Do you like killing?

J

Jack Straw

New member
The other night Ted Nugent was on Sean Hannity's radio show promoting his new book (Kill It and Grill It -- a cookbook). Sean's producer, some hypocrite named Flipper, is against hunting and would support laws outlawing the consumption of meat even though she eats free-range chicken. Her discussion with Ted brought her around to this conclusion: "You just like to kill things". I've heard it and you most likely have too. Ted responded that if he just liked to kill he would open a chicken farm so he could kill animals daily and by the thousands. To me his answer was logical and appropriate, but somewhat incomplete. So I began thinking about it (again)...

Do I like killing? My initial response is "No". But the more I think about it that answer comes from a knee-jerk reaction; I'm supposed to say I don't like killing animals...what kind of person likes to kill animals??? Deep down I feel differently. I don't kill for the sake of killing, if I did I would open a chicken farm and...well, what Ted said. But killing, in the context of hunting, is something that I do enjoy. Honesty compels me to say so. Does that make me some sort of messed-up, sick, mentally ill or despicable person? I certainly don't think so. I think most people are basically good and will shy away from that which they see as bad or, even worse, that which they see as evil. I have never had the slightest thought that when I kill an animal I am doing something bad, much less evil. And contrary to what my wife will say, I don't view myself as mentally ill in any sort of way.

So how do I respond the next time I hear that question? Well to the person asking me over their plate of (place the name of your favorite dead animal on a plate here), it will be easy to point out the reasonable and logical points even though it may not be enough to cut through the emotional smog clouding their thought processes. That is, they pay someone to kill animals where as I am willing to do it for myself. Their dead animal has been killed just as dead as mine. Neither animal will care what the motive was: "I paid someone to kill you because you are tasty and I was hungry" or "I enjoyed a great morning in the woods which included killing you". Dead is dead.

To the hardcore vegan anti-hunter this question is meant as an attack on my character, not as an honest question. My response to them is: "Will you hurry up and pass the mint jelly? My lamb is getting cold."

To myself I say, I like hunting and sometimes that involves killing. I enjoy the whole package that is hunting and I don't feel bad about it. I like that it is a part of me and the fulfillment and satisfaction that it adds to my life.

What are your thoughts? Do you like to kill?

Okay, spring cleaning is done. The cobwebs have been swept away. I hope it doesn't rain all weekend; I would love to catch a few crappie to go in the frying pan.

Jack

PS. Didn't Jeff Cooper have something to say about being honest by saying that he (ie...hunters) like to kill?
 
i have often pondered this myself. i have to admit that yes, i like to kill. i think that is founded mostly in the fact that if i ever HAD to kill, its nice knowing that i could. im talking about animals mainly but of course killing animals repeatedly would make you less likely to hesitate on the trigger in a self-defense situation. maybe. anyways.... im sure that a lot of people just enjoy the rush of power you get when you kill an animal. that concept seems pretty simple.

i shot a rabbit in my garden today. i was justified in doing this because they eat my garden up. if i didnt kill rabbits i wouldnt have a garden. but i must admit, right before i pulled the trigger on my henry, i thought to myself "you picked the wrong garden pal" LOL funny or sick, i dont know which.
 
Good question.
After I read it, the answer was easy... yes I like killing! Not just for the sake of it. I enjoy every aspect of hunting, being in the mountains, the sloitude, matching my skills and wits against those creatures I'm after, but my favorite part is the moment when the weapon fires and I see the reaction the animal has when it 's hit. If that makes me whacky, then so be it !
God help me, I do love it so!
 
For me, "like" is not the correct word. "Satisfaction" is probably much better. It's a mix of things: The culmination of a successful hunt/stalk, tied to the knowledge that I've succeeded in meeting a challenge. There is also the knowledge that there will be venison on the table. There is also an awareness that I am connected to thousands of generations of hunters before me.

That form of varmint hunting wherein one safeguards a flock, a herd or a garden is more like ordinary pest control, except that it's coyotes instead of roaches or fleas.

Calling up coyotes and shooting them in the absence of guarding flocks is a moral judgement. I'm saying that I had rather have more quail and rabbits than if the coyotes' numbers were not controlled.

