Isn't the point of hunting to eat what you kill and at least maintain some respect for the animal in the process (see details)?
This seems to go a little too far, In my opinion at least. I know there are some hunters on Fluther, so I was wondering what you thought.
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I know that within Native American tribes (and there are many) as well as other indigenous populations, killing an animal does imply respect for said animal and respect for the environment and with understanding of our interdependence. It’s probably true that some contemporary hunters also respect the animals they kill. It’s probably more true that many others hunt for sport with no regard to the animal and later explain it away by saying something vague about how they’re protecting some other animal by keeping this and that population in check.
I’m not a hunter (not recently anyway), but I am strongly pro-hunting.
What is portrayed in this video is unsportsmanlike and pointless.
@Simone_De_Beauvoir It’s probably more true that many others hunt for sport with no regard to the animal and later explain it away by saying something vague about how they’re protecting some other animal by keeping this and that population in check.
You obviously don’t know many hunters. I think you should get to know some before making a statement like that.
@jonsblond Well…so how many hunters do you know? And do you think their experiences are more representative than those of the hunters I know, personally? I know a couple of families of hunters and some random hunters I’ve met through work (again, the pharma reps). I’ve also perused websites and forums when doing research around this matter. Very clearly, you should pay attention to my first statement that many do consider hunting and respect together. It’s just my opinion that many others don’t. I suppose, based on your experiences, you can think otherwise.
WHAT. Why….wha…
What is this I don’t even
This is not hunting. Hunting involves fair chase, which means the animal in question has a chance to escape and is not penned up prior to the hunt.
Even the put and take hunting operations around here do not operate that way. If they release birds, they are usually released 24–36 hours before they are hunted. This gives the birds time to disperse and find cover rest before they are hunted.
How is that sporting?
Over the years, I have had many a venison steak or Thanksgiving turkey that a friend or family member shot. I also know people who like hunting but not eating their catch; they play paintball and hunt other paintballers.
As for population control, I doubt it in this case.
Wow, what an awful thing! I personally don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be appalled by that! I know a number of hunters who are responsible people, respectful of the process, who use what they kill for food, and are very educated as to the environmental impact of what they do. I know that they’re not a general random sampling of hunters, as I probably wouldn’t know them well enough to know how they hunt if I weren’t already involved with them on some friendship/family level.
That is horrible. It could be against the law as cruelty to animals.
I know hunters that couldn’t give two shits, it’s just a weird game for them. I also know hunters that are concerned about clean kills, about preventing suffering, about using as much of the carcass as they can without being wasteful.
I think it can fall anywhere on the spectrum, just like many other things in life.
My husband was a hunter until we got married. I told him that I wouldn’t marry him unless he gave up hunting, or at least until he agreed to clean whatever he killed (which he doesn’t.) So, needless to say, he doesn’t hunt anymore.
We can argue all day about whether or not there are humane ways to kill an animal for food, but ultimately I think that there are people who hunt and respect nature and the animal they are chasing… and those who don’t.
I’m not watching the video, the replies are making me nervous.
@ANef_is_Enuf They had pigeons in a box, released them, shot them, then threw them in pile when they were done, with some still being alive and wounded.
I wouldn’t call that hunting. Hunting implies having to, well, hunt for the animal. That’s just a cruel form of target practice, in my opinion.
I don’t know all that many hunters. The ones I do know, mainly eat what they hunt. Venison is a common part of Christmas dinner for us because the cousin (a fantastic professional chef) who hosts each year is quite the hunting enthusiast. We’ve had wild boar and moose as well (both yummy). I know his goal when hunting is to be responsible and respectful. I heard there’s some buffalo meat coming from a recent hunt my husband’s uncle went on, and I am certainly not opposed to enjoying a buffalo burger.
However, this same cousin (along with a couple of other family members) has also done a fair amount of sport hunting. They’ve hunted bears and taken a hunting trip to Africa. I guess bear meat is wormy and not good to eat. The animals they hunted in Africa were butchered and given to locals to eat. In those cases, the hunt was purely for the thrill and the trophy, which I don’t understand. But I am pretty sure they’d have eaten everything they shot if they could.
@Blackberry Not to mention that weird guy at the beginning… was he playing with himself?
Oh, jeez. That’s not hunting. That’s just fucked up. I don’t like those things where animals are trapped or fenced in for people to kill them. That’s just bullshit.
