General Discussion Board

Hunting continued.

Posted By: Barbi <BarbiJean8@aol.com> (171.209.149.74)
Date: Wednesday, 19 April 2000, at 4:07 p.m.

I decided to move this thread up a bit, it's gotten spread out down below and it's difficult to follow anymore.

I've been reading along with the "hunting" thread, not saying much because I'm not in the least bit passionate about hunting...lol. But I do have an opinion to express, and it's not an easy one.

First I want to be sure to express that I'm not singling anyone out, I would like this to remain an open forum discussion. I have also not gone through all the posts to pinpoint exactly where everyone stands, as I don't believe a few posts on this board define anyone.

I understand the love for animals. I simply adore them, I grew up on a farm and/or in farm country, had many pets of every different kind of animal you can imagine. Even a pet chicken. Of course when you look into the eyes of the chicken you don't get quite the same response as you do from a loving dog or cat...lol, but still, it was a pet.

One thing I don't think hardly anyone here understands, is when you are raising an animal for stock, it is not thought of as a pet. Tina this is mostly for you because you were so upset by the 4-H display. I understand why it upset you, but also think you are looking at it that it was the child's pet. If you had ever raised a 4-H animal or knew kids who did, you wouldn't think that. We used to raise bum lambs, we'd start out with 50, by the time we sold them, there would maybe be 20....that's because sheep die if you look at them wrong. You quickly learn not to be attached in the same way that you are to a pet. The kid also knows from the beginning why they are raising that animal. Their GOAL is to raise it well, putting good weight on it so that it brings a good price...they take care in what it eats, they don't name them and teach them tricks, or stop by the corral and give them a lump of sugar and a scratch on the nose ... it's business. I hope you find it a little less disturbing. =)

Do animals feel? Yes. Do they think? Well, on that one I have to take an unpopular stance. I think those animals that we have domesticated to sleep at the foot of our bed, as well as a few in nature, such as elephants and dolphins DO have some ability to think. For the most part tho, animals run on instinct, they don't rationalize or plan, they just act, because they act on instinct does not make them less worthy of our consideration. They just do what animals do.

First let me address hunting.

For those of you who have never been exposed to this activity I don't imagine you can possibly understand it. You see hunting as a horror perpetuated upon the animal. I've seen the other side of the coin. I've seen what happens when there is no hunting, deer dying by the hundreds, dead pheasants literally littering the roadways from starvation. Hunting to keep herds/flocks or whatever in check is what I am going to address ... so please don't come back with "but they hunt gorilla's too" because hunting species into extinction is an entirely different argument.

Three winters ago in South Dakota the first storms hit so early that no one had a chance to hunt. The storms continued all winter. The final result was thousands of deer, pheasant, raccoon, rabbits, and any other grass dependent animal you can think of, starved to death that winter because their food resources could not support them. I saw deer with frozen legs lying on the ground, slowly dying, pheasants with their heads frozen, wandering around blindly, rabbits so weak from starvation that you could walk right up to them and pick them up. In the spring when the snow thawed, there were dead deer hanging in fences where their poor bodies just gave out, or stacked in a pile where they huddled together to get warm. Snow plows scraped thousands of dead pheasants off the road where they had tried to warm themselves, and feed off the gravel on the edge of the road.

This was not blindly ignored, every farmer/rancher that I know was putting food out for them, at the risk of not having enough to feed their own stock! They cared for those that could be saved, putting down those that could not. I met two men who had come to my town to hunt pheasant, they told me that they found lots of pheasants, all freezing to death, with ice over their eyes and beaks. They had their dogs retrieve these living birds, put them in their vehicle and warmed them up, then found a farmer who agreed to shelter them and feed them for the winter. A hunting trip became a rescue mission. They saved about a hundred birds...if they had hunted, they'd have killed 12. I assert to you that 99% of all hunters would have done the same thing.

Hunting in this form is NECESSARY. It culls the herd/flock and keeps it in check so that the unit will survive. In this way we do fulfill our responsibilities.

Now, the other point I'd like to make in this post is a bit more involved and prolly more volatile. I stated before that reading the posts made me angry, and this is why. I simply couldn't believe that so many were attacking those that hunt, and that many that did attack hunters were the same ones that were so in support of abortion.

I saw comments about slaughter, respect for the miracle of life, humanity, compassion, that it is evil, unnecessary, and cruel.

Well I'm sorry, but if one does not respect the miracle of human life how can you even BEGIN to demand respect for animal life? I find this argument truly appalling and offensive to be honest. You are going to tell me that abortion is just fine and dandy, nobodies business but the pregnant woman, but then attack those who HUNT? It's absolutely ridiculous! If you truly respect the miracle of life...respect it all, or you have no basis for the debate, at least with me...because I don't buy it.

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