Do you like killing?

maze51 & SK: right on!

labgrade: excellent point, and very true. Well regarded research has shown that plants do exude all sorts of chemicals upon "harvest" to "warn" the others.

Lots of well meaning people have never taken the time to understand ther basic facts of life as they relate to hunting. Everything dies eventually, but because people don't identify animals, like deer, as individuals, they fail to realize that the deer they see year after year aren't the same animals. The one they saw last year probably died of starvation, or was hit by a vehicle. In either case it probably wasn't a "nice" way to go. Contrasted with a quick and clean death by a well placed shot, either by firearm or by bow, I know which one I would choose.
As for the killing, I have to admit that I like it least of any part of hunting, but I still do it. Just killing for the sake of killing, with no purpose, is another issue, and one that each person must reconcile with their own moral center.
--Mike From Iowa
 
Some excellent comments in this topic area - - -

I almost have to write, "Yeah! What Art said." Maybe this is partly becaused I've been out in the wilds with him, and done a lot of visiting with him, and in my mind, can HEAR him saying that stuff, without the slightest embarassment. The fact that he echoes and expands upon my own thoughts on the subject don't necessarily make him a top-shelf philosopher, but it doesn't hurt his qualifications . . . . ;)

When Elder Son and I returned from our first elk hunt in Colorado, a co-worker asked me, "Did you have a successful hunt?" I replied something like, "We really did. Saw some beautiful country, met some very nice folks, and had long discussions with my son. We didn't fire a shot, but it was a very good hunt." Certainly I would have preferred to have filled two freezers with elk meat, but I wouldn't take for the trip.

Jack Straw, perhaps LTC Cooper did write something of the sort. He is a pretty prolific writer. My personal favorite of his writings about hunting is his quote of Ortega y Gasset, from On Hunting: "One does not hunt in order to kill. One kills in order to have hunted."

Great discussion, all.

Best,
Johnny Guest
 
What’s been said pretty much nailed it for me but I’ll try to add one thing.
Although I don’t "enjoy killing", I do enjoy a job well done. Hunting is a very natural and right thing for me and since killing is part of hunting, I consider it a duty to try to make the animals death as quick and humane as possible.
People have already mentioned the opportunities to kill that most hunters have passed up. Many hunters have also had it go the other way, the one that was hit too far back, or the trail was lost on a fatal hit. Although the animal was killed in these examples, the folks that I know not only don’t enjoy them, the suffering or waste sickens them. That’s not the sign of someone who "just enjoys killing".
 
griz,

Good point about the agony that follows a misplaced shot not being a sign of someone who "just likes killing"

Actually good points from everyone. And I appreciate your indulgence to my venting. Sometimes my marbles get to rattling around too much and I have to pour them out somewhere before I get a little crazy. Hmmm... maybe this is what my wife is talking about.:D

Jack
 
Seems to me that the gist, the consensus, of all the posts here--and of the vast majority of all hunters I have known--is that we don't enjoy killing just for the sake of seeing something die.

There is a purpose to any killing we do, whether it's food plus the mix of all the other factors previously mentioned or predator control or some equivalent.

I believe it's fair to say that to us, we're part of nature--not separate from it. I believe we have a feeling for tradition, a connection with not just recent generations of ancestors but those of the far-distant past.

There's an old joke, "I feel sorry for folks who don't drink or smoke, 'cause when they get up in the morning, that's as good as they're gonna feel, all day." I have the same attitude about those who haven't hunted or who are against hunting. They'll never have a handle on life itsownself, 'cause they don't really understand death.

Art
 
Excellent discussion. I'm still mulling over Art's last comment. I think he's on to something.

Only thing I'll add, which I didn't hear anyone else mention, and which I sometimes use when discussing with non-hunters, is this.

If the Fish & Game commission is properly managing hunting in an area, the only animals which are killed are animals which would likely not survive the next winter anyway. Hunters (with the exception of the lunatic fringe) WANT managed herds with more, and healthier animals. When a population gets larger than the ecosystem will support, starvation and unhealthy animals are the result.
 
No, I really don't like killing. But, it is necessary, therefore, I do it. With a lot of thought and thankfulness, afterward.

It's my responsibility to provide for my family; so I weed my garden (which I also don't like to do) for the vegetables, and kill animals for their meat. The more I garden and hunt, the more "connected" I feel to my responsibilities.

As time goes by though, I find myself becoming more and more concerned about the ways that I grow and kill. In order to truely test my own skills, wits, and stengths against those of my game, I have slowly shifted from modern weapons, to traditional muzzleloaders, and now to a longbow. I'm also using less chemical fertilizers in the garden.
 
[confession]

I've been many things.
Around the end of my vegetarian days (inspired almost wholly by a disgust for the commercial meat industry and before my discovery of "free-range" farmers) I witnessed my true friend and many-decade organic gardener slaughtering hundereds of potato bugs between his fingers - within about a two-hour period.
"hmm," I says.
[The moment was heightened by the fact that I was quite stoned at the time, but that's for another thread.]

To live is to eat. To eat is to kill.
Even that vegan in the cave eating fruit off the ground - don't the bugs deserve their dinner?!
You're starving them to death, you monster!

I still take creepy crawlies outside, less I'm fixing to eat them.
Funny, huh?
 
Each individual must work out for himself just what is his relationship to the world around him. Doesn't matter if it's bug, beast or fellow man. I guess the main point is that one actually do some thinking, rather than going through life via knee-jerk reflexes and following the rest of the herd. It takes no skill nor talent to be a lemming.

I'll reflexively kill a scorpion in the house, but there's a purpose there which is born of experience. The same scorpion out in the pasture get ignored. But I'll carefully carry a ladybug or praying mantis back outside the house...

:), Art
 
It's not that I like killing animals, it's just that I like to hunt them, shoot them and then eat them, and you can't do that without killing them. :D
 
If I am gonna eat it, pulling the trigger never crosses my mind. It's automatic. The same holds true for defending myself or my family. I never hunt anything I don't intend to eat.

If I hit something by accident with my vehicle or see an animal killed by another motorist, I am usually driven to tears
 
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