The fact that humans don’t hunt for food, but for sport is utterly repulsive to me. Killing things and leaving them to die slow and painful deaths as shown in this video? Inhumane and even more disturbing. These people should be put on trial. I’m disappointed in the State of Pennsylvania for allowing this.
@MissAusten : The bear that my BIL hunts in British Columbia are really quite tasty, not wormy or anything. Wish I could pass some on…
Interesting! I’ll have to ask where they went bear hunting.
@Michael_Huntington How disturbing. “Hmm, I think I’ll whack off in public, then go shoot up some imprisoned pigeons. It’s gonna be a great day!”
People! That isn’t hunting. It is a pigeon shoot. It is using live birds instead of clay pigeons for target practice. I’m not saying it is right, just saying it isn’t hunting.
Nasty. Just nasty. Some of the comments following that video were interesting too. I didn’t read any on pages beyond the first though.
@MissAusten Bear meat is not any worse than any other wild meat. It can be wormy, but then so can venison, rabbit and squirrel.
It is all in the preparation and cooking, bear meat can be extremely tasty. You do have to thoroughly cook it like you would pork or chicken.
@WestRiverrat : My BIL has a guy who makes all sorts of cool stuff from the game. I’ve had some really fabulous fairly dry spiced sausage…we call it “Pooh-peroni”... ;-)
I don’t think anyone can really say negative stuff about hunting because of this video, mostly because this is not hunting. Hunting involves a challenge- going out in the woods (or wherever else), not knowing where any animals are, and finding them. There is no challenge to this- the person already has the pigeons in his possession, and he is just killing them. This could have been defend-able back before there was another way to target practice, but now we have clay pigeons that are mass produced somewhere and have to be much cheaper than raising your own pigeons.
That guy was just jerkin off at the whole thing in the beginning. What the hell? I don’t think this can be associated with legitimate hunting though, as stated by many already. Maybe if they did something with the pigeons. Pigeon meat is supposed to be pretty good. Well maybe not city pigeons, but anyways. They just let em there to rot? And look at how many. :( These people are just being fuck masters.
No, read the comments. He isn’t a wanker. He is a man with a prostate problem having a wee… (and if you believe that, you will believe anything).
Wait, so everyone here is saying that the point of hunting isn’t to masturbate before murdering animals that you don’t eat? ;-o
@Bellatrix ROFL, what? A prostate problem? Riiiiiiiiight!!
That guy looks like Jerry Sandusky.
It’s called a “canned hunt.”
It is done with many species, often large ones as well, such as leopards, lions, and other large cats. It sucks, it is NOT “hunting”, it is the lazy “sportsmans” way of feeling like the big tribal chief when he is really just a little pussy of a “man”. Pathetic, wrong and unethical.
This is just what @bkcunningham said it was – a pigeon shoot. Skeet shooting didn’t just spontaneously come into being. This is what came before it. This is not hunting.
That said – there is no reason for anyone to do this now. And add to that the extreme douchebaggery of the men in the video… it’s just gross.
I’ve never been hunting. But I can tell you that in northern Florida (where I grew up), the hunters that I was exposed to were not sportsmen. They shot road signs, cows, dogs, birds of prey, and often combined alcohol with their “sport”. It’s quite possible that there were also individuals that were more upstanding and careful individuals, but I never happened to come across them.
(My next door neighbor would put out corn all year long on his hunting property, training the deer to rely on the food source. Then, during hunting season, he would sit in a tree and shoot them. How is that a sport?)
Canned hunts are an abomination. Working in exotics, I saw many, many situations in which an animal like a leopard or cougar was bought as a pet when small and cute, often declawed and defanged in a futile effort to make them “safe”. When the animal became big enough to be scary, they were sold and wound up on a ranch, stuffed into a box, with a hunter waiting to shoot it as it walked out of the door. Often they were too used to living in a house or captive situation and were too terrified to even come out of the box, in which case they would be poked with a stick from the outside to make them bolt. If the hunter happened to be an inept or inexperienced shooter, it would sometimes take multiple shots to kill it.
Bullshit like that damages the reputation of all hunters, and I would think that legitamate sportsmen would do everything in their power to end them.
@syz
I saw a documentary once about canned “hunts” in Texas. Ranch owners staging them with all sorts of big cats. It was more than a little disturbing, unbelievably inhumane. :-(
@syz Never really knew anything about canned hunts before coming into this thread. Sounds like the Holocaust for animals. :(
That is not hunting. Nor real hunters. Just animal cruelty.
