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Is Hunting Wrong?

Imagine you are a stag standing in a clearing, munching on some delicious grass and gazing longingly at some hinds.  You spot a strange looking animal aver by the tree line pointing something at you then all of a sudden you fall asleep. Or, imagine you are crammed on a truck and travelling to a factory smelling of blood and death watching you Friends die and then die yourself. So is hunting really that bad?  Hunting is humane (especially more so than some commercial meat methods).  It is a way of life and is a great social event full of good times and great memories.

Hunting is humane, especially more so than commercial meat methods such as the Freezing Works.  For the sake of this argument you have to put yourself in the animal’s shoes.  Would you rather fall asleep unexpectedly (without waking up) while having fun with your friends, or would you rather be in an overloaded truck full of friends sent to a factory to watch them die, then get an electric shock then a compression powered bolt through your head?  When animals such as deer go to the freezing works they smell blood and a pheromones (which are released from the tarsal gland and acts as a warning sign) they panic. The last moments of there life is terrifying.  With hunting, the animal dies unexpectedly, relaxed and painlessly (93% of the time, the other 7% are bad placed shots).  All the people who despise hunting and want it banned because its “cruel and inhumane” are the biggest hypocrites.  The meat they eat from the supermarket, certain butchers and fast-food restaurants, will have come from an animal that would of hade a cruel death.  They are so wound up that hunting is bad and hunters are “big mean people who like to hurt animals” that they do not realise there are worst ways for animals to die.

Ever since primates evolved to man they have hunted for food.  Hunting has been a part of every culture for thousands of years so why is it all of a sudden wrong?  Certain families cannot afford to buy food at the supermarket so they have to hunt for food.  Would we let these people starve is we banned hunting? For families such as mine, hunting provides meat and halves the cost of our supermarket bill.  For $1.20 (the price of a bullet) you can get approximately $750 worth of meat.  So what is wrong with feeding your family for several weeks for $1.20?  Is it not what others dream of?

Sport hunting is a great social event full of good time and great memories.  To most anti-hunting fanatics sport hunting is “hanging heads on a wall to show how tough and strong we are…” where this is not the case.  Hunting is not about the kill, its tramping over mountains and through valleys, stalking the animal through the forest and consuming alcoholic beverages at the end of the day. From experience I have found that the fun of hunting is being outdoors with the fresh clean air blowing over my face and the felling of freedom. Killing is not what I enjoy but the great memories will never be forgotten.  So is it wrong to have fun and enjoy life?

To some, hunters are barbarians who love to kill animals, to others hunting is a way of life and for many, hunting is what they love. So is hunting wrong?  Is a lion hunting a gazelle not what it has to do to survive. How are we any different from them?  Hunting happens and is what always will happen and no one can change it.