Is hunting inhumane? Does eating necessarily involve killing, as this article claims? On the other hand, does hunting desensitize us towards something we should naturally have feelings against? Or is it a time-honored way of connecting with nature and with the food on our plates? This article seems to take a strong pro-hunting perspective. Is there anything the writer is overlooking?
I have never been hunting myself but I want to try it. Nevertheless, hunting seems a bit too cruel, too unfair. I mean when you go hunting it is about five or more guys, loaded with guns and knives, sneaking to a defenseless animal. If you want to eat their meat shouldn’t you fight face to face one on one? If you do win then you earned the prize fair and square and not by guns and with a couple of dudes.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of eating meat, either pork, poultry or beef, is that we breed them and then we kill them and use their meat. It may seem a bit cruel to kill animals for their meat but we would cease to exist if it wasn’t for that killing. Also, meat producers are not slaughtering animals that are endangered or in wild. The feed the animals themselves and use them. With hunting it is a bit different. The animals that are usually hunted are either endangered species or their numbers are really low. It is partially because who would go hunting when you can find that exact animal almost everywhere else. If you go hunting you are getting something you don’t usually meet or have. And so, numbers of game or deer are decreasing because of popularity of hunting. If people are not careful enough we may annihilate the whole species of animals.
Some people might say that hunting is about patience, that it is about going to nature and that thrill is want they want for hunting. And I say if you want patience go play golf, if you want nature go hitchhiking, and for thrill go to Iraq, Afghanistan or Fukushima that will do. Why killing innocent, defenseless animals for our entertainment? Can’t we be entertained a different way? I say we can and that we should because killing of any type is bad and should be banned completely.
Although I have never been hunting and do not know anyone who has the experience I think that it is really crucial to distinguish between two types of this activity. There is the kind of hunting, where experienced hunters deliberately plan everything that needs to be done ahead without being impulsive and careless. These hunters are aware of what they are doing and aware of the impact of their deeds. They are hunting mainly for food, although there might be cases when they just enjoy the killing. If it’s the latter, they should think about the necessity of their actions. Sure, hunting represents a strong link between our animal instincts and nature, keeps the balance of this world intact. However there should always be sufficient reasons for killing.
ReplyDeleteThe second group poses a great threat to the balance in nature, as well as to the rules of morale we try to reinforce. It takes hunting somewhere, where it should never have gone. Killing for fun, as a sport or as a something to pass the time is unfair, ugly and very ignorant of people to do. The article was fairly ignorant towards these cases, which quite surprised me, because these are being argued over a lot nowadays. There was this quite extensive comment below the article, written by a vegan that had a whole different stance towards the matter. Even though he did make some strong points, it still seemed far fetched to me, a little too enthusiastic in the vegan section if you will. More importantly, the fact is that the people who do hunt for fun are the only ones that resolve to brutality and butchering, because they do not really care about any of the animals. They also do not think about the impact nor about the actual act of killing an innocent animal. They’re just ignorant.
In my opinion, there is a healthy line between what can be called a humane and inhumane hunting. Humane hunting requires awareness and caution and I think that in such case it can be morally tolerable, while inhumane hunting is careless, morally wrong and should be stopped somehow.