@bkcunningham Thank you. I would like to follow it, the bill. I don’t oppose hunting necessarily, it’s not something I would enjoy but I’m not against it. I just think it should be kind of a reasonably fair fight, that’s all.
Can’t watch the video. And, reading what syz wrote makes me sick to my stomach and hurts my heart. I could barely get through what she typed up. Makes me awfully sad.
Pennsylvania is a very rural state with a lot of hunters and lots of guns. I realize the “history” of shooting pigeons for target practice, but I don’t see any need for doing this. I love to target practice. I love to shoot skeet. I couldn’t kill a live pigeon for target practice though. Many churches and other groups have come out in support of the bill. I am disappointed that the NRA took an opposite stance. I think they are scared of giving an inch on any thing gun related.
@bkcunningham Once Obama was elected, gun sales increased due to paranoid right wingers thinking he would “take” their guns. Lol.
@bkcunningham The NRA certainly isn’t the only lobbying or advocacy group guilty of this kind of thing, there are some on the left, some on the right, but it’s just a shame when some organization that you otherwise support, no matter what it is, just doesn’t have the balls to say, “You know what? This is just plain wrong and we’re not going to support it.”
I believe that the actions in this video have absolutely nothing to do with hunting and am a bit dismayed that there are people who believe that this is in any way comparable.
I wonder who puts pressure on the NRA executive to oppose something like SB 626. Remington? Other makers of shotgun shells?
@YoBob, you are 100 percent correct.
@bkcunningham I don’t know if there is really anyone who puts pressure on the NRA. I think you were correct in your first analysis, they are just unwilling to give even an inch on anything gun related.
And yes, @YoBob is right, this really isn’t related to hunting. That’s why, even though I’m not a hunter myself, I wanted to make sure that everyone understood that this practice, these pigeon shoots, are illegal in the U.S., everywhere except for PA, and that may be ending soon. It is not something that hunters, in general, engage in; it is not something that real hunters consider as actually hunting and I don’t thing it is looked at as something that is “sporting,” by real hunters, I don’t think.
No, it’s a sport. The point is killing the animal. It’s nice that the meat is usually eaten by someone, but I don’t really want any of it brought home to me to cook.
@perspicacious Really? That’s how you do it? You hunt merely for sport, you’re just in it for the hunt and the kill, and then you just leave the animal’s body out there, in the woods or the forest, to just rot and decompose? I’ve never, ever known a hunter to have that kind of attitude. It’s is, honestly, very distressing to me. While I personally don’t hunt I have always believed hunters to have a certain attitude, a certain respect for the animals they hunt and for the meat those animals provide.
Sorry to disappoint @lillycoyote . Time to join the real world.
perspicacious :: Thanks for giving the hunters (that hunt to feed our families) a bad name. I’m included in that group, BTW.
@perspicacious Time to join the real world? Then just say it, outloud! Are you the hunter? Are you saying that you kill animals for sport and then leave their bodies in the field just to rot? Just say it out loud @perspicacious, if you are the hunter. No need to be afraid, just say it. And, If you are not the hunter, then give me evidence that that it is the practice of hunters to kill merely for sport and then leave their prey to simply rot and decompose where they fall, in the field.
You better not hunt in my state then @perspicacious, it is a felony (called wanton waste) to leave your game to rot in the field. This is true in most of the western states as well.
If you don’t want to eat it, donate it to the food bank, they are always happy to have fresh meat to distribute.
Yeah, I was about to say. I’m pretty sure it is illegal to just leave your kill to rot. Plus, it’s stupid and irresponsible.
@WestRiverrat Thanks for the posting about the “wanton waste” issue and the laws regarding it. As I have mentioned, I don’t hunt, it’s not something I would enjoy, but I don’t oppose it. As far as I know, most hunters are extremely ethical and I think the life of a game animal seems a whole lot better than the life of an animal raised in the factory farming system. A good free life, a quick bullet to the head or the heart and that’s that. Given the choice, I would prefer to live and die a deer than live and die a pig or or cow, honestly. And for the those few hunters who are not ethical, there are laws, I now know, that prevent them from simply killing animals for sport and leaving them to rot in the field like their lives didn’t matter at all.
