Bloodsports/Hunting for fun

[Jaymes]

I DON'T like the idea of killing something I DON'T HAVE TO. Why cause killing that is unneeded and unwarranted?

That's what you're doing when you buy something that has already been killed, though. You're paying someone to do your killing for you.

You kill to protect yourself and yours, for survival, NOT to mount a dead animal's head or antlers on your wall...which a lot of hunters do. They prize the kill...I prize the life.

Do you prize it enough to not pay for it to be taken?

I'm not trying to attack you, Draka, I just see those as big holes in your logic.

 

[Maxist]

It is idiotic to kill things for the sport of it; however I am not going to make any real attempt to stop it. I am not relativist; never for a moment beleive that; however I still would never do it in this lifetime.

 

[Atheist_Dave]

Killing for food is fine, I have no problem with farmers in this country using shotguns to kill pidgeons, because most of them do it for food. However, things like fox hunting and those horrible trap things get me very angry, these posh lords think they have the right to prance about in ridiculous clothes and get their dogs to eat fox's alive, and even when we ban it, they still carry on, bunch of toffee nosed sods!

Well, thats my thoughts, I tend to find hunting for food ok, as long as it is as humane as possible, but hunting trips and buying all the clobber and making it a weekend hobby is just disgusting.

Peace x

 

[No*s]

I honestly think, where there is pleasure involved certainly, it is morally repugnant. I also believe that the obvious desensitising that goes with repeated kills means a sport hunter is more likely to commit homicide.

Do you have any statistical proof of this? I would actually think that the awareness of how easy something dies that results from repeated kills would have the opposite effect. The desensitization of killing animals doesn't necessarily extend to humans; most hunters I know make a pretty hard distinction.

 

[BUDDY]

If you ENJOY the killing it is. Do you do it for food, or do you do it for fun? A worker in a slaughterhouse is just earing a living. As for saving money, what about the money you spend on guns, ammunition, hunting clothes, hunting licenses, etc.?

Enjoying the kill after a hunt does not in and of itself make you a bad or an immoral person. I have talked to a couple of people who, when they were much younger and incredably poor, felt joy and elation over having killed their prey. Because they were poor and had to money for food and were happy over the fact that they had this animal that could feed them for the next few weeks.

 

[BUDDY]

I think many of the folks on this thread really need to learn what it is like to starve, before they start passing judgement on those that find hunting and killing their food enjoyable.

 

[Jaymes]

I think many of the folks on this thread really need to learn what it is like to starve, before they start passing judgement on those that find hunting and killing their food enjoyable.

You assume too much. I've been lucky enough to never felt the pain and fear of constant hunger, but I've had dear friends who have literally eaten nothing but vegetarian ramen for weeks at a time. They refused to give up their morals just because they were hungry.

 

[Draka]

That's what you're doing when you buy something that has already been killed, though. You're paying someone to do your killing for you.
Do you prize it enough to not pay for it to be taken?

I'm not trying to attack you, Draka, I just see those as big holes in your logic.

Let me try to put it this way: This tough, tomboyish, ex-weightlifter, ex-Navy chick...can't kill things. In an armed battle for my life in a war situation against another human who knows what they have gotten themselves into as well, that is one thing. To physically kill anything else...I can't do. Like I said, I catch spiders and take them outside, I certainly can't kill anything else. I'm even arachnophobic, and if I would rather catch a spider than step on it what does that say? Now, if I can't catch the spider or it is a huge wolf spider or something I will scream and find someone else to kill it for me...I can't do it. I cannot bring myself to kill anything that does not NEED to be killed. Even if it does (in a meat packing plant) I don't think I could do it. I'll eat meat yes, but being as empathic as I am I cannot kill something myself. Call me selfish, but oh well. I once found a beetle that some kid pulled the legs off of at my last place of employment. The beetle was still alive and I almost cried looking at it...but could not step on it. I had to get someone else to do it. Call it the one "girly/wussy" thing about me. Going off those feelings and the fact that hunting in this country nowadays is really not an absolute necessity, I cannot find myself agreeing with the concept of hunting for pleasure at all.

 

[ch'ang]

Again... It's a level of arguement I really don't want to pursue. Much like those who believe the world is only a few thousand years old, and those who think that soap opera characters are real people. I lump them all together. Sorry.

I resent be lumped with young earthists

As to the arugument about the sentience, I guess this is where we differ to me a life is a life, sentience does not make it more important or more deserving of life than anything else.

 

[frg001]

I resent be lumped with young earthists

As to the arugument about the sentience, I guess this is where we differ to me a life is a life, sentience does not make it more important or more deserving of life than anything else.

I'm sorry you resent it, it's just how I feel.

