I’m interested in hearing what Lemmings think about hunting. I started hunting deer years ago because I wanted to be a part of the process, like if I couldn’t handle killing and gutting an animal I shouldn’t be eating meat. IMO, it’s much more humane than what factory farmed animals endure. Less suffering overall than most natural deaths. Overpopulation causes disease and starvation and we killed off their predators, so we kind of owe it to nature to fill the ecological gap.
Also, I fucking love it. I watch the sun rise, think, record birds I’ve seen, think, watch squirrels play, think a bit more, and sometimes, I get some food.
Idk. I’m not looking for approval or trying to change your mind, just wondering what people think.
Hunting for food is OK, as long as proper technique is observed (safe, humane, environmentally responsible).
Hunting for fun is a sociopath’s pastime.
I’m a little concerned about his comment “Also, I fucking love it”. But I’m also confused about the next sentence where he talks about watching squirrels play.
Shooting a deer that’s lived wild and free, making every effort to make the kill as quick and painless as possible seems like just about the most ethical way to get meat that I can think of. And especially in areas where the deer population is too high, it’s really important for managing the ecosystem. Plus, ammo and equipment sales get taxed specifically to fund conservation, which is important.
I also feel like if you can’t stomach the process of killing and cleaning an animal, maybe you shouldn’t eat meat at all?
By and large, I think hunting for food is a great way to get more in touch with where your food comes from, one of the most ethical ways to acquire meat, and a nice excuse to sit quietly in the woods without interruption. Trophy hunters can fuck off tho.
I can accept trophy hunting for population control, but I will still think less of them for wanting to do it
I think its fine for animals whose population has to be controlled through hunting. The absolute worst way of consuming meat is through mass production. Best case would be we remove ourselves (humanity) from the chain, but thats a long process and cant be done without properly reintroducing predators etc.
We fucked up the wolf populations so its our moral imperative to control deer populations.
We should bring the wolves back.
Im trying but they city keeps sending animal control to stop them from huntinh the neighborhood. /s
Just messing with you. It is cool to see there reintroduction into wilderness areas but there is a reason people killed or domesticated the apex predators living nearing people, pets, and live stock.
I’ve worked in wildlife conservation, and I’m all for it. With a few caveats.
- Be a fucking good shot. Practice. Don’t slop and wound. Humane kills to the greatest extent possible. Know what the fuck you’re doing.
- Eat the meat. Venison is delicious. Harvest, don’t just take a trophy.
- No spears. Holy shit, please. See point 1. Why is this still a thing? Even a niche thing, but still.
- Don’t scoff at tag prices. Be proud of your contribution. Donate to the crunchy granola hippies that ensure you have game to hunt.
I’m lucky to live somewhere with too many deer and not enough hunters. I paid $25 and got six tags. Another $25 for gun season and I could theoretically take a dozen.
Also have a degree in wildlife conservation and I second all of this.
Venison IS delicious.
I’m just realizing I haven’t had any venison since I moved out of parent’s house. Dad was a poor hunter but my cousin was a good one so there was always some meat in the fall.
If you ask around, you might be surprised who has some in their freezer and would be willing to trade something else for it. One time when I was visiting my parents we wanted some and asked around and found out one of my mom’s friends had plenty. Traded them a pan of brownies and bottle of wine for a couple pounds of stew meat. Everyone was a winner.
I live in the SF Bay Area now. Not a lot deer hunting in Oakland.
edit - parents live in upstate NY where the deer population needs to be kept in chek.
Deer are farmed, too. You can just buy venison at fancy butcher shops in many large cities.
Or, maybe you’ve heard about buying things online.
https://www.blackwing.com/venison.html
https://meatnbone.com/collections/venison
Finding venison isn’t an impossible task by any stretch of the imagination.
Hunting for food is fine.
Hunting for trophies is not.
Throws away Xbox
No, no. Hunting for achievements is okay. It’s the Playstation you need to throw away.
I’ve never wanted to do it myself, but am very appreciative when hunter buddies share the carcasses of their victims. :)
“If we weren’t supposed to eat animals, they wouldn’t be made of meat.” – Socrates, probably
I don’t think the solution to the predators being gone is for humans to fill the gap, rather to let the predators make a return.
Here in Sweden we’re looking to shoot most of our wolves for no good reason. That is after a considerable effort to stabilise the population and bring genetic diversity back to it.
