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!

Are the posters here who are against game hunting vegan? Honest question.

Also how does everyone think their supermarket meat gets killed?

They’re funnelled into a huge abattoir, stressed and panicking. Shot in the head with a bolt gun, or electrocuted. It doesn’t kill them, just knocks them out. Then they are hung up by their feet and their throats slit where they’re left to bleed out.

Sometimes the bolt gun doesn’t work, so they feel everything.

I’d much rather be shot in the head in my natural habitat than die in that horrific manner.

Oh and chicken are hung upside down by their feet whilst still alive and dunked head first into an bath of water that been electrified.

Injuring, killing, torturing or frightening any animal for sport is abhorrent to me.
People who enjoy partaking in any of those for the enjoyment of the sport are not people I want to associate with.

This is a tricky one for me. I do eat meat, and I have to, as I have problems with iron absorption. I buy only grass-raised chicken and beef from local farms to offset some of the guilt.

Anyway, I know people who shoot deer to keep the population under control and then it’s destined to be eaten. I couldn’t do it myself, but will hypocritically consume venison killed in such a manner.

As for fox hunting, I used to ride and knew people who did it. It always struck me as odd that they were dippy about their pet dogs, cats and horses, but then went hunting every Saturday. I have to think that some people put the reality to the back of their head, and chose to focus on the benefits for horses that also did eventing, say.

Can I ask, are all livestock taken to the same abattoirs—that is to say, are the McDonald’s chickens headed to the same place as free range and organic birds?

Look up Driven Grouse Shoots on Google. Normally starts on 12th July and is called the glorious 12th amongst the hunting goons.
These shoots happen in N. England, Wales and Scotland

@stopgap pretty much yes.

Unless you’re buying organic meat from a farmer you know who has their own abattoir, they all go through that process or similar.

Yip @stopgap - organic means feed and the space given to each animal ( maybe meds but I'm no expert) - all the animals are dispatched in the same way and in the same slaughterhouses.

@Thubten yes, I know.

Grouse are not reared, they’re wild. That’s why it costs up to ten times more to be a gun on a grouse shoot. Gamekeepers do maintain the area to encourage a healthy wild population, but grouse are not reared in the same way as pheasant or partridge.

@Mustardscreams and @HowlsMovingBungalow, I kind of feared you’d say that. Ugh. I wish I could be vegan. I tried twice for six months at a time, but I’m celiac and am prone to anemia and it just isn’t right for me.

@stopgap there’s a great online butcher that has their own abattoir and kills humanely as possible, they do meat boxes. I’ll hunt down the link for you.

Anyone against it who isn’t vegetarian is a bit hypocritical I think. No one “needs” to eat meat - people do it because they like the taste. Everyone knows now that a vegan diet can be just as healthy (and in many cases more healthy) as eating meat. So why is it worse to kill something because you enjoy it (when the bird has had a lovely life right up until its final seconds) than it is to have something killed for you (usually in horrific abattoirs, having lived a hellish life), simply because you like the taste?

For what it’s worth, I am a vegan and have less problem with my husband shooting than I do with anyone buying their chicken in a supermarket. Although I wish people did neither.

@stopgap - I think the best you can do, is buy meat from a butcher and ask them where the meat is farmed, how far they are transported to the slaughterhouse and what slaughterhouse is used - and do your research.
It is such a tricky subject to deal with but get that you care - I would hope that us meat eaters DO care as to how our animals are reared and dispatched, I know it sounds like a oxymoron!

Hunting shooting and fishing is a big deal around where I live. It accounts for many jobs, restaurants shops etc. We don’t do any of it but don’t get upset, although we do eat the birds from our local butcher. It is part of country life

Thubten, the grouse season opens on 12th August, not July.

I shoot. My Dad shoots. Nobody we know would ever just shoot for fun.
We are meat eaters. We have no problem with vegetarians thinking what we do is not nice.
But I do take massive offence with people who are happy to buy cling filmed supermarket fowl, consume it, then call me barbaric. It's actually quite an important part of keeping numbers down. For example, Geese are rife this year. They eat everything. Theres nothing left for the smaller waterfowl to eat. Therefore they die. And yes, deer can be a problem too.

Again I will say, if you eat meat, you cannot possibly disagree. If you are veggie, I'm sorry you don't like my lifestyle of eating meat (and having the guts to kill it and prepare it)

Killing animals for food, sure.
Killing animals for pest control, sure.

Enjoying it is fucking weird though.

I don't like hunting.
Unless you are living a sustainable lifestyle and hunt to feed your family.
Doing it for fun doesn't sit well with me.
However I can shoot a handgun and was taught as a child but that's a cultural thing and my own DC won't be taught .
When I visit my DF in America ( he's ex military, 30 yrs service) we go to the indoor range with my Dsis and Db but none of them hunt .
Although where they live it's a common thing to do.
I've been a vegetarian by choice since the age of 7.
I keep ducks, geese and chickens as pets ( and eggs ) the odd time the fox has had one or more in daytime when they free range I've refused offers of local farmers / game keepers to hunt the fox.
I still mourn my pets though and curse that damn fox but wouldn't hurt one or any other animal.
BTW I give 90% of eggs to a local soup kitchen and the rest to family and friends.
All of my birds are ex farmed birds , who all came to me in a horrific state.
I've got a rescue complex , so never refuse a bird a home.
We have beautiful pheasants that visit us.
Poor things usually end up dead on the road around here.

Can I just say, no one enjoys the physical taking of a life. The best guns are the ones that get a clean shot every single time. I have been on hundreds of shoots with probably thousands of people, and the aim is to kill in one shot instantly. It’s done with the utmost respect. Everyone is quiet once the birds are driven, the dogs are incredibly well trained to only bring a bird back and never bite/attack. If a bird is still alive after being shot the dog is out and brings it back so you can wring it within seconds.

Yes people enjoy it, because it is a centuries old practice and it brings communities together, provides a living, and supplies food and wages to many, many people.

We don’t just go out gleeful to get covered in blood and dance around the remains of dead animals you know.

It's only acceptable in communities where it's what people do to get food, for example in extremely isolated communities where it's essential to be able to hunt in order to eat.

Agreed.

Enjoying it is fucking weird though.

It really is.

I've never come across a meat eater who is against the killing of animals overall. That would be odd, since they eat meat.
The objection is when the animals are killed for sport or fun.
I am a meat eater. I dont object to animals being killed for food or to retain control of an animal population. What I object to is the killing, torturing or frightening of any animal purely for the sport or fun of it.
This includes all animals, including fish. I have never ever understood the allure of fishing just to throw the fish back.

If it's to eat it, I don't have a problem. For "sport" is a different matter entirely 😠

It's not the killing that is the enjoyment, it's the skill in the shooting and a base desire to hunt that is in all of us since time immemorial. Deny it if you wish but it is still there. I don't hunt fwiw.