Trying To Explain To Non Hunters That All Hunters Aren't Horrible Bloodthirsty Killers!

[skycat 6,173]

I've been reading Millet's thread about the great tit, and also a vid I found on youtube where two hunters find a whitetail buck whose antlers are tangled with the remains of another http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUDP6kDYyNs

 

Anyway, I was telling a non hunter about this, and she couldn't understand how someone would want to save a deer to maybe shoot it a few weeks later when it was free and healthy. I've given up trying to justify what I do to most people these days, but I wondered (and yeah, I'm sure this has been discussed many times before) exactly what the divide is between those who hunt and those who don't hunt.

 

Nor could she understand how someone who goes around killing things could save a bird from starvation. My personal opinion of people who fail to get involved with animals, especially wildlife, is that they are so far removed from the immediacy of death and the struggle to survive, that they just cannot feel that struggle. They have less appreciation of the value of life because they don't see death as often as we do. I could be completely wrong, but it seems a bit like that to me.

 

This same person is also pretty much a vegetarian, but recently she's been buying meat as she felt she wasn't getting enough protein in her diet! Getting weak on a diet of soya mince!!!! Sounds a bit hypocritical to me to say the least!

 

Got that off my chest now Anyone else had dealings with this sort of person? And how do you explain the obvious to them?

[paulus 26]

my neighbours find it hard to understand how i can take photo`s of wildlife one week and hunt it the next , its not about killing or living. its the ability to appreciate that both have a place in nature, infact its natures mix of horror and beauty that makes it so fascinating.

[stinkers 102]

I used to volunteer at an animal rescue place and they were all animal lovers. I am too but i hunt. Now when i started there it was great then i started doing rescues for them ....mainly dogs. When someone from the centre saw my FB page with pictures of my hunting trips all hell broke loose. I was called all sorts and trying to explain the difference between hunting and animal cruelty is near on impossible.

 

I stopped voluteering for them. Ive hunted for the last 20 odd years and not goig to stop. I humanley dispatch my quarry and dont cause suffering. But some people have blinkers on ......i posted a picture of my huntng trip on fb other day and a friend that has known me for years commented calling me a murderer, so i copied her post from earlier about her lovely roast lamb she had had, And commented.....your an accessory to murder please visit your local police station for charges. Some people have never lived and all these anti-hunting people that eat meat are nothing more than two faced hypocrits. I dont even bother trying to explain my actions half the time.....if they dont like it then tough .....i dont tell the how to run there lives and no one is going to tell me how to run mine

[baw 4,360]

Well said skycat. I had a discussion lol with a shooter recently who despised lurchers. Not the same I know but trying to explain to him an animal taking another animal is the most natural form of hunting there was, was a waste of time. His argument was it was cruel!!!! Better to shoot it. I said yes, but how many get away injured? Least with a dog it either gets caught or away. It was a waste of time though, he knew best.

[skycat 6,173]

Shooters always know best: NOT! For some reason I can never understand, they feel superior to 'proper' hunters, those who don't need to blow bullets out of a bit of metal. Maybe the whole gun thing is hiding behind a lethal weapon they have total control over: supposedly. Most shooters I know couldn't train a dog to crap!

[paulus 26]

Shooters always know best: NOT! For some reason I can never understand, they feel superior to 'proper' hunters, those who don't need to blow bullets out of a bit of metal. Maybe the whole gun thing is hiding behind a lethal weapon they have total control over: supposedly. Most shooters I know couldn't train a dog to crap!

i do both sometimes at the same time

[Richie10 345]

People make judgements on these they have no experience of, they are willing to eat meat and kid themselves they had no involvement. The demand for meat kills animals. They act of killing they see as repulsive, the eating not.

The fact is people on the whole have no real sense of reason. Also the anti's, vegans, etc believe they have a selfworth in trying to ban things, gets them a reason for living. They have real interest in wildllife but an interest in themselves.

If you look at the issue with foxes, foxes populations are high because people feed them and they eat off our waste increasing the population. People don't realise that artificially bolstered populations affect their prey species such as ground nesting birds etc. They say that a population will regulate themselves, that would only happen if everyone stopped feeding them and taking them to wildlife rescues.

