To want a total ban on 'recreational' hunting?

[Railgunner1]

Especially importing trophies from abroad.
Makes me sick everytime i see some smug bastard smiling with corpses of murdered endangered species.
Sick and perverse.

I agree. I also think fishing should be illegal (unless you eat what you catch). Anything that involves hunting, hurting or killing just for fun should be banned.

I would support that. I've never seen the allure of killing anything for pleasure

Don't get me wrong I'm not supporting it, but doesn't it make a lot of money which is ploughed back into conservation? That was the impression I got from admittedly quite Louis Theroux documentary.

Quite ^old documentary

If murdering wildlife was made illegal, there would be less 'big money' needed for conservation.

Well I think it lots of places it already is isn't it, but it doesn't stop poaching does it?

Poaching is already a crime. Enforcing the existing laws is a different issue.

I agree. What is wrong with someone who enjoys killing something? They should be locked up.

Have you watched Brainwashing Stacey: Big Game Hunters on BBC 3?? I was very much of the same opinion as you OP until I watched that.
An American and his son went to a game reserve in South Africa, and paid $10,000 (I think) to hunt a wildebeest. They did. And then it went back to the onsite butcher at the game reserve, and the meat was taken to to local orphanage. The woman running the orphanage said that the meat from one wildebeest would keep all the children in the orphanage fed for a week, and if rich foreigners didn't hunt at the reserve, the children would be hungry, surviving on bare essential food.
I cannot see how feeding hungry children can be a bad thing - even if it is a by-product of rich foreigners getting their kicks.

Yeah, i would expect them to have a feel-good sob story. Went to feed the hungry. Bloody heroes!
BTW? Do they actually eat lions and other big cats?

When it comes to the large predators at least, the idea that big game hunting "supports conservation" is a myth. The cost of managing habitat to sustainably support something like lion is estimated at $500, 000 per animal. The price paid by big game hunters for bagging one is about $50,000.

Yanbu. Seeing people posing with their 'trophy' is fucking sick

At the particular reserve in the documentary, the owner was saying that he encounters a very small number of people who want to kill lions/big cats/elephants etc. Majority of them shoot antelope/wildebeest/wild boar. I'm not a fan of hunting for sport, but in this case, the animals were being eaten. So even if someone has paid to hunt that animal, I can't get upset about it.

Where do you draw the line though? In Scandinavia, most of the elk hunting is recreational in the sense that it is done by non-professionals, but if it didn't happen, there would be an ecological disaster. And people most certainly eat what they catch. Same with recreational fishing in northern Europe: all gets eaten.

Absolutely agree about big game hunting though, and any kind of trophy hunting.

Where i would draw the line? Anything to do with sport, trophy, or a fucking tradition (can't get more perverse than that)

But then it's tricky railgunner as some areas have no apex predators so need to be culled. People don't like culling (believe me I live where wild bore live and their numbers are getting too substantial) so some areas allow hunting in order to cap animal numbers.

Also, in regards to the line how would one prove the intention of the kill? Ie for habitat maintenance or for pleasure?

Let me guess, predators have been exterminated already in those areas? Wolf, bear, lynx -- driven into extinction in many areas

Maybe at the sick fuckers who like posing with their kill?

Hunting for food is different though. Hunting for trophies is immoral, unethical and sick.

There are an awful lot of unpleasant things which go on in the world, I would guess animal testing (for example) kills a lot more animals each year than hunting. You are never going to be able to stop hunting, hunters will just do it illegally if its banned and then comes a whole raft of trouble and the animals suffer more. Far better to legalise and regulate

Big predators are eaten after being killed, certainly where we live. It isn't as simple as being a black and white issue, living where we live (any have lived previously) has given me a lot more understanding of it.

You also can't stop all the paedophiles who go to the third world countries. But at least society understands that it is vile and criminal, not saying its better to legalize child prostitution because they at least leave some money.

You need to define recreational OP.

I like knowing that my food was killed ethically (quickly) and that the animal lived a good life before being cooked. I don't enjoy killing animals but I enjoy the other aspects of a hunt.

I have killed a wild boar. I wouldn't want to kill anything larger. It says something about me and my illogical morals but I'd see it as worse somehow and closer to murder. At the same time, if elephants were or giraffes were plentiful and one was humanely killed then I'd happily chop down on a burger or sausage. I'mm just not sure I could take the shot.

I would never kill for fun. I have shot badgers without the intention of eating them but again, that wasn't for fun.

Of course I would not kill an animal that a) didn't need to be controlled b) wasn't good for eating

The perfect combination is when an animal's population does need to be controlled and is delicious. Rabbit anyone?

My family still hunt for meat. The rule growing up is you only hunt for food or vermin. Culling to keep a population healthy and under control, like venison, is win:win.

Mmm, venison shepherds pie...

What about those of us who hunt to eat? I've eaten everything I've ever shot, and honestly I don't thing it's anyone's business but mine.

What happens if it's recreational / for a trophy AND you eat it? Like deer stalking in Scotland?