no one eats the fox (if there's anything left of it, that is). Does anyone know if the practice of 'blooding' is still carried out ((meaning that people in at their first kill get some of the fox's blood smeared on their face as a sort of initiation ceremony), or was that just one of those rural urban legends?

[Sister Golden Hair]

I remember a year or so ago in a place not far from me that is often refered to as "The Valley," we had a huge over population of deer in that area, which is near the National Recreation area. There are many residents throughout this wooded, scenic location. The government wanted to get this problem under control and so every night for a week or so, marksmen went in and killed all the deer. The meat was taken and distributed to the needy and homeless shelters.

[Ruinel]

Originally posted by Guillaume le Maréchal
...I used to think the same way until I read Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Alminac (Oxford UP, 1966), which I highly recommend to anyone truly concerned about the environment. Leopold refuses to see the natural world as a kind of portrait we humans hang on our walls. This attitude separates human beings from nature, and in doing so alienates human beings from a reality that we are as much a part of as ducks and bucks. People have always been part of the environment, and conservation of the environment is not so much the saving of nature, but the saving of ourselves. Thus any activity in which people attempt to involve themselves in the natural progression of the environment, far from being a necessary evil, is a necessary good....

hmmm ok.. let me explain what I mean by "necessary evil". To kill is considered bad, whatever it is, in my book. But to have meat on the table, something had to lose it's life, and someone had to take it's life.

I agree, we are part of this world. We are a part of this environment. Protecting the environment IS more a part of human survival than it is necessary to protect the beauty of this planet.

Most people alienate themselves from the natural world. Do you know how many women I have met who actually like to primitive camp (besides me)? Two! And only one of them actually goes with me on a regular basis. And not many more men, either!

People are happy getting their steaks from a restaurant or grocery store without thought as to where it came from. Hey people! Wake up and smell the rotting blood and feces on the cold, cemented slaughterhouse floor! That meat you eat comes from an animal.

When I was a kid, my mom dropped us (me and my siblings) off at the matinee. They were showing Bambi and some other disney flicks. I didn't cry when Bambi got shot. Perhaps I'm a monster, who knows, but afterall isn't Bambi's mom part of the food chain?

I think, however, that hunting for trophies is sad. Ask yourself: "What is the purpose of hunting?" It's one thing to hunt for food, but another to demean the life of this animal by cutting off it's head and mounting it on your wall to show off. Give this animal it's due dignity by using it for it's intended purpose, as food. I never really understood why hunters went after the strong bucks in a herd with their high powered riffles and scopes either, to really be a part of the environment, shouldn't they pick off the scrubs? And really, shouldn't they attack with spears? (Ok, that last part was a joke.)

As for the fox hunting, I think it should be banned. What purpose does it serve? Only the thrill of killing it, I presume, because none of it goes to feed the hunters.

[sun-star]

Originally posted by Hemel
What they're talking about is fox hunting with hounds - and frankly I just cannot understand how this can ever be justified. My opinion is that it is cruel, and there's an end of it. I cannot see how we can consider ourselves a civilised country while we permit such things to happen.

"The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable", indeed .

It annoys me how fox-hunting gets mixed up in countryside issues as if it represents everything that living in the country is about. It doesn't, and it disturbs me that anyone could think it could. There are problems related to governments' handling of the countryside, IMO, and fox-hunting is by no means the most important. It clouds the issue.

I eat meat because it tastes nice. I don't kill deer because they're pretty. Don't expect an intelligent response to this question from me

[Guillaume le Maréchal]

Ruinel, thanks for the reply.

Most people alienate themselves from the natural world. Do you know how many women I have met who actually like to primitive camp (besides me)? Two! And only one of them actually goes with me on a regular basis. And not many more men, either!

I don’t fit into this category, either... four years in the infantry beat all such desires out of me. You have my respect, if what you mean by “primitive camping” is what I have pictured. I have spent a lot of time with historical re-enactment, though, which is kind of close, but not quite (people didn’t live all that bad back then).

I don’t fit into the hunting category, either. What Leopold was saying, and what I was clumsily trying to say, is that it takes all kinds. Hunters, like campers, hikers, etc., are important individuals in our society, because their shared experience with wildlife habitats, and their concern for their conservation, benefit all of us. Hunters also have the added benefit of being predators. Humans are predators, so I don’t understand the ethical difficulties people have with this other than they have too soft a spot in their hearts for old Bambi and Thumper.

I think, however, that hunting for trophies is sad.

Yes, but we all hunt for trophies, don’t we? Its just that we want different kinds of trophies related to our different interests and passions. Like I said above, sport hunting and hunting for sustenance were never really separate in any human culture. There was always a competition to bring in the most food, bring down the biggest animal, come up with the best pelt, show the most bravery... heck, from an anthropological stand point, the rulers of any given society, primitive or technically sophisticated, have always been those who have the biggest trophies (tsk, tsk, tsk, no sexual pun was intended ).

--Dave