Validation?
I just wanted to say that this forum has been tolerance of my soap box moments, and I appreciate it. It kindof feels good and cathartic to vent sometimes, even if it makes no sense. I wanted to say here that I agree with what a lot of the post said. I am glad the OP is not reading anymore, he would have a ball editing my stuff. Coherent thought? Not from this guy.
http://wgfd.wyo.gov/web2011/hunting-1001861.aspx
Here are Wyomings Harvest surveys. Elk success overall about 46% with almost 18 days per harvest, cake walk. I am not sure if my math is right, but if you were to go hunting with your buddy for nine days, one of you would get an elk and one wouldn't. If things held out for the average. Mr. Eatman pointed out that hunters have various degrees of skill, too. Nine days of elk hunting is pretty rough on anyone. Not exactly like shooting your neighbor's dog. To say that the animals don't know that two forward facing eyes, walking on two legs, with a boom stick is trouble for them is disrespecting the animal too much. They are smart enough to know that when they start hearing the big booms, they need to be more cautious around people. Sure in the spring they are all lovey dovey and cute hanging out in your yard (another problem area someone else pointed out), but once one in the group goes down, they know what is going down. I have had elk stick around after one of their herd goes down, but I thought of it more as group compassion and concern, not knowing what to do to help instead of being stupid. They are far from stupid, and the predators that hunt them are even smarter. They have to be.
I love venison. It is tasty. I am not an expert, but Inuit's diet was primarily meat for centuries wasn't it? Buck made some good points about gorillas and chimpanzee's diets. We are omnivores. We have the teeth for it and the digestive system. Humans have been eating meat since we were all hunter/gatherers. I am pretty sure it is natural to do so. Buck460 made some good comments about the various homo's (that is not the correct term, is it?) learning to cook meat and veggies, and how good the protein is for us, and the Northern climates requiring more calories, and protiens. Along those lines, Wyoming's climate is not very well suited to growing veggies and fruits (well most of the state). There are places where they are lucky to get three frost free months. We are good at growing grass, so grazers like sheep, beef, deer, elk, antelope, these are our natural resources.
There was another good point about the impact of farms. Pesticides, dams, lack of diversity in crops, loss of habitat, etc. Transportation, roadways, infrastructure, fuel, electricity to microwave your vegan veggies. There is a lot of impact there, too. Not sure where I am going with this, but farming implements are dangerous to the humans using them, even more so to the field mice and whatever caught up the fields.
Cruelty to animals was brought up. Hunting is conservation. Without the management that goes on, the animals would starve, succumb to disease like chronic wasting disease, roadkill, etc. That is cruel. Seeing deer after a after a hard winter is pretty sad. Without hunting they would overpopulate until they starved and the would cycle that way. That is pretty cruel. I think it was Buck again who brought up the lack of other predators. People are part of the ecosystem, part of nature, and we are learning (sometimes by disaster) how to be better stewards of the land.
There are absolutely bad eggs in the bunch. That is unfortunate, but unavoidable with any group. Most of the posts on here were from responsible hunters who enjoy it. I enjoy hunting and try to be responsible. I have left some meat in the field. I was with a successful hunter in Grizzly country, and Mr. Griz got there before we got it all out. No contest. Sweet little guy probably wanted to give us a big ole bear hug. Not only is it illegal to waste game meat, but by the time all the costs are figured in, you need every pound to break even.
I usually hunt for the meat, but a population needs far fewer males than females to be healthy. The TV shows can be a little much, give some fuel to the anti-hunter fire. They are geared towards getting the trophy it seems. They try to show being responsible and everything, but I can see how they could be fuel for the fire, so don't watch them. I had better edit myself and not say my thoughts there. I am learning, slowly.
Trophy hunts bring in a lot of money to my state. The hunts should be fair chase, though. The farms where they grow huge whitetails and then bring in the film crews, that is more along the shooting not hunting lines. The feral pigs, now that is crazy. Trophy pigs are sometimes domestic ones that are fed till they are huge then let loose. Like a four legged Three Mile Island running around. I thought feral cats were bad.
One last thing ... it was brought up about how having a chance to kill an animal and killing one were very different. I agree. I have hunted all my life, am proud of my family's hunting heritage, hunt for meat to feed my family, and still it is hard to make the kill. It is really no small thing. So basically I don't care if he was baiting us all into a fight (I have done it) some good points were brought up. I do love a good fight, too. I really need a hobby for the winter. Sorry about that. Crap apologizing while you are doing it is arrogant, too. I will work on that. See I am learning, just slowly.