Hunting Misrepresented (range, firearm, deer, loaded)

[Lucania]

I've read negative sentiments about hunting several times on these boards. Some of these come from a moral viewpoint, and I'm not trying to contradict a person's morality. Others that I've encountered are offensive:

1) Hunting is a hick activity
2) Hunters don't care about nature or wildlife
3) Hunters are uneducated
4) Associations of obnoxious confederate flags, pickups, and ATV's with hunting

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that there are hunters that I know a few personally who could fit any of those stereotypes.

My dad is a hunter. He taught me to hunt when I was 12 years old, and I still value the hunting tradition even if I don't go as often as I used to. We have many friends who hunt, and most are educated, successful, and cultured people.

[choosing78]

maybe points 1-3 are presumed because hunters hide in the woods, take a loaded rifle, aim it at a defenseless animal, pull the trigger and then call it "sport".

[NativeOrange]

Hunters seem to have this mentality that it's ok to hunt because it's a century old tradition. Not hunting for food like the first humans did, but shooting a buck shot into an oblivious deer that had no idea it's day was going to consist of any more than grazing and sleeping. I personally think it's cruel and sick, but any old tradition will have it's defenders. This may be a little off topic from what the OP is talking about, but in Michigan I noticed there was a hunting range, basically a fancy word for fenced in defenseless animals that are raised for people to come in and shoot them. I almost vomited when I drove past it. I know this is overused, but if a deer had tha capabilites to shoot a gun how would the hunter like it if he were just walking through the woods and a deer shot him, tracked him down, and then felt no remorse for ending his life.

[Thomas R.]

Those are unfair stereotypes. My Mom's B&B gets hunters and several of them are successful businessman. Cops are also common, including one group that comes from Long Island. (I have never been to the NYC metro and I don't think my Mom has either. We live over a thousand miles from it) Many hunters care a great deal about nature and conservation. In my part of the country the deers native predators have been eradicated so there is something understandable in man taking its place. Although for the urbanites who come here to hunt I think it's about male-bonding or some kind of corporate trust-building exercise. (There are some pretty corporate types who hunt)

That being said there is a part of me that does not like the idea of hunting for anything other than food or clothes. It would of course be wrong to state that hunters flatly don't eat what they kill as some do. The group I know from Louisiana does make some kind of gumbo from venison and there's a restaurant in the area that serves duck. Still they often don't and that does seem a bit wasteful. I also dislike hunting animals that aren't overpopulated, but in fairness I think the rules are mostly strict against hunting rare animals.

There are also some stereotypes you could pin on hunters that are unflattering, but closer to true than the ones you say C-D people have. Ones coming to mind...

1) Hunters are overly obsessed about being or being perceived as macho. They are often either "jocks" or former nerds who desperately want to prove their manliness. There are female hunters, but I would say generally the point still stands. (Particularly as being "one of the guys" is important for some women in business or politics)

2) Hunters drink to excess and sometimes endanger themselves or others with firearms. (I think this stereotype is out there and even some of the successful-type hunters I know might occasionally fit it, even if many hunters don't)

3) Hunters often have an "earthy" sense of humor that's rather crass and possibly a bit sexist at times. (Sort-of relates to one)

4) Hunters are compensating for something.

The stereotypes you find on C-D are probably because most people at C-D are urban, young, and neither corporate nor police. So they don't know hunters and maybe don't want to know hunters. Granted what I've indicated implies you can know hunters and still have mixed feelings, but I think it is a difference. (Although reading through the thread the deer here have a whole area, it's not a little fenced-in "shooting fish in a barrel" situation. The kind of guys who do the "fenced in and defenseless" things are, I think, often wealthy people who really can't hunt. They're doing it solely as a corporate thing or buddy-bonding thing or something)

[Huckleberry3911948]

if people saw what was done to chickens cows and pigs before they ate them, hunting would look humane.

[NativeOrange]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

if people saw what was done to chickens cows and pigs before they ate them, hunting would look humane.

I know what you mean, in fact if anybody has seen the video of Paul McCartney exposing the inhumane treatment of animals, I gaurentee nobody would get through the entire video without either crying or vomiting. But that doesn't justify hunting. I think the fact that hunting is so cruel is because people make a sport out of the killing of innocent animals. So if anyone decides to call me a tree-hugging hippie, go ahead, because I would much rather be labeled like so than take the life of an animal and find joy in it or see it as a "trophy".

[Thomas R.]

Animals eat other animals. Besides would you rather the deer starve to death from overpopulation?

[NativeOrange]

Originally Posted by Thomas R.

Animals eat other animals. Besides would you rather the deer starve to death from overpopulation?

Idk what animals eating other animals has to do with it, but to counter your argument, think of what you just said in the most simplified way. We came in to THEIR environment, we overpopulated it with ourselves, therefore giving the deer a limited amount of natural habitat, causing them to overpopulate, then killing them. Should we start killing humans for overpopulating the world?

[MiamiRob]

I guess Michael Vick is a hunter too right? It was a sport to him!

[RangerDanger]

Humans took wolves out of the natural environment that would control some of the deer population. To replace many of these wolves hunting was allowed. I participate in this hunt and kill deer, gut them, and process them myself so I can eat venison which I do at least once a week all year long. Along with this the hides are donated to Hides for Humanity. If I do shoot a large buck, I will mount it. This is done to brag about the deer you shot to your buddies and also as an honor to the animal itself. So when I wake up at 4:30 in the morning, walk 2 miles to my stand, and sit in the stand for the whole day and don't see anything and repeat this until I see a deer walk close enough by that I can draw my bow or gun without said animal smelling, hearing, or seeing me, I really never thought about whether it was humane. I'm also sure as a wolf stalks a deer through the woods and kills a deer it is not thinking about how it could be eating berries. An old deer has a life of just over five years and thinning the herd will guarantee the survival of much more young. I can also say similar stories about waterfowl and upland game such as grouse and pheasants. I also have a bachelors degree from the College of Natural Resources at UWSP and it is amazing how many wildlife instructors seem to agree that hunting is positive. I do agree that it is shameful what some people do to animals when they do not respect them such as poach, sport hunt at game farms, or other activities.
I would just like to know how many people are getting their knowledge of "innocent" animals from living with them in the country or small towns compared to extreme documentaries or somebodies blog about fluffy bunnies. There is a place in the world for all of the animals I shoot: it's right next to my mashed potatoes.