Emotions in a Beginning Hunter: Doing the Hard Thing

Luckily I've never had to shoot any ferals (they get dropped off around here) I have around a dozen Barn cats (most of them Maine Coons) who take care of any interlopers. They also keep the Raccoons in check :eek: Just something about a bunch irritated 18 pound cats tends to make other animals back off.
 
peetza, I think that being raised with it simplifies the thought process about necessity and responsibility in dealing with animals. You have real-world examples of reality from which to learn.

That segues into the clean-kill ethos in hunting. It includes protection of domestic animals, whether livestock or pets, which in turn segues into attitudes about self-defense or third-party protection.

Sure, some things are emotionally painful, but it's the learning about controlling one's emotions which derives from being raised with it.

Sure, there have been occasions where I've been saddened; even to tears. So what? Where is it written that life must be easy?
 
Never said life was easy or painless, Art. Your previous post, and a few other posters as well, seem to imply that "being raised with it" removes the potential emotional effects. I don't think that's the case. As I said, I fully understand the necessity and I've "been there and done that", it still bothers me in certain instances.

I do agree that being raised with it "simplifies the thought process" but I think that just makes the difference between being willing to do what has to be done or not being willing.

Other than being able to make the finger pull the trigger, it doesn't make anything easier for me.

Heck, I'm a guy with very "Black and White" views about the differences between people and animals. I don't believe that animals are a living soul, are self-aware or have any understanding of "death" at all. Still, I can be more emotional about killing one than people who practically think Bambi is a documentary.
 
I remember very well being a youngster and having a young Holstein bull calf named Ferdinand. You could buy one for $5 from the dairy farmers. I would drop out of a peach tree on his back and ride him after he got big enough. Well, when it came time to slaughter him it was pretty rough.

So, you learn pretty quick not to make pets, and yes you become hardened to it.
 
Lemme pass on some things. first, a little background. I am a cat person. We have four indoor cats, and I spend half of my day with one, or even all four of them piled on my lap, shoulders, or even head. they sleep with us. I love dogs, too, but I don't want them. Cats are low maintenance pets that are more like a wife than a child. People who love cats tend to love all animals, including dogs.

People who love dogs tend to dislike or even hate cats, because they are so different. People have fun hating cats. Heck, when I talk about my cats, there's always one person that says something like "cats are a waste of fur" or "they're worth $3 a pound in korea town." People love to hate cats.

I bagged maybe a half dozen ferals in my lifetime, before I got attached. It was nothing. Feral pests, I shot possums, skunks, snakes, and snapping turtles during that year, and it didn't make any difference to me.

Since I grew to like cats, we take in strays, give them medical care, feed and care for them, and do more for the neighbor's cats than they do themselves. You really get attached, and the are, all the same. Ferals look the same as housecats. There was a video posted here that showed a cat being shot, and that thing looked exactly like the one that was in my chair with me while I watched it.

I think that most people should compare shooting a feral cat to bagging the neighbor's golden retriever, irish setter, or border collie. Emotionally, at least to me, it's the same.

I could never kill another feral. We have one in my area that has been the bane of my existence for several years now, and I can't make myself pull the trigger on that varmint. In my twenties, that thing wouldn't have survived 5 minutes after our first encounter.

Frankly, you're more of a man than I am. You did what you had to do and you were able to set aside your feelings somewhat. I know how hard that was.
 
"being raised with it" removes the potential emotional effects
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No, it makes it easier to deal with it emotionally. A person gets to understand the real food chain and what it entails. Kinda hurt me when the first steer I raised up as a lad was killed, I didnt eat meat for awhile until one day the smell of the hamburgers cooking made me crazy and now I cant stop eating the stuff :)

I view it now like raising a tomato or a ear of corn, eat it and enjoy :)
 
Color me weird: I really like pet house cats and "good ol' dawgs". :) Always have. I guess what I mostly feel about shooting feral dogs and cats is resentment toward the people who put the poor critters into that situation.

