Hunting!

by zack 55 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  blondie

  I don't hunt any more but I did and I am not a vegetarian. I don't see where it matters if I kill it or someone else kills it for me. It's dead either way.

  I already stated that I'm not one for "sport" or fluff hunting. But food would have been scarce at my family's table without the fish and game that we hunted and caught.

  It can be dangerous even when you are hunting with friends, as Dick Cheney can attest to. There is no similar danger going to the butcher or meat counter in a grocery store.

  But if you cringe at killing what you eat and leave it to someone else to do, I wonder. Now if you have put your mouth where you speaking from and are a vegetarian, good for you; I hope you don't wear leather or other animal products.

  Blondie (on a soapbox)
• 

  Highlander

  I used to hunt when I was living in Minnesota. I started hunting at a young age. Most of my family hunts, so therefore I felt it was the thing to do. I only lasted a few years, didn't really

  enjoy it. The more I thought about it, it just didn't make sense to me. I have to agree that hunting is done by the general public for two reasons. To put food on the table, or

  because you enjoy killing. I definitely didn't enjoy killing, and having harding working, successful parents, we didn't need hunting to provide food for ourselves.

  I recall some of my hunting relatives justify themselves by stating that hunting prevent overpopulation. Fair enough, but these relatives never had the balls to admit they enjoyed killing.

  Nature does have it's own ways of thinning out overpopulated herds of animals. Eventually humans will be overpopulated. Will we shoot eachother to 'thin the herd'?

  I'm not against anyone hunting, but I think those that do hunt should at least be honest about why they hunt and not give these stupid cop-out reasons out preventing overpopulation.
• 

  skyking

  Hunting is vital part as to why we have most animals in the US. If it was not for the hunters most of the wild areas would be gone. Hunters provide the money needed to protect habitat.

  Anyone against hunting tells me a lot about pthe person that makes stupid comments against hunters, it shows a lack of education on the part of the person making the comments.

  Wild meat is healthy. Most non hunter bitch a lot, at the same time they do not donate funds needed to managing wildlife. So it rest on the shoulders of the hunters.
• 

  skyking

  I have to ad i have a ranch that every so many years get over run by deer. I allow hunters to come and kill the deer but the hunters do not take enough deer off the ranch to maintain a healthy herd. So the deer get over populated, skinny and sickly, then they get diseased this disease appears in this part of the world. Only when the deer get over populated it is so horrible it will make grown men cry see them die this way. The deer suffer unbelievable painful deaths.

  When populations start to get out of hand we beg hunters to come to the ranch.

  So all you city dummies that think we should not hunt I'll video and post the death throws for you so you can see why hunters are important.

  Five years ago this hit on my farm and over three hundred deer died on AP 400 acres and tens of thousands in the county.

  Anti hunter are not welcome on my proerty and I will shot to kill.
• 

  Highlander

  So all you city dummies that think we should not hunt I'll video and post the death throws for you so you can see why hunters are important.

  Anti hunter are not welcome on my proerty and I will shot to kill.

  People here are welcome to state their opinions. However I do believe anyone(such as yourself) that makes threats and insults should leave.
• 

  Little Drummer Boy

  I'm not against anyone hunting, but I think those that do hunt should at least be honest about why they hunt and not give these stupid cop-out reasons out preventing overpopulation.

  edit: This lengthy post was composed but not posted before reading Skyking's, but expands on and mirrors many thoughts regardless.

  Do you actually understand how deer population dymanics work? I chose deer in this thread because it is one of the most commonly hunted animals and most everybody in the U.S. can relate to the hunting of this animal in their area (if you consider the different versions - white tail, black tail, etc.). This would not be the case with something such as bear which is not native to many regions anymore. For the record, while I am very proficient with firearms and enjoy target shooting, I am not a hunter and never have been. However, I have had many friends and relatives who hunt and I have helped retrieve their kills on occasion. I know their motivations well, and know their reasons for hunting on a personal level. I am not just talking out of my ass on this subject in an abstract sort of way, naively wishing for fairies and pixie dust to brighten my world as some quasi-vegetarians on this thread are doing. I quite literally am startled out of sleep by shotgun fire many weekend early mornings during deer season because the land being hunted is so close to my home. In other words, I know what I'm talking about on this subject -(there's always a first time, huh ).

  Despite what you may want to believe, controlling herd populations is not a stupid cop-out reason as you seem to think. Try to understand this next point carefully, I've already explained it once in this thread, but I will mention it again - hell, read it twice or more if you need to... Here you go: Because humans have destroyed or thined to the point of near extinction most natural predator species, there is no humane natural check on deer populations. If you don't understand that, go back and read it until you do. Is it unfortunate? In many ways yes, especially for the predator species.

  However, modern society WOULD NOT SURVIVE OR FUNCTION if our country was in the natural state of balance between predator and prey animal species. We, as humans, are not equiped to deal with "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my". We tend to be soft and squishy and lacking in natural defenses. Or if you prefer: "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with catsup" as one saying goes. Anyway, the point is, do you want cougars roaming the streets of New York, feeding off of random pedestrians? No? Ofcourse not.