There is no moral aspect to food, absent cannibalism. The vegan is no more "pure" than the hunter. God/biology/whatever made us omnivores and predators, by physique and in our psychology.

For a vegan to imply a moral value to food is to say that animate life has a higher moral value than inanimate life. For even a trivial amount of consistency in the argument, then, a rat is superior to a Sequoia.

For a human omnivore to harumph against hunting is to not realize that hunters and gardeners are the only do-it-yourselfers in the matter of acquiring food. Any other method, any other time, we're merely hiring somebody else to do our scut work for us.

Seems simple enough, actually...

:), Art
 
For a vegan to imply a moral value to food is to say that animate life has a higher moral value than inanimate life. For even a trivial amount of consistency in the argument, then, a rat is superior to a Sequoia.
Click to expand...
That is a great quote Art. If you don't mind, I think I'll use it in my next debate with a vegan. :D
 
I think the biggest thing the anti's miss is that everything dies. Several of the folks I've spoken with seem to have the idea that critters check into an old critters home and check out peacefully.

Do I enjoy killing? As Art says, it's not the culmination of the hunt, rather it's a critical piece of the mosaic. I do get satisfaction with a clean kill.

God put our eyes on the front of our heads for a reason.

Giz
 
Art's got this one pegged - killing an animal while hunting implies that the hunt was a success. No killing means the hunt was a failure. We all like to be successful, but few people enjoy failing.

On the other hand the old saying - The best day at work isn't as good as the worst day hunting (or however you heard it last) is still quite true...
 
Yorec, your comment "No killing means the hunt was a failure." is true, but only in a rather narrow context. If one is hunting specifically for food, it is indeed true. No doubt about it.

Consider, however, the larger context of just being out and about and away from a city. Watching various critters. All that "fresh air and sunshine" part of the deal.

Add in campfire cooking and coffee and the bull sessions around the firepit.

And the only paperwork comes in a roll.

:D, Art

Dad, it's open season on anything useful I ever come up with...
 
The responsibility of hunting is the humane thing to do for game animals. PETA whackos will never describe the cruelty of watching a doe and their fawn starving to death. That is what exactly would happen if animals were not harvested. The decimation of land, crops and disease keep me in check with the importance of eradicating vermin. Except for vermin, I will never shoot it, if I'm not going to eat it. That is the responsible and moral thing to do.

Don't forget what the acronym of PETA is:

Preparing and Eating Tasty Animals
 
All true Art -

There is so much more to a hunt than just whether it was a success or not! That was what I was trying to imply with the "best day at work" thing. Any time you can get up and the hills and stock a deer whether the deer goes on to do his thing or wether I'll be eating venison next winter really isn't the defining factor in the value of the hunt. It is the hunt itself that is most valuable, not the harvest.

Guess that's why I kind of feel cheated whenever I fill my tag on opening morning...
 
What most non-hunters fail to realize is that very very few animals in the wild die a natural death, they die of starvation, disease and predation or become road-kill, most meet their end in violent ways.
Even if an animal does live to a ripe old age that means it's gotten old & slow its eyesight and hearing are impaired and it is a prime target for predators.
I don't believe that animals feel pain in the same way we do. Have you ever seen a cat or dog that's just been neutered? They are up and around licking their wounds and going about their business. If they were to lay around feeling sorry for themselves like you and I would no doubt do in the same situation they would be on the dinner menu for some predator.
As far as enjoying the kill, It doesn't bother me but my goal on a hunt is not to kill everything in sight just for the thrill of killing. If For instance if I'm hunting turkey watching the squirrels, racoons and other critters going about their daily routines is a bonus.
 
Couple of the best-ever hunts I did didn't entail the killing of the animal (all fair-chase in-the-woods deals ... ). I touched a doe deer once (she did freak!) & caught a desert/Gambel's quail by hand (& then let it go fly away). Too rich! & can easily say that these were some of my best "hunts" 'cause of the experience (skill-set, et al) of it all. "Critical piece of the mosaic" indeed. (I like that)

But, I do too hunt for food, something the Polaroid pix at 15' just doesn't account for. I like to eat wild game, I like every aspect of the hunt - the solitude, the barest of breezes that can make every difference, every sight, smell, nuance & the final shot.

