Air Gun Home :: View topic - My can of worms- why kill squirrels anyway?

billandbeaufort · Senior Member

I wish they had rifles they could shoot back with. See how many big brave hunters we would have then!

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

And the gayest anti-hunting comment award goes to.....

yourdaddyjoe · Supporting Member

P.E.T.A.

People Eating Tasty Animals

thepaladin · Senior Member

Just wondering........

I'm really asking this and not trying to cause trouble or spark a fight, I wonder "billandbeaufort" if you don't mind my asking, are you a vegan or a vegetarian?

I know the discussion goes deeper, but if it is a subject we can talk "civilally" about we could start there.

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

Maybe his comment was just a fleeting pot shot at us hunters, but when you're in the hunting it's pointless to do that.

thepaladin · Senior Member

Well, I grew up in the Smokies and learned to eat squirrel and rabbit from about as far back as I can remember. Hunters are (and that's not poachers) in a real way the ultimate consevationists, whether others like to admit it or not. if not for hunters there would actually be more cases of extention and less wild land.

I really would like to hear any coherient argument anit-hunters might have in order to find why they are so anit. I mean if it's a matter of personafication of animals, then I kind of get it. I don't agree, but I understand. I love animals, I feed strays and share my home with foru legged familly members, but I also eat steak and burgers. If it's just an emotional reaction it could be thought about and so on. I suppose I'm just being optomistic, maybe. Rolling Eyes

Oh well it's just that way.

At least the supreme Court went our way today.

broommaster2000 · Moderator

My personal feelings towards vegeterians is combined in the next sentence:

For every animal that you don't eat, I'll eat two. Mr. Green

Make that three:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sponsor

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

The only way for an anti-hunter not to be a hypocrit is if they are vegan. As a hunter who eats his kill, I take accountability for that which I eat. Most people feel that if the chicken they eat was killed in some factory farm in Kansas, and not by them, then they are not responsible for the chicken's death. Whatever meat you eat, YOU KILLED that animal. They died so you could eat them.

You could make an argument over ethics if you are vegan and don't use any animal products at all, like leather, etc. Because humans can survive without killing animals. This would be the only argument I would even entertain as having some legitmate, non-hypocritical basis.

However, my counter-argument is that humans are omnivores and by our very nature we eat meat--always have. So to deny ourselves the right to eat something that we are inherently predisposed to, is to deny our own nature.

thepaladin · Senior Member

Well, even a vegan probably uses animal products without realizing it (medications for example) but they couldn't be held responsibile for that. The problem comes in the insistance that other people live by a standard they have set. Still, i would be willing to discuss it.

Old joke:
Definitions

Vegetarian, an old Native American word meaning, "poor hunter".

Vegan, an old Native American word meaning poor hunter and herder.

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

And using some animal products isn't that bad. Cows don't have to be killed in order to get milk. Some other animal products can be procured in the same way so that the animal is not really harmed (sheeps wool for example).

Veganism creates this exagerated empathy for animals which compels the vegan to deny anything even remotely associated with the exploitation of animals, even if it is done in as ethical of a way as possible.

They don't all push their beliefs on others, usually they just get caught up in the lifestyle or have some misgivings about animal cruelty and just choose to live that way.

This poor vegan girl I know comes over every once in a while. She's conveniently NEVER hungry which is good because she can't seem to eat even the most basic things, like bread, or buttered corn. Last weekend we had a bbq and she came over and watched us devour steak, chicken, and bratwurst, and then at the end of the night she just had a piece of watermelon and said she was full.

cw · Banned

thepaladin,

Great definitions.

craigfperry · Member

I kill them and then i grill them.

naynay · Member

Well, I knew it was a can of worms. for what its worth, i think most people would be totally unable to process their own meat if it didn't come wrapped in cellophane at the supermarket. and the emotional part is probably why so many children are vegetarian- or go through a vegatarian phase. they make the connection between the animal and the food, and balk, and kids are more outspoken these days and or their parents give them more freedom of choice. (i sense another can of worms opening up... ). anyway, i respect hunting and eating- i feel like it is honest and honorable. i Don't understand the yahoos that go on "trophy hunts" - where they take credit for killing some awesomely huge example of some species- that a guide scouted out for them and held their hand while they pulled the trigger. crap, i think i managed to open 2 cans of worms in one posting! well anyway- freedom of expression makes life interesting. and freedom to choose to eat what we want, kill what we eat if we want to, etc etc etc. party on y'all. myself, i can kill the fish i catch, but i think i'd only kill the air breating critters if they were messin with my chickens- or if all hell breaks loose and we are left to our own devices. Meat is Yummy!

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

I'll touch on the second new can you opened about trophy hunters. It depends on what you want to get out of hunting. If you want bragging rights then you'll settle for a trophy bull Moose served up to you by an Alaskan guide. It's not about the hunt, rather the end result.

Myself, I'm all about the thrill of the hunt. Any meat I get is just bonus, but I love chasing that kill thrill. The harder I have to work for it the better.

cw · Banned

I think that it is quite satisfying taking out 60+ rockchucks
that have all ready brought down two buildings by undermining
the foundations with a network of tunnels.

Or getting rid of a bunch of nutria that are weakening an irrigation
cannal used to irrigate a thousand acres of corn and jeopardizing
most of the crop.

You can't eat them, but there is a great satisfaction in ridding
people of this kind of pest. They are spooked pretty easy and
have to be shot from 75+ yards. So it is a quite a challenge
sometimes.

CW