I hate sport hunting.

[Doll With A Knife]

I understand that people hunt for food, and that's totally different.

I'm talking about the cretins who go out and shoot animals purely for "fun". They kill things for no other purpose than to lop its head off and hang it on their wall, then call it a "prize" or "trophy". My dad watches those kinds of shows on TV, and it makes me sick. There was one time where these guys went out in the middle of Africa and shot a bunch of antelope so they could have them stuffed. It disturbed me the way they were so proud of their kill and were laughing about it as they went on and on about what a beautiful animal it was.

I've noticed that a lot of these people claim to be nature and animal lovers. How can you call yourself an animal lover when you enjoy killing them? That seems a little sadistic to me. You have to have some kind of sickness in you to find pleasure in shooting and killing a living thing, even if it's a wild animal. I just don't understand it.

What do you guys think? Am I just a nutcase or what?  

[Frezeal]

Well, personally, it's their choice of interest. I'm a vegetarian and I honestly don't mind the sport hunting.

It doesn't sound like fun to me, but I don't care if someone hunts animals for fun.  

[Christizzle]

If you kill animals for fun there's seriously something wrong with you. But, if you honor the animal and use the meat, the hide etc then I think it's a good thing.
My stepdad hunts all the time but we actually USE the animal.  

[xena91388]

I don't mind sport hunting as long as it serves a purpose such as population control.

For instance, here in Florida, some private fishing lake owners give out rewards for catching snakeheads since they are an invasive species that takes over the ecosystem quickly and kill off everything else. They can travel out of the water into other lakes and streams. Arizona, I think, has a similar problem with some small pigs and Colorado had that problem with deer.

Georgia, and Florida encourage the hunting of the giant hogs we have down here, they're about the size of a bear and have been known to kill dogs and people.  

[Sophisticated Simplicity]

In the province I used to live in, the government encourages people to hunt the deer and moose, where the overpopulation of these animals are becoming a very big problem. They destroy crops, compete with horses and cows for food, and cause over 2000 car accidents a year, many of them fatal.
I am not against sport hunting, as long as it is done responsibly, and within restricted areas. If it's not interfering with the environment, then I'm not going to say it's wrong.  

[Jao Feng]

My friend at school sport hunts.. I ask him not too, but ever since he brought a picture of a stuffed rabbit to school, I've been to freaked to argue. Rabbits= Scary  

[Short Melancholic]

@ frezeal: How can you not have a problem with hunting for sport? I mean. I'm a vegetarian and I kind of understand if you eat the meat, honestly I think it's the most humane thing, compared to how we usually get meat. True, the animal is terrified for the last bit of its life, but at least it's over quickly and it doesn't suffer. But hunting just to kill something? That's just wrong.  

[xena91388]

Which is more humane, killing off the surplus quickly to ensure the survival of the species or letting them run unchecked killing off everything else and themselves through slow, slow starvation.

Sport hunting is only legal on the problem animals: rabbits, deer, moose, boars, snakeheads, sunfish, squirrels, ect. . . .

These animals have overpopulated to extremes that their natural predators can't keep them in check for us or like the snakeheads and boars, are an invasive species with no natural predators in the area.

Short Melancholic

@ frezeal: How can you not have a problem with hunting for sport? I mean. I'm a vegetarian and I kind of understand if you eat the meat, honestly I think it's the most humane thing, compared to how we usually get meat. True, the animal is terrified for the last bit of its life, but at least it's over quickly and it doesn't suffer. But hunting just to kill something? That's just wrong.

 

[Doll With A Knife]

Christizzle

If you kill animals for fun there's seriously something wrong with you. But, if you honor the animal and use the meat, the hide etc then I think it's a good thing.
My stepdad hunts all the time but we actually USE the animal.

That's exactly what I mean. I don't have a problem with raising cows and pigs for butcher because it serves a purpose. We eat the meat, use the hide for clothing, etc. Nothing is wasted. Plus the farmers and butchers don't kill them for enjoyment. They do it because they need to make a living and we need the products from it.

I just can't stand the asshats who shoot things for shits and giggles.  

[iKiin]

Xena basically took all the words out of my mouth.
While I don't like to support it, if it will help ensure the species survival, it doesn't bother me as much.

Is an interest in taxidermy conflict with this? I don't believe so. It's not just about killing an animal and putting it in your cabin any more. It's a learning opportunity; study anatomy without the dangers. In its own unique way, it's an art.

 

[pompoennetje]

Ever since I saw two guys on national geograpich hunting down a boar, and - in my eyes - abusing it before they finally killed it. I don´t respect hunting on animals anymore.

I understand it needs to be done when there is overpopulating. But people should do it in a humane way.

Not like those two blokes on tv sitting on the boar, tying it down with ropes, and pulling it through the water to the other side, while that poor boar was screaming bloody murder, and had trouble breathing, because it kept going under water. And then it was thrown in the back of a truck like a piece of garbage.

People should have at least some respect for the animals they are killing.
And not make their last minutes a living hell...  

[Kitty-in-a-hole]

Here in Australia people are encouraged to hunt boars, rabbits, foxes and especially cane toads. they destroy the environment and kill off native animals. although killing native Australian animals is illegal (except roos)  

[TH3_G1ITCH_]

TheAristocratSays:
I don't agree with killing animals for fun, either.

Here in England, fox hunting was a "popular sport" supported by the torys (who are now in power emotion_facepalm ) and even though it was banned they're trying to bring it back in and people are still caught hunting the poor foxes for fun.

It's just... Do these people honestly have nothing better to do then to kill an animal for fun?
Do they not know that we now live in the world of the internet?!

They need a hobby. A normal hobby, not a derranged one. emotion_donotwant

 

[THE_FAIRY_EMPRESS]

I'm also in England, in the country side. Game shooting is not seen as fun rather something that has to be done, rabbits and foxes desimate the agricultural comunity, costs thousands of pounds. It has nothing to do with loving or hating animals, it is not just a hobby. It is a protection of income and land. Apart fro foxes all meat is used. Fun culture in America is so very differant from that of England currently, unfortunatley gun liscencing is being privatised so we will soon be like America, at which point we will get morons with guns