 

[jewscout]

To be honest, I don't actually think you're evil. I think the act is evil. Is it the buddhists who say 'love the person, hate the deed' or words to that effect? - Good words anyway. I find the whole idea that you (quite obviously) delight in the hunting you've taken part in, morally repugnant. Now I don't need any big guy with a beard in the sky to tell me that. I don't need an oppressive religion, that makes it's children be
mutilated in it's name, to tell me that. I just need my compassion, and my intelligence.

Peace dude.

i don't know if it's buddhists, i've heard plenty of christians say something veys similar about sin.

well you can find hunting and my enjoyment of it morally repugnant if you want, then again people on here find my support of the Death penalty equally repugnant.

and i wouldn't consider my faith oppressive and franky if you are referring to circumcision...well that's a dead horse that's been beaten over and over again on RF and i have found no reason to not continue in that practice.

if your own ethics and morals cause you to find hunting evil...well...it's no more evil than genetically modifying cows and keeping them penned up for slaughter or cutting the wings and beaks off of chickens

frankly i find what i do less evil than the torture the meat industry puts their animals through.

 

[Quoth The Raven]

I honestly think, where there is pleasure involved certainly, it is morally repugnant. I also believe that the obvious desensitising that goes with repeated kills means a sport hunter is more likely to commit homicide.

So then by that logic, there should be some evidence that slaughtermen commit more murders than any other group of people, yes? A slaught will have more repeated kills per day than most hunters will in an entire season. Fast track to desensitization right there.

 

[retrorich]

So then by that logic, there should be some evidence that slaughtermen commit more murders than any other group of people, yes? A slaught will have more repeated kills per day than most hunters will in an entire season. Fast track to desensitization right there.

You miss the whole point of the topic, which is "Bloodsports/Hunting for fun." The key work is "FUN." There is no reason to assume that slaughterhouse workers kill for FUN. They kill to earn a living. Whether doing that is right or wrong would constitute a separate debate. I would tend to accept the idea that PLEASURE hunters--people who ENJOY killing nonhuman animals--might experience a desensitization to the killing of humans. I doubt, however, that there are any statistics available to support that idea.

 

[Quoth The Raven]

You miss the whole point of the topic, which is "Bloodsports/Hunting for fun." The key work is "FUN." There is no reason to assume that slaughterhouse workers kill for FUN. They kill to earn a living. Whether doing that is right or wrong would constitute a separate debate. I would tend to accept the idea that PLEASURE hunters--people who ENJOY killing nonhuman animals--might experience a desensitization to the killing of humans. I doubt, however, that there are any statistics available to support that idea.

I think you might find that people who kill purely for some sort of perverse pleasure they gain solely by taking the life of something to no useful end, generally go on to kill some people and get locked up because they're a few bricks short of a load. There's one or two stats relating to that, I think you'll find if you care to have a look for them.
If you read back through the thread though, I think you'll find there's really not a consensus on what constitutes 'hunting for pleasure'. Depending on how hard you want to stamp your foot, it's anything from trophy hunting to any time anyone loads a weapon of any description and kills something with it, even if they intend to fully utilise what they've hunted.
Yes, slaughts kill to earn a living...but surely if they don't enjoy killing things, they wont do it, will they? I mean, if to hunt and kill you have to obviously enjoy killing or you wouldn't be doing the killing, then surely to kill one animal after another in a production line setting, you must get some sort of jolly out of it as well.
You may not bag the animal you're hunting, but you'll sure as hell slit your quota of cows throats in a day.

 

[d.]

Yes, slaughts kill to earn a living...but surely if they don't enjoy killing things, they wont do it, will they?

exactly, just as janitors and the people who work at mcdonald's wouldn't mop up puke and flip burgers if they didn't really enjoy it.

 

[retrorich]

If you read back through the thread though, I think you'll find there's really not a consensus on what constitutes 'hunting for pleasure'.

There is nothing ambiguous about "hunting for pleasure." It means exactly that: killing animals for the FUN of it.

 

[akshar]

well i guess i'm just an evil dude then lol
the few times i've been hunting i've enjoyed myself

Bet you would not be having fun if i hunted ur mum and dad? (i dont mean it an offensive way ) If u belive in karma, which i do (its a universal law) then you cannot hunt eat meat etc.

 

[groovyable]

Killing for food is fine, yet for fun, i think its wrong, its sick and twisted.

 

[GloriaPatri]

Personally, I enjoy hunting if I ever get the chance to do it (which is rare).

 

[frg001]

Sorry to dig this old thread up, but I was just perusing my old posts, and I was very interested at the final outcome...
It seems that a far higher percentage of atheists or agnostics find hunting for fun unethical, than religious folk...

Kind of a poke in the eye to those who claim religion makes you more moral...