I'll never forget talking to a lady at the animal-shelter, one time. I was griping about strays showing up on my place, drop-offs from town. "Yeah, they probably drive right by here on the way to the country," she said...
 
The local animal shelter is in a patch of retired farmland about 1x1 miles. the city developed all around it in every direction. So, you have an isolated facility at the end of a long dirt road, that charges you to take a dog or cat. Do you guys wonder how many people scream "$50? to dump a useless old cat!?" Lots of them do. then take their cat home. then, as soon as they turn out of the gate and are out of sight, Leroy the cat is ejected from the window at 45 mph. The thing isn't open 24/7, but people will drag their critters out their and dump them. The people who work there have found leashes chained to the gate, crates and boxes full of critters, and seriously, some people have actually thrown boxes and crates over the 8' tall fence.
 
The fee system is imposed by people who don't understand the concept of "disincentive" in fiscal matters. If an excess of cats and dogs is a problem, an incentive-oriented system would minimize the fees--as was the way it was, in yesteryear. At the time of my own conversation, it was "Donations accepted" with taxpayer support of the facility.

The result of that modern ignorance is the number of animals which have been forced to go feral, and are "euthanized" via rifle or shotgun.

As usual, Pogo rules: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
 
adoption fees are another problem, IMO. You can get "free to anyone who asks" kittens and puppies from the newspaper every day. The worst possible way to adopt a pet, IMO. unspayed, unvaccinated, untreated, unwormed, and unknown. But, if you go to the shelters, you're hit with a very large fee, and told to do the right thing.

Do the right thing? are you kidding? I'm a human being. To me, the right thing is punching you in the nose and taking your dog.

I wish that certain members of society would realize that focusing so hard on spay and neuter clinics to eliminate the proliferation of feral animals needs to be applied to humanity, as well. I've got a standing offer of $2k in cash to any of my nephews who neuters himself. Money ain't talking, and I don't know why. One of them has left 3 kids behind with single mothers.
 
I empathize with you. I would worry if you didn't feel that regret or remorse. Perhaps live trapping them may be the better option for you.
 
I empathize with you. I would worry if you didn't feel that regret or remorse.
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Just last night, went out to a butcher shop to pick up a deer a buddy of mine had processed.

While we were there, the owner and his son were gearing up to slaughter/butcher a few steers. Steers were in a holding pin near one of the outside winches used for hoisting carcass up for bleeding/skinning/gutting.

As we came out of the building, the son walked over to the first steer and shot him with a 22short and the steer went down. Very quickly, while steer was still moving a bit, they hoisted him up in the air, cut his throat to bleed him out.

Having been involved in this same process myself many times, butchering most farm animals and much wildlife, there is still that 'feeling' when I take a life of an animal.

Doesn't seem to matter whether the killing is done for the sake of eating or nuisance control, feeling is the same.

Although that 'feeling' is not a pleasant one, I don't think I ever want to lose it. But I realize the task at hand, must be done.
 
I've dispatched a sick cat with a piece of stove wood

He was a weird old thing, couldn't meow so we named him "Squeak." Kind of clumsy - which is really an odd thing, in a cat. I mean, there's not a creature in the animal kingdom that's as James Bond cool as a cat. Except this one. He was an ok critter anyway, liked people well enough.

Squeak was getting on in years, feeling ill, not eating much. He was boney and his fur was dull. Then one day I saw him dragging himself around, only his front legs worked. He'd been on the farm for years, most of it inside by the stove. I didn't see how a trip to the vet was any kindness, and I felt it would be passing the buck. I'm not religious but I asked for the strength to do it right, found it (or was given it) and he never had to leave his home. I hope if I'm in similar straights someday, someone does me the same kindness.

With cats and people, there's a real question who domesticated who. I'd happily take out a rat, but it would be no pleasure to kill another cat. I suppose if I needed to again, I would.
 
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