I just finished a tasty hunk of venison. This deer was killed about three days ago by a friend who loves to hunt on a daily basis. But it got me thinking: With the abundance of various types of meat readily available these days (in grocery stores and deli shops, for example), is it unethical to kill a living creature for its meat when we already have meat literally waiting for us on shelves?
Not necessarily, especially deer in my part of the world (Southeast U.S.) The deer population is SO high that the bag limit has been increased considerably. The alternative is large numbers of them causing automobile accidents that often result in the deer being killed, extensive damage to the vehicle and possible injuries to people in the cars. And it doesn't stop there - with hundreds of acres of their habitat being destroyed each year, they currently are in danger of starvation. Don't get me wrong, I'm no hunter and I oppose "trophy-only" hunting.
I have relatives who hunt, and often get a few venison roasts per year given to us. It's not so bad if you cook it in ways that the fat drains away, as the fat in venison has what is described as an unpleasant "Gamey" taste. I am an animal lover, and have a Jack Russell Terror (Terrier) surgically attached to me. I feel people hunting with bows and crossbows are inducing unnecessary trauma to the animals in many cases. I am for any process that reduces an animals suffering, although I would not campaign to alter the laws as I'd rather people had bows/crossbows instead of Semi-Automatics, and recognize that man has historically hunted with bows to kill deer.
The biggest problem I see with hunters is that they sometimes only wound an animal they shoot at and don't bother to track it down to kill it. They instead just let it limp away and await another critter to kill instead. Those types of hunters, to me, are the ones that I think shouldn't have the right to be called "hunters" for they don't care about the animals suffering but only want a kill they don't have to go looking for. As was stated already hunting in many areas is regulated so that critters can't get to low in numbers nor high in numbers as well. That said I don't see the need to hunt for anything when you can go down to your local grocery store and buy almost anything you want and some specialty stores have wild game available for those who prefer that. Then one more factor I'd like to leave you to ponder. The numbers of critters living in any area are subject to human intervention by humans living closer to them destroying their habitats and reducing there range in which they can roam about. That means fewer areas that are "wild" any longer making any species that live there harder and harder to exist with the advancing population growth of humans.
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! No it is not unethical, however not eating that meat just because is unethical. By hunting for deer and elk one is doing what men are good at which is hunting, second they are using a natural food supply with much healthier option for themselves, and thirdly they are just replacing their food source (that not bought meat at supermarket will go to someone else who doesn't hunt) Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Absolutely not a bad thing to kill "game". If you don't there numbers increase and illnesses becomes out of hand. Accidents go up. And its good to have something different. Cows and chickens are farm raised to get "fatter" for butchering. Deer are more naturally raised and are better to some in food. Thinning the herd is a term used in hunting an in the cattle business.
I reside in a part of the world where hunting for subsistence is part of the heritage of many of the folks who live here, both First Nations ancestry and other long term residents. Our hunting regulations and species limits are determined annually by extensive monitoring done by biologists and reporting by hunters and outdoor enthusiasts of their harvest and any abuse of privileges observed. Leaving any usable part of the animal behind is a waste and against the law, and the Department of Renewable Resources does much to educate the population about their responsibilities to the general public for the privilege of harvesting game. Harvesting a wild animal, in a humane manner, with skill and the appropriate caliber of rifle, provides one with access to a supply of meat that is free of hormones and antibiotics though it may still contain trace elements such as cadmium, derived through it's natural diet, and avoided by limiting one's ingestion of organ meat, which is where the cadmium accumulation is concentrated. http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1316038300971/1316038365744
The moment you can objectively define "ethical" or "unethetical" is the moment that your question will have an answer.
In my opinion, it isn't unethical to kill for survival. Superfluous kills however, i.e. killing for sport, is cruel. Besides, fresh meat straight from a kill to your plate is probably a lot better for you than whatever a supermarket is stocking.
The meat in the grocery store has to be killed to be eaten too... I have no problem with hunting if done responsibly (only taking a shot that you're sure of, for example) and specifically for meat. However, I think that many hunters, even those who do make use of the meat, do it not because they need/want the food but because they think it's fun to kill things. The bulk of the meat that I eat is either roadkill or farmed from a source that I feel good about. That's not an absolute for me yet - I will still sometimes order meat a restaurant even if I'm not sure of the source, for instance - but I think that I am moving that way.
:bravo: beryl yay for you. Hey. Not all hunters are "heartless" we hunt to help the animals. And for the meat you can't buy at a market
In the USA, deer kill 150 people per year. This occurs in automobile collisions and the deer are also always killed. (One ran into my truck and caused $7,000 damage. I wasn't seriously injured but I had a whiplash headache until the next morning. It was like being T-boned by a Harley.) Actually, the last I heard, bison were the most deadly animal in America. I'm sure quite a few of these deaths are auto collisions, but bison can also be very aggressive and simply attack people. In any case, if you want to talk about the morality of eating meat (and let me first say that I am an unrepentant carnivore), I don't see a lot of difference between killing the animal yourself versus letting some farmer or slaughterhouse worker kill it for you. The animal is just as dead. In fact, unless it's a kosher/halal slaughterhouse, whose methods are utterly barbaric (the animal has to bleed to death!), farm animals are likely to die more quickly and humanely and less painfully than game animals that are killed by hunters. Not all of those guys are really good shots, and even if they are, every shot is not lucky. The animal may suffer in pain for a while as the hunter hikes over to give it the coup de grace. In fact it may be able to limp away and elude the final bullet, in which case it may suffer for hours or days until a bear, coyote, cougar or other opportunistic predator takes over. Furthermore, today's American "factory farms" are cruel enough to turn your stomach. Animals literally have no room to turn around. The citizens of California have already passed an initiative measure as the first step toward giving them more mobility and comfort. And as California goes, the nation eventually goes. (Who can forget Ronald Reagan? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!) If you're gonna eat meat, some animal is gonna die so you can be fed. The details seem strangely irrelevant from this perspective, so long as cruelty is not practiced, deliberately or negligently. So fellow carnivores, why don't we put more effort into ending the cruelty, or at least for starters, mitigating it?
As well as being on average no more and probably less cruel than industrial stock-raising and slaughtering, hunting is also defensible compared with grain and veggie farming - ridding large acreages of their resident gophers, snakes, rabbits, birds of all kinds, etc etc, involves wholesale slaughter initially and regular killing for maintenance. And it's hardly cruelty free killing. Hunters don't wipe out whole ecosystems with plows and poisons.
