An argument against a hunter?

[alotofquestionsallthetime]

My BIL (SIL DH) is a hunter. He spends THOUSANDS going to Scottish Isles, Norway, etc. to hunt animals. He pays people to track the deer (literally no idea what this means) and then he shoots it. I find it really sadistic.

Now, we are all meat eaters (except PIL as of recent) and I understand there's a bit of hypocrisy here. So I just would like to debate the topic.

From my perspective, shooting an animal for fun when the meat is readily available in a butcher/supermarket is WEIRD. You get joy/achievement/accomplishment out of hurting an animal? I would entirely understand if you needed it to survive or if the meat wasn't as available (i.e. people living in the middle of nowhere) but he does it purely for fun. He has said this.

Thing is, if I had to kill my own meat I probably wouldn't eat it. I could still eat fish, I don't feel much emotion towards a salmon (is that bad?) but I would struggle killing any animal. I think people who do it for a livelihood have to condition themselves and it is a necessary job that someone has to do. That is entirely different.

So what is your opinion on someone who kills animals such as deer/goat/other wildlife depending on country purely for fun?
(FWIW, he does eat the meat)

"Well i've never posed with a handbag or shoes? Bit sexist"

Not really, there's a massive industry on the back of it.

"His pov is that he enjoys the thrill of the hunt, what else is there to understand?"

So he doesn't enjoy the sound of his bullet ripping through flesh and the life drain out of the animal?

It could be argued that hunting is a need that we suppress. Sports recreate the feeling. The opportunity is there to do it, in an environmentally friendly way.

It's a shame rabbit hunting wasn't encouraged rather than releasing myxomatosis, now that was sadistic.

But if you aren't a vegetarian you DO kill animals. You pay someone to do it for you. Cheap chicken take away? That chicken has had its beak cut off while alive, has grown into the bars of its cage as they are packed in tiny cages and is covered with burns from urine and poo. It's never seen daylight and it spent it's life in misery. That's what you do.

@Faz Well if you would please read my posts, I have pointed out that if I had to kill the animal myself I wouldn't eat meat, which I've already stated makes me a hypocrite.

@birds He kills the animals for the fun of it. The thrill of hunting, he enjoys the shooting. If he didn't he wouldn't shoot birds and not eat them (which he does as well). He also doesn't eat fox so why is he killing the fox? for fun.

He eats the meat, can't say I'm finding it too bad. Probably cheaper, healthier and free range.
I'd ferret if my husband wasn't so opposed to it. 🤷🏼‍♀️

How is he killing foxes?

I can never get my head around how someone enjoys killing a lovely living creature. But if they do eat it, I guess fair enough. It's far more natural than the farm and abattoir experience that most of our food gets. I haven't eaten meat for a few years now.

I wish someone would come and shoot the rabbits in my field. They've dug my shed floor up. And they are nice in a stew.

I agree with pp who said myxamytosis was really cruel. If we didn't have this odd idea about hunting for sport then we could have shot them and eaten them. Much more sensible and less cruel imo

Yes it makes you a hypocrite and worse than someone who hunts and eats what they've killed.

Hunting for sport or “fun” is barbaric

Fazackerley Don’t be a fucking drama queen

@Faz lol ok, chill out.

I have no idea about the myxamitosis thing, can some one tell me?

He kills the animals for the fun of it. The thrill of hunting, he enjoys the shooting. If he didn't he wouldn't shoot birds and not eat them (which he does as well). He also doesn't eat fox so why is he killing the fox? for fun.

Isn't that how all the great psychopaths started out ?

I think YANBU.

Even if the death is instant, the meat is eaten, and the killing is good for the wider ecosystem, he's still killing another living thing for pleasure. I don't see how that can be regarded as a nice thing to do.

You admit you’re a hypocrite and that’s fine OP but don’t you see that because you’re a hypocrite, you really have no business confronting him about this? To be honest, I’m not really sure how I feel about his enjoying the sport of it (I have a bigger problem with the mass produced meat market) and I’m thikking at least he isn’t a hypocrite. At least he’s owning his actions rightly or wrongly and not pushing his beliefs into anyone else, which is what you would be doing and wrongly so, seeing as you’re a hypocrite....

Myxomatosis and other highly contagious, highly fatal diseases have been introduced deliberately in order to control vermin populations.

The animals die horrific deaths. Give them a poacher with a ferret over myxi any day.

Honestly, I do find meat eaters that are opposed to hunting a bit hypocritical. I'm a vegetarian (desperately trying to become a vegan), I'm completely against any kind of killing of animals. I eat dairy but only buy organic ethically farmed dairy. Which I struggle with as well TBH, it goes against my beliefs but I find it really hard to give up milk and cheese.

I'm vegetarian,but is much rather people who ate meat could, and were prepared to, kill and butcher their own.

I have no issue with people stalking and shooting deer, as long as the carcass is used and they're confident they will kill cleanly or be able to sort out any mess if it goes wrong. The deer get an ideal balance of life as wildlife and protection, then a swift death, which is a much better deal than most wild deer and farmed animals get.

I spent a lot of time in the country as a kid and the ‘myxy’ epidemics where hideous. I remember an older friend one summer had to put several rabbits out of their misery. I’ll never forget their eyes

For 99% of human history, we’ve been hunting, killing and eating animals. In many, many parts of the world we still do.

But if anyone does it here, it’s creepy and weird because it’s far more “normal” to buy the mutilated corpses packaged in plastic from Tesco instead.

If he is eating the meat he hunts, then why on earth do you care if he enjoys the sport of it at the same time? Would you be happier if he sobbed and read the last rites before tucking in?

Also, your thread title is seriously irritating. “An argument against hunting”? Why do you need internet strangers to compose an argument for you? If you can reason out your own opinions on something, then why bother at all?

Most of the comments above are failing to respond this point altogether. It’s interestimg.

I'm a happy carnivore - no problem with hunting if the animal is used (leather etc as well as meat). But I find trophy hunting obscene, and cosmic justice in the rare occasions such people are killed by their quarry. The only exception would be if a hunter had to kill an animal such as a lion to protect humans.

I am completely against any killing of animals

Presumably you don’t have any problem with other animals doing it, just humans? How absurd. And how ignorant about how life on this planet works.

Fine to be against how we kill animals, or to refrain from eating it yourself - but people who think it’s intrinsically wrong are ridiculous.

And if I were a farm or wild animal, give me a bullet from a person who takes quiet satisfaction in a clean kill any day, over being killed by a wild predator who doesn't give a damn about compassion, or illness and suffering with no euthanasia, or a minimum wage slaughterhouse worker ... those are the humans I worry about taking a sadistic pleasure/having total indifference in suffering, any day, not hunters.

DGRossetti Agree. Something doesn't sit right with people killing animals as a 'sport' for fun. I'm not sure what is fun about a defenceless animal against a gun? Bare handed combat I might be able to support...

My husband shoots game birds, he loves it, personally I stick to clays but I am for hunting. The amount of money that goes into our countryside through hunting is massive and it's of benefit. Gamekeepers don't just raise wildlife to be shot they look after their environment. If money wasn't being ploughed into the countryside (not just through hunting obviously) it'd eventually be built on.

My freezer is full of duck and pheasant which will all be eaten so my husband isn't wasteful. I'd personally be disppointed in him of he shot deer as I love watching them put of my window but that's up to him.