To ask what you think about people hunting/shooting

[lorettalemon]

I was with quite a big group of people last night and some of them said that they enjoyed shooting (pheasants). Some of the rest of the group remained quiet and didn't say anything and I think they didn't want to argue. I quickly tried to change the subject because I had nothing polite to say.

I personally think that to blow creatures to bits, not with any intention of eating them (they said they had no idea what happened to them) for fun makes you a certain level of messed up in the head. It's lost on me how it's a sport. If you're intending to eat them, that's one thing, although hunting your own food isn't usually necessary in this day and age. Killing things because you enjoy doing it is absolutely lost on me.

I wanted to ask whether people generally think it's ok or not, because I can't believe that the majority of people can think it's ok!

I am a vegetarian and animal lover, so no, I'm not keen.

It’s absolutely not ok to murder an animal for sport. I could never engage in such barbarity and I struggle to comprehend how anyone else could.

psychopathic

Dp is into hunting including shooting, though it's limited to fishing nowadays. He preps and eats what he catches though. Brings us all fresh fish for dinner. Wouldn't put up with him going if it was just to hurt animals for entertainment. Your acquaintances hopefully just need to grow up. Otherwise, yep, something missing in them and not people I'd like to be around.

I understand some shooting for pest control, or for food. What I object to is it being made into a social occasion and children being involved.

I understand the need to control foxes etc as they can harm livestock etc, but I've always argued to my farming stock in laws that that can be done without the 'razzmatazz' of a hunt with dogs and horses and red coats and bugles and shite like that.

They are a pain in the arse. When they set the pheasants free they litter the country roads causing accidents and damage to cars. The noise of guns wakes us up. If anyone thinks it’s sportsmanly to shoot pheasants they are thick - the birds really aren’t that difficult to kill. However a lot do make a mess of it and the birds suffer before the beaters finish them off. A lot of ‘hunters’ are on a jolly from the ‘city’ so they have no idea/ don’t give a damn about the countryside. The horse riders can’t control their horses and jump them over barbed wires (I have seen the damage this can do to the horses’ legs) and can’t be arsed to close gates if it means dismounting. They also don’t give a damn about charging through a field of pregnant ewes.

The gamekeeper round us hangs up all the dead bodies of the local wildlife he kills on barbed wire that’s trying to get into the netted area where they rear the pheasant chicks. Maybe he thinks it will put other animals off but it’s awful when it smells and attracts flies. The % of pheasants chicks that don’t make it is pretty high too, quite a few strangle themselves on the netting.

Our family is from a farming background. We all hate it. I particularly used to hate the way they drove the foxes out and covered up their earths. So they knew exactly where they lived and could shoot them cleanly if they really needed to. Some sport.

And despite a ban, there’s still lead shot being used so hundreds of thousands of birds in the U.K. (especially water birds) die from ingesting it thinking it’s grit.

It’s done as a social thing obviously. Even the money thing is a bit dicey if the chicks all die as it isn’t cheap to raise them. But all the landowners use it as social currency to put on a display.

My thoughts are that to chase/unearth/dig out/hunt/shoot/kill any living thing solely for ‘fun’ or ‘sport’ is absolutely unacceptable and disgusting.
Those who do this are, in my eyes, contemptible. I want and have nothing to do with them. I have quietly ended friendships when I’ve found this out about people. I also do comment when people talk about hunting etc.

The OP said that these people don't eat the birds they kill - they just kill them for the thrill of it then leave them there

That doesn't happen though

I do understand that if the birds are eaten, then the meat has been put to good use, but I don't understand why people want to go out and do the killing themselves (not because it's their job).

Although a lot of people don't approve of eating meat nowadays, I don't have a problem with it.

It's just the thought process and enjoyment factor which is lost on me.

At best, it's nice of them to catch other people's dinner for them, but they just seemed delighted with themselves about how many creatures they'd managed to kill.

To me, there's a massive difference between doing something because it's necessary or your job and doing it because you enjoy doing it.

If people spent their holidays working in an abattoir or volunteering in a firing squad, people would think they were deranged

I agree that killing for the sake of killing - not with any idea of eating or selling the meat - is abhorrent.

I've been shooting, both driven shoots and stalking. It's not really for me, no problem shooting the animals, which are for foodi just didn't really enjoy either setting.