  So...without natural predators, what does control deer populations? Quite simply - baring hunting - when populations get too large, they starve. If you have never seen what deer will do to get food in the winter, maybe you really don't understand what happens. They go to any lengths, invading farm land and other populated rural (and sometimes not so rural) areas and are forced to over-ride their natural fear in search of food. This brings them into close contact with people - usually in the form of their body coming into unfortunate high-speed contact with vehicles.

  Maybe you have never lived near deer and really don't understand how they act. I must inform you that they are enormously stupid creatures that react strictly out of panic. At night, if you ever happen to see a deer to the side of the road, your best bet to not hit it is to actually pretty much just aim you car at the damn thing - it will just jump right into the middle of the road anyway 9 times out of ten. And it is a safe bet that where you see one, there are 3 or 4 more following it ready to ruin you day in a car crash kind of way. There are entire seasons where we live that it isn't safe to drive over about 30mph down any country road at night. The damn deer are just too numerous - and that is with hunting measures in place to thin herds.

  So, since we don't want the deer to suffer and starve, and because we don't want them coming through our windshields at 60mph, what is the answer? Proper hunting levels. That is why the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) sets the amount of hunting licenses at the local level, and varies the amount available for issue based on current deer populations.

  If you can't understand that, then I really don't know any other way to explain the reality of the world to you.
• 

  skyking

  People here are welcome to state their opinions. However I do believe anyone(such as yourself) that makes threats and insults should leave.

  So I am welcome to post mine as well. Thank you for this right
• 

  Highlander

  Having spent a majority of my life on a farm I do understand what you are talking about.

  Population control is necessary, however I don't believe for one second that every hunter in my family shoots a deer only to save their loved ones from a deer flying through a windshied(I've personally had the misfortune of hitting many deer with my truck). They hunt because they enjoy killing, they hunt because they enjoy consuming the food. The least they can do is be honest about why they hunt. Keep in mind, I'm speaking on behalf of my personal experiences with my hunting relatives among my family, all of whom give the same canned answer for why they hunt.
• 

  Mystla

  All the BS aside......

  I'm a little too squeamish to be a hunter. My brother does guided hunts in Alaska. He really enjoys it. He keeps his freezer full, the critter population gets thinned, everyone is happy.

  He has a big white mountain goat mounted from a hunt several years ago. I didn't like the way it looked at me Then he told me the story. He and his buddy had been hunting all day, hiking over incredibly steep terrain (mountain goats like that) when they finally spotted this goat. It saw them at the same time and got up from where it had been resting and started to leave (smart) brothers buddy yelled "hey" at it and it stopped and looked back at them (not so smart) and my brother shot it dead, one shot. When they where getting it ready to pack out they discovered that all of it's many stomachs were empty and that it's jaw was broken. This was an old experienced goat who had just lost out during mating season and was on his way to a slow death due to starvation, my brother did it a favor.

  I think that, as a society, we are too far removed from where our meat comes from. All we ever see is white cellophane packages at the grocery store.. how often do we really stop to think about the animal that gave it's life to feed us? Was the cow, crowded into a tiny pen all it's life, really better off than the deer that hunter joe shot? How much do we really know about where our meat comes from? How many of us are willing to even ask? or care?

  I think that those who hunt for trophys and leave the meat to rot are wrong.... If you are going to kill it, don't waste it... I also think that those who hunt to fill their freezer are no different from the housewife buying a roast at the store.. we all gotta eat and we are omnivores.

  Misty
• 

  skyking

  I will be frank. I hunt and I enjoy hunting. I allow hunters on my farm. I like hunters. I normally do not like anti-hunters because they have no clue to the balance of nature. Every anti hunter that moves here usually does not last long in these parts. We love to see them move anyway. They are not welcome in the community I live in.

  Last week we had six wolves on my ranch. This pack of wolves killed several of my neighbors dogs that were tied up in his yard. The wolves have the right to their groceries and I do not blame the wolves. But you city dwellers demanded that Idaho have them. So you could sleep at night knowing they live up here in my yard and not yours. I will make this point right now. The wolves were never here in the place. The wolves that were planted here are the bigger Canadian Grey Wolves as big as two hundred pounds each. The native wolves that live here are at most 40 pounds and are called timber wolves they were never extinct, they have always lived here. Now the native wolves are gone, they have been killed by the planted Canadian Wolves. The original timber wolves have more of a right to live here than I do. But you well meaning city boys demanded that a bigger deadlier wolf be planted here and now my family and everyone that lives here are to scared to go camping and enjoy our lives.

  My neighbor was woke up two years ago by a commotion his horse was surrounded by a pack of wolves and the pack killed his horse as he ran out to save his horse. The wolves killed his horse as he held the horses reigns in his hands. After they killed the horse they proceeded to back him away form the horse.

  Idaho will soon be killing all but 100 wolves and this will be done by the hunters of Idaho. The records show only about 600 wolves in Idaho but this is BULL they only count the packs that are radio collars. I just talked to the local Biologist for my area and he said that the Idaho fish and Game thinks the number is closer to 1600 wolves and not 600.