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!

whether it's ok or not to kill animals and eat them is obviously a discussion that follows on from this, but my argument is really that whilst killing anything isn't a nice idea in itself, people who work in abattoirs etc probably don't "enjoy" that part of their job (I'd hope).

My fundamental issue with this is why anyone would think it's fun to go on a killing spree, whatever they think is going to be done with the meat.

You might be a meat eater, you might feel ok with the idea of animals being slaughtered for food, but to actually enjoy the killing is not synonymous with consuming the meat

Some of the people I work with are shooters. Most of them are very nice and try to promote a good image of shooting- always eating what they shoot, never shooting too much. I’ve only tried clay pigeon shooting ( not good enough for a game shoot!) however, I think that people who are against shooting for the table but are happy buying meat someone else has killed are hypocrites.

I think killing things for 'fun' is barbaric Me too. I am so far removed from the mindset of people who do this. I think a lot of it is 'boys and toys' stuff; grown-ups playing with guns.

those pheasants have a better life and more humane death than the majority of the meat that is consumed in the UK.
A more humane death possibly (disregarding ethically reared meat from smaller producers), but they're reared in huge stinking sheds, crammed in in the dark pretty much, then turfed out onto the land clueless as to where they are and not particularly good at being birds, just waiting for some entitled twat to come and shoot them and feel big.

probably don't "enjoy" that part of their job

Hmm. So you have zero evidence for your assertion? How do you explain the numerous videos showing abattoir employees in different locations engaged in gratuitous cruelty? This suggests people who enlist for this job do so because they aren’t negatively affected by it.Or they enjoy it

You must have some shit shoots round your area if that’s how the pheasants are raised @DarlingNikita.

I’d be writing a complaint to the landowner if I was you.

Glad to see some other country folk on here agreeing with me that hunting is wrong for all sorts of reasons.

It is often thought that farmers etc are all pro-hunting. They most definitely are not. It’s something they often have to put up with.

I regularly eat game, and do so with a completely clear conscience, but I would not want to kill animals for ‘sport’.

I realise that sometimes culls are necessary (though the badger cull is proving not to have been remotely helpful in reducing bovine TB).

However, it should be a job, not a pleasurable pastime. People who enjoy killing animals for fun are rather strange, in my view.

Killing for fun is disturbing.

I'm following people's arguments about why hunting is ok for the provision of meat, for pest control and that the meat is put to use in some way and I respect everyone has different opinions.

But what I'm not getting is an answer to the questions "what is it you enjoy?" "How is it fun?"

People give various reasons about why it's necessary, useful or the meat is put to good purpose, but no one can explain what it is about shooting animals which is enjoyable in itself.

Some people clearly think it is enjoyable in some way, or they would not pay to come out to the countryside and get dressed up in tweed to shoot creatures which they are not going to consume. I can only take from that the idea that they enjoy killing things, otherwise they could participate in any number of other group/outdoor activities.

As for people in abattoirs not enjoying their jobs - I obviously hope they don't, but it goes without saying that anyone who actively does must have several screws loose

Hi Epcotforever

"I live in the country and have family that are game keepers so, yes they shoot vermin."

Interested in what you classify as 'vermin'. Would that be any animal that doesn't agree with the Game the keepers are looking after?

So they shoot animals to keep the 'sporting prey' safe.

Maybe that's why there are very few raptors over killing estates.

Looking after the bred animals at the cost of the wildlife. So sad 'sportsmen' can enjoy killing.

For me it’s just a normal part of life. I’ve been around guns/shooting since I was a baby, so growing up learning how to handle a gun safely, clay shooting etc was a regular Saturday occurrence.

I learnt to shoot because it was just the done thing. I carried it on as an adult because I like knowing exactly where my meat is from (I eat nearly 100% vegan, dd is an omnivore). Plus I have spaniels that are bred for working and they bloody love it.

Shooting isn’t people getting hard one thinking about killing animals, that’s such a ridiculous way to think about things. It’s a very normal part of life for lots of people. And knowing that I have killed an animal as humanely as possible, and then eating it is the only way I’ll eat meat.

I don’t particularly agree with rich twats paying thousands for a peg, usually because they’re shit shots and it’s a pain in the arse having them piss about not knowing what they’re doing. But people have to make money, and this is a huge business is otherwise poor areas.

I've never met anyone in my life who hunts purely 'for fun.'
However, I know a few hunters/fishermen who eat what they catch, and they are far more animal and environmentally friendly than the vast majority of people who buy meat from a supermarket.

Wonder would these half wits would think "it fun" if they were chased down and shot or ripped to bits for someones amusement

arethereany I too know those who eg shoot rabbits for food and who hand line sea bass etc to eat and to sell to scratch a living. I’m afraid I do know those who maim and kill wild animals and birds for kicks. That’s sick.

It's awful, I would struggle to be friends with them tbh.

But you’ll have thousands upon thousands of people jobless and homeless if you stop the practice. Yes, that's what the tobacco companies said when they first wanted to ban cigarette advertising on TV.

I think there is some confusion about pheasant shooting. ALL of the pheasants shot on driven shoots will go into the food chain, whether directly consumed by the person shooting them or not.
I hope all the anti's on here are vegetarian. All meat going into the food chain is killed in one way or another.

@MereDintofPandiculation it’s not comparable in the slightest. How does someone that’s only been a gamekeeper for decades find a job of comparable income? Their house usually comes with the job. Then all the other staff etc.

Killing animals for fun is something I ca not understand.

Hunting an animal, giving it a quick end and eating the meat is fine by me. Much better than industrial farming where animals are ill treated and crammed into sheds.

My MIL is a huge animal lover and goes to great lengths to rescue and train dogs that would have otherwise been put down due to severe behaviour problems etc (just one example of how much she loves animals). But she also hunts, sometimes to eat (fine) and sometimes not (that's what I find so odd and contradictory).

They live a much, much happier and healthier lifestyle than any of the plastic packaged Tesco/Sainsbury’s meat the majority of people buy

@MustardScreams These birds are intensively reared in really quite horrendous factory farmed conditions before they are released into heavily managed shooting estates. In addition the sheer volume of pheasants is having a negative ecological impacts. Over 20 million are imported from Europe. A significant number of shot pheasants end up being dumped in pits or left in copses to maintain fox population for fox hunting. . So yes.... such a 'happy and healthier lifestyle'

I don’t particularly agree with rich twats paying thousands for a peg, usually because they’re shit shots and it’s a pain in the arse having them piss about not knowing what they’re doing.

But that is the way hunting survives. As I said before, it’s a lot of ‘the city’ hunters who don’t give two hoots about the countryside, wildlife, farmers or even their own animals (horses) rampaging around ’on a jolly’.

I know a Lord who doesn’t make much money from it (rearing pheasants and preparations are expensive) but it’s the prestige and contacts it brings.

It’s like a bloody form of golf with extra suffering thrown in. Whereas golf is middle class, blood sports are upper/lower class.

ALL of the pheasants shot on driven shoots will go into the food chain, whether directly consumed by the person shooting them or not

Absolutely NOT true

I hope all the anti's on here are vegetarian
Oh that old fucking chestnut

It's disgusting and ought to be banned, just as fox hunting is.

For full transparency, I don't eat animals at all.