Machette in hand & hacking my way through a pen of "free-range" chickens don't appeal to me in the least. Guess I'm a compassionate killer. ;)
 
Nice touch, Ed, & something I meant to mention.

When harvesting a veggie, don't you drag it out screaming from its roots - killing it & as some "scientific experiments" have shown that plants respond to music/feel pain, et al?

How could killing a more defensiveless plant be better than killing anything that has a network to elude?
 
Put it this way, I don't mind killing my own dinner at all! ;)

Still, several times I have dry fired at a game animal when it was in a WAY lousy place to get the dead one out of! ;)
 
Pretty much all I get to do is varmint control around the farm. But I'd have to say that no I don't "like" killing, it just doesn't bother me. I do understand the value of life, but I feel justified for shooting what I do, and I enjoy practicing the skills involved in getting the kill. Not just anybody can get that perfect instant drop head shot or hit a flying bird, and not just anybody has the skills/ senses to know when something's there and how to trap it or stalk it. It makes you feel good when you pull it off.
I would feel the same way if I had time to go hunting for food.
 
I enjoy very much ,in fact live for, the stalk and the completion with a great shot and a clean kill. there is very little in this world that makes my heart jump like spotting that animal you've been looking for in every concievable nook and cranny for the last 7 days. And then actually begining the last and most ceribrial portion of your hunt.
As I grow older the actual killing part has become less important than the knowledge and ability to find that critter and view him. There have been many times that I've let dozens of Elk go for various reasons. Not big enough, not enough day light left to far and steep for a safe recovery ETC ETC. But all this waiting for the right moment and the right critter just makes success AKA the kill all that much more sweet.
I take my girls put on "hunts" all the time and our measure of success is spotting game and then seeing how quite we can be and how close we can get.
I guess in a nut shell I love every aspect of the hunt. the comraderie the challenge of the logistics the country side good horses a baying hound being outdoors with your most loved rifle in your hands, having the confidence in your survival skills and woodsmanship to go anywhere and make it out again. Sharing all this with my family and knowing that when the moment of truth comes you will be able to squeeze that trigger and put your bullet right where you need to and conclude yet another great season with meat on the table. With all that being said some of my most memoriable hunts were failures as far as the killing part went but the effort and the experience and the people and the country were so great that it didn't really matter if we made a kill or not.

Hunting is not a sport or a job it's a life style to me. I do love it so!
 
Blood makes the Grass Grow!

The only time I really regreted killing something was at age 14, when I blasted a robin to heck and back in my backyard with a BB Gun. That feeling left me knowing that I would never be able to go on a safari to Africa, killing something just to say I had done it.

The first time I shot an Elk, I was a bit sad afterwords. But, as I worked my way through a freezer full of steaks, burgers and jerky, I felt better.

The first time I went hunting and came back empty handed, I felt even lousier. Yes, it was a blast being in the woods, and not on a submarine, but, I didn't feel successfull.

Strangly, when I went fishing a couple of days ago, I didn't feel sad at all. Is it because an Elk is cuter than a halibut or a cod?

As for those spiders in my house...yes, I enjoy flushing them down the toilet. Bwahhh Ha Haaa!
 
I don't like killing. I just don't mind it when it's for what I consider a good reason.

As fot the PETAphiles, by and large they're citiots who haven't taken a step off pavement in years. Look in the next car you see with a "Meat is Murder" bumper sticker.Chances are about 50-50 the upholstery is leather.

All life above the single cell stage feeds on other life. Death is the part of the process whereby life moves from one organism to another.

A vegan who lives naked in a cave other critters do not use, eating only stuff that falls off trees that other critters do not want, may have some validity in decrying our consumptive lifestyle. None of the strident fanatics I run across qualify.By and large they're just cultists who have a power addiction, compulsing them to make everyone do what they do.

Ever note that no vegans get harassed in the grocery store for skipping the meat section?

Ever note that no little old ladies in polyester costs get paint thrown on them by radical trappers?

Ever note that no vegans get dragged into the woods by militant hunters and MADE to kill something?

Ever note that no vegetarian restaurants get firebombed by the more fanatical members of the American Beef Producers?

And did they ever note the teeth in their heads, the big ones on the front corners of their jaws with the huge roots?

They're made for eating meat....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top