What are your thoughts on hunting and fishing?

[Lady_Alizarin]

I saw a thread like this on another site, but didn't see one on this one.

The title pretty much speaks for itself. What are your thoughts on hunting and/or fishing? I'm talking about out in real life, not in the game. Are you an outdoors kind of person that likes to hunt/fish or are you against it?

My oppinion: I see nothing wrong with people hunting animals or going out and fishing. It's a very common sport/hobby/past-time out here where I live. It's pretty much a social norm in the community I live in. I have a few friends who like to go out and hunt for quails, or pheasants since there is a high population here. Some like to hunt for feral hogs, and some like to hunt for deer. I find fishing to be a fun sport, but I never catch them to eat them. After I catch a fish, I let it go.
HOWEVER even though I see nothing wrong with hunting/fishing, I am against any form of illegal hunting/fishing or poaching.

So what are your thoughts? I'm just curious here.  When commenting, try not to turn this into a big nasty arguement. Lets all be mature and respect each others' opinions. Everyone has different opinions about something.   

[BouncyLion101]

My opinion on hunting is it's okay, as long as the people hunting the animals will find use of the dead animal.
Making a coat or skinning it for decoration isn't my favorite use of the animal, but it's better than throwing it away.

Hunting for just the sake of killing something I think is a little unfair to the animals. They can't fight back, and even though they aren't as smart as humans are they can still feel pain just as well as we can.

But I don't think anyone just be forced to stop hunting just because other people might think badly of it. c:

Fishing is a very enjoyable hobby. Letting the fish go is what I prefer, but eating the fish is also great.
As long as the fish aren't harmed too much before you let them I'm completely okay with fishing.

Fishing is a nice bonding experience with nature, or the people you go fishing with. :3

[Raz.]

In before:

PPL SHUDNT HUNT WULFZ. THEY R ENDANJURD.

But anyway, I only view hunting as wrong when people just hunt animals for sport/fun. To score big on that stag with the giant set of antlers and so on. Killing an animal just so they can be all "HURR I HUNTD DIS GIANT BUCK LOOKIT."

Hunting is fine if the hunter is actually going to use the parts of an animal for food and other resources, so the animal doesnt go to waste. If they need it to survive.

[Proon-coon]

I use to fish as a child with my father. Though, we never caught anything edible, only plants and occasional objects like cardboard boxes. It's a hobby of mine, though I don't go often due to the lack of water where I live.

I have two friends, they both hunt rabbit. I've never been hunting myself, but I imagine it fun from what my friends describe to me.
But I'm against illegal/sport hunting and poaching.
C:

[Ingredient]

I personally do not like hunting or fishing, I don't like seeing how happy people are when something is dying or being beaten to death. I see no enjoyment in getting a hook through my face or a bullet through my ribs. I can easily say I'm not fond of what the animal has to go through to be worn as a fancy coat or to be nailed to a wall and collect dust.

I don't mind people hunting for food though, food is important and it doesn't let the animal go to waste. Hunting illegally is definitely wrong, I'm well against it. Hunting for game or "sport" I'm against also. In fact, I don't get why it's called sport when the animal is doing more than the hunter, you could say the hunter cheats. If you want real sport put the gun down and that way it can easily be "fair game".

I admit, I've fished before and I enjoyed it. It wasn't because I wanted to but I didn't have a choice. I threw the fish back in the water when no one was looking because they would've been piled up on each other in a plastic bag in a hot car with little water. Everyone else kept fishing though so we had fish for dinner that day.

[Cecilia~]

I'd prefer hunters use the animal for something other than trophy, but either way I just can't see anything wrong with it. Sometimes it indirectly (as in, the hunter isnt TRYING to do this) helps with population control. I really don't understand why people feel bad for said animals being hunted.They aren't beaten or tortured to death while the hunter laughs maniacally like in movies or TV or whatever. A single bullet to the head or ribs is a quick, painless death!

Fishing? Fishing is fun. My step-dad fishes all the time and brings stuff home. Really, there's not much you can do with fishing that makes it "bad" compared to your guy's view on hunting. You either throw the fish back in the water, or take it home and eat it LOL.

People are WAY too emotional about the POOR WITTLE AMINALZ being hunted or fished..

