Killing animals for sport

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Because getting pleasure from taking an animals life is not something I subscribe to. Some people enjoy cruelty and use hunting as a legitimate excuse to commit cruel acts. I understand that it needs to be done sometimes but I would hope the people doing it don’t get pleasure specifically from the act of killing.
There is an attraction to tracking and hunting animals down - I do it but the only shooting done by me is with my camera.
If I had to hunt for survival I would of course need to hunt animals but the only pleasure I would glean from the animals death is that I would have something to eat that day.
These are my personal feelings if others enjoy killing animals that is their choice but don't expect me to agree with it.

This isn't simply an emotional view it is a “personal” and moral view of what is right and wrong.

And for the record I am fully aware that human beings are omnivores and we have natural hunting instincts but we also have the capacity to feel enough compassion for our prey not to get a thrill from cruelty and hunting animals for sport alone is just that in my view unnecessary cruelty.

Of course I don't think that I can kill without suffering. I just think that suffering should be deliberately, consciously minimized.

I've done some wet fly fishing, but mostly use other types of lures. I'm looking for a fish on the barbecue, and flys aren't the most efficient way of getting that from what I've seen.

I don't think it's anthropomorphizing beyond reason to think that other vertebrates, especially other mammals, can suffer. They have the same basic nervous system as humans have, and mammals have the same basic brain regions as humans (I've dissected more than a few, so I know). They are perfectly capable of feeling pain and terror in the moment, even if they don't imagine what it will be like until it is actually happening - and 'just a few minutes' is an eternity in that sort of situation. I can't help but think that deliberately allowing one's prey to suffer poisons the meat on some level, and deliberately choosing a more violent and painful way to kill even vermin over a less violent and painful way (yes, gut wounds are terrible: so don't shoot something without a clear shot, and don't shoot live animals until you're sure that you can hit what you aim at. Accidents will still happen, but they will be accidents rather than deliberate barbarism) somehow lowers one's humanity. Humans are animals, but we are also different from all other animals; civilization isn't just frippery and words.

On the slightly other hand, I'd rather see rats and mice gone after with terriers than poison, because that quick head shake often results in a nice clean break of the spine. And I got a cat specifically to address the mouse problem in my house (it worked amazingly well: she killed three in three days when she was just a few months old, and the mice cleared out. She almost never catches any anymore, and I don't hear them in the walls).

Your emotional attachment is a result of never having had to kill anything yourself. If you have killed, you tend to lose that compassion you refer to. That compassion is unnatural, and a direct result of you having others to do the killing for you. That wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that this is so widespread in places like the UK that these ridiculous emotional issues result in ludicrously hypocritical law that restrict the rights of individuals going about their own business on their own land.

But I take the point that you are distinguishing between what you think of as cruelty for cruelty's sake, and cruelty as a result of necessity. The problem is that these things are never clear cut, and the fact that people like you, who are very vociferous with regard to "protecting" animals, are the ones who end up forcing government to legislate, is rather arse-backwards in my opinion.

I agree with LKL when it is necessary to kill an animal always try and do it as humanely as possible. Unfortunately there are people out there who actually enjoy seeing animals suffer and some of them call it sport that is what I find disgusting.

Years ago I used to go fishing and I have killed fish for food in my time but I didn't get pleasure from killing them, I was pleased with my success in catching something though, I never caught the fish to enjoy seeing it die I always killed it in the quickest and most humane way possible.

In my time I have seen others play with fish do cruel things to them for what they would call a laugh - I don’t see any animal suffering as funny in any way whatsoever.

Erm I suggest you gather all the facts before you shout your mouth off - see my post above - I have killed fish in the past I fished for over a decade so you telling me that I don't know what I am talking about was a little premature don’t you think

Each person has their own opinion on how that minimisation is achieved, and of course that is also constrained by practicality, economics and time. What you've written makes sense, but as far as hunting foxes with hounds goes, then I really don't have a problem with it. Like I said to Intense, the more you've killed, the less these things worry you. When I first started fishing as a kid I was very carefully to quickly despatch anything I was going to eat. Having killed thousands of things since then, and having been on boats on the sea with people who've fished commercially, then it's not something you really worry about. If you've seen hundreds of fish pulled up from the deep, their swimbladders burst from decompression, and then their gills ripped to bleed them, then what you do with one really seems pretty insignificant. That same reasoning applies to animals, although killing something warm, which you can feel quivering is a little more difficult than a fish...


Killing fish is quite easy compared to something warm and furry, actually. Your problem stems from not having killed a number of warmblooded creatures. There's quite a difference, you know. That's why you're so hung-up over foxes. I call it Basil Brush syndrome.

A lure called a flying condom is very good over here. I've had a few on that in England and Ireland.

You are suffering from a modicum of ignorance where I am concerned aren't you.
We as you put it are not hung up on foxes but by the people who enjoy killing them in a far from humane way eg: torn limb from limb while still alive by dogs.

That is why it was banned here, in the 21'st century it was rightly considered barbaric and totally unnecessary.

No matter what you say it will not affect my conscience or moral fortitude so I wouldn't bother trying.
And how easy it is to kill something has no relevance killing a living thing is still killing.
Your statement "the more you've killed, the less these things worry you" only goes to prove that you are now used to killing “so what” I was talking about people who get pleasure from it was I not?
Plus another thing you didn't know about me I have also worked on a trawler so I have seen the commercial side of fishing as well.

No. It was banned because a bunch of leftist politicians with a chip on their shoulder wanted to take a pop at the "upper classes". When we finally get rid of this shoddy government then Mr Fox better watch out!

Anyway, I sense you're taking this a bit too personally.

Not at all it seemed you were, anyway I don't agree with anyone who supports the pathetic practice of fox hunting they are just the kind of people I've been talking about “killing animals for enjoyment” you have revealed your true colours it seems oh and the political red herring has nothing to do with this argument whatsoever.

In conclusion then you’re right wing person who enjoys killing animals for fun that just about raps this up I think

Ascan its people like you which is why i have problems of people killing animals for sport...you don't care really.

Well, if they're eaten, or killed as vermin, I really don't care. I suppose I lack that idealistic view of cruelty being so black and white as you and intense believe. Anyway, you might do well to examine more closely how your food is produced.


Like I said, you're taking this too personally. So, being a polite kind of chap, I'll refrain from providing my synopsis of your position.

The only time it is ok to kill an animal is for food or protection.

as long as the victim is put to good use other than ivory ornaments, clothing and having said that something like having a tooth on a necklace would be cool

I have only pointed out your apparent position based on what you have said here, and I have been polite to you throughout this exchange. As for taking it too personally - I am passionate about protecting animals from mindless cruelty and if decent people don't defend them against the perpetrators of cruel acts then who will? I believe it is our responsibility to treat other living things with respect; you say it’s not a black and white argument well as far as there are people who enjoy killing animals and there are those who don't that is suposedly the case.

As a fisher, I strongly disagree. If anything, I have more compassion for the fish that I kill now than I did before I started fishing. Before, I never thought of them one way or another, nor had any reason to try to understand them.

Last edited by LKL on 03 Sep 2008, 3:30 am, edited 1 time in total.