@lillycoyote unfortunately most of the laws about wanton waste and illegally taking game are not strong enough to be much of a deterent. Most are just misdemeanors or the courts don’t take them seriously and just issue fines with no jail time and maybe suspend the hunting priveledges for a year.
A guy that will spend $10,000 on a hunt is not going to be upset by a $100 fine for being over limit.
@WestRiverrat Well, hopefully I’m not merely naive. I know that there are people who break the law, there are bad people, there are assholes and jerks and folks who are just plain cruel and just plain no damn good, but as a non-hunter, my support of hunting is based on the assumption I have that the overwhelming majority of hunters are ethical and go for the clean kill and find some use for the meat the animal provides. If that turns out not to be quite so true, I would have to reconsider my position. Hopefully, I won’t have to do that.
Wasn’t this a deleted scene from Deliverance? Good ole retarded arse humping boys just foolin around!
Elmer Fudd will be turning in his gwave :¬(
My father started one of the first ‘Sportsmen Club’s in Alaska. This would make him sick. I guess some morons heard about clay pigeon shooting and didn’t understand the ‘clay’ part.
The pigeons raised for food here in Europe are treated much better than that, of course. This is not ‘shooting to control numbers’ or for food and it has to be banned.
Those involved show their true character and shame when they pull guns, threaten and beat people simply trying to document their activity.
Oh, if you see some of the other videos from this group, it shows how these ‘hunters’ raise pheasants. The PAshame people kind of let themselves down here. The blinders on the pheasants are there so that they don’t peck each other to death. Raising pheasants in this way is quite common and many Sportsman’s Clubs do this. The difference with these morons is that they keep the pheasants in captivity too long and release several of them only when they want to shoot them.
My father was involved in raising pheasants to stock nearby forests. It was a much much smaller operation. They were hatched and kept for a short time, then released into the wild. Pheasants aren’t like chickens, where you can farm them and they won’t hurt each other. They will peck each other to death and the blinders don’t hurt them and is much better than the other alternative of taking a nail clippers and clipping off the tips of their beaks.
And yes, there are commercial pheasant farms where they are raised for food and they are kept in a similar manner, but they are dispatched in a much more humane way.
@perspicacious I find your comment disturbing and just plain disgusting. Hunting animals should never be a sport. When I’ve hunted, I always eat what I kill. I wouldn’t hunt otherwise. I haven’t gone hunting for quite a while, but I would never, ever consider taking the life of an animal to be “sporting”. I hunt strictly for meat, and I never take a shot if I’m not positive it is a kill shot. I refuse to wound an animal and cause it to suffer.
I think it’s unrealistic to expect all hunters to be in it for the meat. A lot of them just like to, well, hunt. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being in a hunting party where at least someone is taking home the game. I don’t think @perspicacious was saying that he leaves the animal to rot in the forest. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Uh.. yeah. Not hunting. There is big money in pigeon shooting AFAIK but I sure don’t get it. It’s target shooting with live creatures for no good reason as far as I’m concerned. As for ‘Gentleman A’: link
Towards the end of my father’s hunting days, he didn’t bring any animals home for the meat either because he didn’t shoot anything. I went with him one day, during small game season, even though I had NEVER fired a gun. We saw a small red squirrel up a tree. He handed me the gun and let me take aim at it. I put down the gun and told him I couldn’t shoot it. It looked like a small one and what would we do with it if we got it home? He looked at me and smiled and said he understood; that ‘These days, hunting was just a nice quiet walk in the woods.’ My father was a gentleman-hunter. Those men are just goons.
Well, in my opinion any blatant disrespect for ANY life form is a blatant disrespect for ALL life forms.
Just another sad commentary on the lack of ethics, values, respect, and compassion so many are devoid of in our society these days.
Anytime a person treats another creature, big or small as a feelingless object they lose the part of their humanity that makes them human and teeter on the edge of sociopathology.
@dappled_leaves You are correct and one of the jellies who don’t seem get all excited and go into drama mode. Also, I’m not a he. :)
@perspicacious
Passion and conviction is not the same as “drama” IMO. ;-)
Meet “Myles” in my avatar I sure am glad he had the “right” to be kept for 6 weeks at the shelter, otherwise he’d be dead right now and not my new cat pal. :-)
He is beautiful, @Coloma. Congratulations!!
@bkcunningham Thank You! Yes, Myles the magnificent, he is such a great guy!
@Coloma Drama is drama regardless of what drives it.
@Coloma He looks all fluffy and soft! :D
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