[Abomine]

I respect hunters because not only do their hunting licenses pay for a lot of my country's national parks, but they also have a much better understanding of the "Circle of Life" and what it means to take a part in it. Also, hunting for your meat is much more humane and environmentally friendly than buying it from a grocery store. The quarry has a fair chance of escape, the death is relatively swift, the animal lived as it was meant to live in the wild, and the meat doesn't have all those nasty chemicals and fillers that grocery store meat has.

TLDR: I respect responsible hunters and responsible hunting.

Poachers, however, are a whole different story.

[Ingredient]

I really don't understand why people feel bad for said animals being hunted.They aren't beaten or tortured to death while the hunter laughs maniacally like in movies or TV or whatever. A single bullet to the head or ribs is a quick, painless death!

Depends what you're hunting, not everyone kills with a gun. Fur seal pups for example are beaten to death with large hammers, sharks/whales/dolphins are shot with harpoons and dragged onto a boat then are killed. Plus a shot in the ribs is not an instant death, just an easy area to bring the animal down to finish the job. Quick kills are actually quite rare since most hunters severely injure the animal and fail to kill them on the spot. Most animals killed are adults meaning their young are left orphaned and defenseless if left at a den. Not all hunters are so kind to their targets. Some guys were hunting/trapping wild pigs for game, the poor pig had it's trotters sawed off while it was still alive. Yes, most hunters will try and kill animals quickly, others can be cruel. Those are all good reasons why you or anyone should feel bad for those animals.

I enjoy fishing and I prefer it over hunting since you can't release an animal after shooting it. Fish can be thrown back, I just don't enjoy the sight of a hook going through it's mouth and it struggling to breathe.

People are WAY too emotional about the POOR WITTLE AMINALZ being hunted or fished..

I disagree wit dat wittle statement of yours. The majority of people who actually get too emotional over hunting/fishing is quite small compared the people who enjoy killing animals. I don't like the idea of hunting but I don't cry or get depressed every time I hear someone just killed something. If I saw something being killed for no reason or for a laugh then yes, I'd be a little upset. Some boys at school beat a baby bird to death with a mini shovel, they picked it up by it's mangled neck and threw it at some girls before cracking a laugh. That made tears come to my eyes, I don't see why you wouldn't want to have sympathy for that baby bird.

[Abomine]

Quick kills are actually quite rare since most hunters severely injure the animal and fail to kill them on the spot.

It's still a much less painful way to go than being literally being eaten alive by a pride of lions or a pack of wolves. There's rarely such a thing as a 'clean kill' in the wild. Most large carnivores, like lions and wolves, subdue their prey by suffocating or exhausting it. When the prey is finally too tired to fight back (which is usually hours after the chase and stand-off), the predators start eating it, whether the prey is still alive or not. But the predators don't care, and why should they? They're animals. The concepts of mercy and pity are completely foreign to them.

Because we humans are sentient and we feel pity and sometimes even empathy for the animals we hunt, we at least have the capacity to make an active effort to make the kill as quick and painless as possible.

In fact, if you actually watch hunting videos on YouTube and such, the killing process is MUCH quicker than you would think. The quarry may struggle for a few seconds after the impact, but they die pretty quickly.

[Cecilia~]

Depends what you're hunting, not everyone kills with a gun. Fur seal pups for example are beaten to death with large hammers, sharks/whales/dolphins are shot with harpoons and dragged onto a boat then are killed.

Some guys were hunting/trapping wild pigs for game, the poor pig had it's trotters sawed off while it was still alive.

Some boys at school beat a baby bird to death with a mini shovel, they picked it up by it's mangled neck and threw it at some girls before cracking a laugh. That made tears come to my eyes, I don't see why you wouldn't want to have sympathy for that baby bird.

That's animal abuse, not hunting @ the thing with the baby bird.

Not all hunters are like that @ the pig statement.

I don't exactly agree with the way marine life such as, yes, sharks or whales or dolphins. I don't care if they're being hunted, I don't exactly like how they only use one part such as a fin when it comes to sharks. Even so, yeah, they're harpooned and then dragged onto a boat, but they aren't even in pain for that long. It's just.. harpoon the animal, drag it onto boat, kill it quickly.

Seal clubbing it kind of.. meh. I don't see why they should club it to death instead of just shooting it in the head.

Also another thing. People need to stop assuming hunters do what they do as if they hate animals or enjoy beating things to death or whatever. Go ahead and flame me, but I'm pro-hunting.