I don't have a problem with people doing it though

Just to be clear - I didn't mean that they leave the birds in the countryside and nothing is done with them, they simply had no idea or interest what happened to them and told us that they would not be eating them.

I have American friends and they often post things like "Child A just bagged his first elk! with a picture of said child grinning beside a poor deal animal, with a gun in his hand. This child is 11. Cue loads of congratulatory messages while I am giving it the sad/angry face.

I guess it's a cultural things as some of their freinds' living room walls are adorned with skins of various animals they have shot and nobody seems to think it's bad or creepy.

That's the slaughter process for pheasants

If you've ever eaten one it likely died like this

My uncle is a gamekeeper and I grew up next to one of the largest shoots in the east.

My dogs are working dogs - Welshie is a bit pants so he beats, my cocker is on the peg with me.

All birds are either taken home, or sold to the local game merchants. You cannot go on a decent shoot if you’re not a clean shot, so animals do not suffer, it’s instantaneous. They live a much, much happier and healthier lifestyle than any of the plastic packaged Tesco/Sainsbury’s meat the majority of people buy.

I think there is something very wrong with someone who kills animals for fun or 'sport'... sort of a perverted, depraved sickness.

Fox and deer hunting is so barbaric and the fact that they've been known to breed/rear foxes so they have one for the kill is beyond sickening.

As for pheasants, how can you possibly gain enjoyment from shooting an ever so defenceless creature.

If you eat meat or dairy you are subjecting animals to a way worse death than being shot in their habitat. Just because it’s not at your hands doesn’t mean there’s not blood on them.

I think killing things for 'fun' is barbaric

So do I. We’re not on the planet for long. I reckon killing wildlife or any animal is a despicable way to spend your time

The pheasant shooting industry is pretty valuable, rich idiots from the City will pay a ridiculous amount for a day blasting away at birds which have been farmed. I can understand why landowners are willing to pay for professional keepers and for poults, it's a way to make profit from woodlands and hedgerows. But I do dislike it immensely, particularly because at this time of year intensively reared pheasants make off lead dog walking virtually impossible in some of my favourite public footpaths through woodlands etc. I don't mind the local hedge shoots where the targets are wild rather than reared quite so much.

I’ve been on many shoots and never known one where the pheasants are not eaten, either by participants or sold on to local butchers.

I would rather eat a creature that has lived its life in the wild than any I could find in a local supermarket.

A lot of the objections around hunting could be put to rest if people would actually attend a shoot rather than just deciding arbitrarily that it is barbaric.

There really is no humane to kill an animal that doesn't want to be killed. I truly hope that all on here that are shocked and find it awful that an animal which has been reared outside (much better than most meat in the UK and dairy and eggs) are Vegan. If not you're a hypocrite. Just because you don't 'have to' work in an abbotoir doesn't mean others have the choice. Can you imagine their mental health just to put food on your plate whilst you retain your 'conscience'

21 MILLION pheasants are bred and released every year for this sport. Imagine how many birds that is, and what the impact of releasing them all into the countryside is. Ideas of this being a quaint little hobby bringing a bird home for the pot are naive, outdated and blinkered. This is industry pure and simple, be it pheasants, grouse or partridge. The environmental impact of all these birds scratching up ground flora in our woodlands stops natural regeneration, any other wildlife in the vicinity is mercilessly slaughtered by gamekeepers under enormous pressure from estate owners to maintain high bag returns for maximum profits. Hen Harriers are almost extinct in this country because of it. And it's all fuelled by people who take pleasure in killing as many animals as possible while garbling on about how much they understand the countryside and anyone that thinks otherwise is some naive city kid that doesn't know a beech from an ash. Grotesque monsters. Obviously I am on the fence about this one!

How do you propose the pheasant handlers make a living then?

Shooting is centuries old, of course it’s a business. But you’ll have thousands upon thousands of people jobless and homeless if you stop the practice.

Can you imagine their mental health just to put food on your plate

Er, given the myriad reports of gratuitous cruelty filmed in abbatoirs, I would suggest the prospective candidates for this employment self filter ensuring that those who spend their days in industrial slaughter don’t find it objectionable. Nice try. But no sale. I certainly think people should know how the animal on their plate lived and died though. The same principle applied to cigarette packets should be used