People that care about wildlife are the people that place a value on them, as a speices, as a quarry etc, people living in towns saying hunting is wrong won't really care whether they dissappear or not, as long as they don't get hunted.

[LaraCroft 863]

What amazing footage.

 

I don't even try to explain things like that anymore - not worth the hassle of the arguement.

[baw 4,360]

Shooters always know best: NOT! For some reason I can never understand, they feel superior to 'proper' hunters, those who don't need to blow bullets out of a bit of metal. Maybe the whole gun thing is hiding behind a lethal weapon they have total control over: supposedly. Most shooters I know couldn't train a dog to crap!

 

Ain't that the truth. This clown was a fisherman too. I'm also a keen fisherman so exchanged knowledge on the subject. If his shooting knowledge is as good as his fishing...... I know more about Brain surgery than he knows about fishing.

 

I find people who hunt have the greatest respect and love for wildlife. You have to, to go out in the weathers we do all year. Nothing better than sitting on a frosty hill ferreting watching the buzzards.

[Astanley 11,568]

I think part of the problem is thier argument has brevity and emotion on it,s side , they use phrases such as " ripped to pieces " or "eaten alive" and throw in the odd comments like "bloodlust" and bingo , you have converts . While the argument for hunting takes time , it requires the undecided to understand the nuances and often contradictory argument of the hunter , in short it means they have to think , Most people don,t want to and go along with the short ,emotional way of thinking ,

[Richie10 345]

Shooters always know best: NOT! For some reason I can never understand, they feel superior to 'proper' hunters, those who don't need to blow bullets out of a bit of metal. Maybe the whole gun thing is hiding behind a lethal weapon they have total control over: supposedly. Most shooters I know couldn't train a dog to crap!

 

As someone who shoots and works the dogs, many of the shooters you meet don't have any background in any type of fieldsports apart from shooting and that they have only taken up recently.

I have shot most species, birds, rabbits, rats, foxes, deer, if you say it is humane, then you have never shot anything.

[walshie 2,804]

my neighbours find it hard to understand how i can take photo`s of wildlife one week and hunt it the next , its not about killing or living. its the ability to appreciate that both have a place in nature, infact its natures mix of horror and beauty that makes it so fascinating.

 

Gun or camera, you'll make a mess of them either way.

[LaraCroft 863]

I think part of the problem is thier argument has brevity and emotion on it,s side , they use phrases such as " ripped to pieces " or "eaten alive" and throw in the odd comments like "bloodlust" and bingo , you have converts . While the argument for hunting takes time , it requires the undecided to understand the nuances and often contradictory argument of the hunter , in short it means they have to think , Most people don,t want to and go along with the short ,emotional way of thinking ,

 

Very true. Shame they don't use the same argument when they are buying the 2 for £5 chickens from the supermarket - and conveniently forget that the price reflects the standard and quality of those chickens lives. They are happy to support one form of animal cruelty, but throw a fit if my dog catches a rabbit and dispatches it so quickly it barely has time to take a breath.

[Born Hunter 17,763]

There isn't a way of explaining it, no more than there is a way of explaining love or paternal/maternal instincts. I mix mostly with shooters, some are into hunting with dogs side of things but not majorly, to them the pinacle of sport is the driven bird, to me it's a good daytime hunt. They are just wired differently, same as non hunters.

 

I like to think I'm pretty respectfull of other views and occasionally find myself trying to explain why I do what I do to non hunters and purest shooters............. simple answer is, you're either a hunter in your blood or you're not............. if you are then you know what I mean by the thrill of the hunt, if you're not you could'nt possibly comprehend it.

 

True hunters are bound by a sense of fair play, they know when they have cheated an animal to it's death and take no pleasure in that. It's a sense of being part of the natural world, not just using it to get kicks.

[pip1968 2,490]

my neighbours find it hard to understand how i can take photo`s of wildlife one week and hunt it the next , its not about killing or living. its the ability to appreciate that both have a place in nature, infact its natures mix of horror and beauty that makes it so fascinating.

 

Gun or camera, you'll make a mess of them either way.

na the camera deffinatly does more damage