Not practical in most places. Wolves have a huge range and deer are everywhere. Nobody wants wolves in the suburbs.
Thing is, we’re twice the size of Germany, with like one sixth of the population. Germany has around 1600 wolves throughout, and we can’t cope with 350?
I highly doubt it. The problem is that we have a bunch of farmers that don’t care to properly secure their livestock so they whine really loudly and then the wolves get it.
The goal is to reduce it to 170.
I live in an area with an out of control whitetail deer population. I don’t have it in me to hunt, but I’m all for people deer hunting to curb the population. Most folks I know who hunt also eat their kills or give away/sell the meat, so it isn’t wasted. A lot of local craftspeople use deer hide and antlers for knife making and stuff and there’s soooo many taxidermists. Almost every butcher shop around offers deer processing, too.
When I was a kid way out in the boonies, the wild coyote population boomed and the pack actively started hunting me and other small kids and killing livestock like crazy. The folks in the surrounding areas thinned the pack when the game commission wouldn’t do something about the problem. I was totally fine with that hunting too because I didn’t like coyotes stalking me and preventing me from playing outside.
I know some people who pheasant hunt and it’s never bothered me because, again, the corpses aren’t wasted.
My grandpa crow hunted and he took me with him once and II had researched crows beforehand because I was excited. I learned how smart they are and refused to let my grandpa shoot them. We just sat there and watched them hang out and figure out the decoys we had set up.
I’m pretty simple.
Hunting to eat it? Great. I love me some deer sausage.
Hunting to chopoff its head and mount it on your wall like some ghoulish asshole? Go fuck yourself.
I feel like trophy hunters don’t show any respect to the animal, while hunters for eating do.
I’d add hunting because humans eliminated all natural predators and we need to control the population to prevent disease and starvation.
Yes. That’s true as well.
not the answer you’re looking for, but: i haven’t eaten meat in five years, am the healthiest I’ve ever been, and no longer feel guilty about eating
Hunting for sport and trophies is bad, but hunting for meat is a hell of a lot more ethical than industrial meat production. Interestingly I’ve known people that were Vegan due to the ethics of commercial animal handling, but were also hunting and would eat meat from animals killed in the hunting team.
I live in Sweden and hunting is pretty common here, even though I’m not personally involved. There are limits on when and how many animals you may shoot and when to make sure the population is healthy.
As long as it’s done responsibly and legally I have no issues with it.
It’s legal so it’s cool is such a weird mindset
Not in this case, because hunting legally means you are preserving the ecosystem, culling a population that would likely starve in the winter and preserving breeding stock to keep the species going in a healthy manner without genetic bottlenecks.
MIssouri has some absolutely amazing wildlife preservation because conservationist make common cause with hunters.
Great point. The people in charge of regulating hunting, are the same people that decided that they love nature enough to dedicate their lives to protecting it. They aren’t trying to “sell more licenses” or promote hunting, they’re just maintaining the balance, and keeping people and nature safer.
I mean, ideally, yes; I wouldn’t romanticize the entire hunting population, given the amount of garbage I see in the woods.
Oh of course, there are assholes in every group! But I also wasn’t even talking about the hunters themselves, but the DCNR or whatever your state calls them.
Yes. I just visited Missouri once and whatever department in charge of hunting/preservation put out this amazing magazine just absolutely dripping with love for nature, a combo of hunting advice, animal lore, and scenery porn. I remember one article in particular about how to stack brush to encourage critters to grow; sure, maybe you want to grow critters so your beagle can flush them out and you can shoot them, but still, kinda cool to have SOME responsible stewardship with the land instead of playing Playstation all day.
https://mdc.mo.gov/magazines/missouri-conservationist
I live in MO and used to hunt, but I remember getting this magazine as a kid and loved flipping through them.
Obviously depends on the country, but in most develop countries the law is reasonable enough that it’s a useful shorthand for what is ok in day-to-day situations.
If you assume that legal means we’ve collectively decided that this is or is not okay, then it’s not a weird starting point. IMO it shouldn’t be the end point but it’s USUALLY a good starting point.
hunting for food is ethical, over killing, killing for profit, killing for sport are not.
Instead of killing, try a trip just to photograph the animals. Then compare your experiences. The killing may not be what you enjoy about your hunting trips.
I tried that once but the photographs tasted aweful.
