dakota.potts
New member
I'm 17 and I've never hunted in my life. I've always eaten mass produced meat and once in a blue moon ate a fish I caught.
For the longest time I was against it personally. I didn't care if other people did but I never considered it an option for me. I didn't think it would be something I would be able to do. I still am not sure if it's for me. I have a sort of sensitive empathy for things especially regarding death and I regard animals to be more intelligent and maybe (who knows for sure?) more "aware" than fish.
That said, I've come to the conclusion that any animal I eat is going to be killed one way or another. Feed house conditions are deplorable and I really feel like taking a single animal from a thriving population is more ethical than raising a whole population for feed like that.
I guess the bottom line for me is that I think I could feel much better knowing that I took responsibility for the animal that I killed.
I would really like to use every part of the animal. My girlfriend's a hobby taxidermist but rarely gets supplies (she's a vegetarian and has fairly strict standards about where she gets them) so I have no compunctions about the skins and bones going to good use. I've had awesome venison sausage that I assume used all the meat of the animal (assuming this isn't just a cliche about sausage) but I honestly don't know the first thing about dressing or cleaning or even where I would go to get the meat taken care of. I don't know what would happen with things like the brain, eyes etc. that you wouldn't normally think of. Is there a way that's typically used for these?
I'm in Florida so I think I'd be looking at deer, hogs, and maybe something like turkey (wild turkey run around in peoples' yards here) but again I don't know.
It would really be a long journey before I even took my first step but it's something I've been debating for about 2 months. I haven't decided if I will or won't pursue it but I thought I could get some good insight here. I don't have any resources. Nobody in my family hunts and several members of my family might go so far as to think it animal cruelty (we're all animal lovers by nature but that means different things to everybody). I think this would restrict me to doing it when I turned 18. I do have a friend who hunts hog every once in a while, but the funny thing is I don't typically like pork and I would not want to kill an animal and end up not using the meat because I won't eat it. Does the meat taste different than something store bought? And another related question, do others have similar feelings toward animals and have any experience taking their first animal and the mental state associated with it?
I'm sure these are a lot of stupid questions for people who are familiar but this is a whole new realm for me and whether I decide to ultimately do it or not I want to be able to know I made an informed decision
For the longest time I was against it personally. I didn't care if other people did but I never considered it an option for me. I didn't think it would be something I would be able to do. I still am not sure if it's for me. I have a sort of sensitive empathy for things especially regarding death and I regard animals to be more intelligent and maybe (who knows for sure?) more "aware" than fish.
That said, I've come to the conclusion that any animal I eat is going to be killed one way or another. Feed house conditions are deplorable and I really feel like taking a single animal from a thriving population is more ethical than raising a whole population for feed like that.
I guess the bottom line for me is that I think I could feel much better knowing that I took responsibility for the animal that I killed.
I would really like to use every part of the animal. My girlfriend's a hobby taxidermist but rarely gets supplies (she's a vegetarian and has fairly strict standards about where she gets them) so I have no compunctions about the skins and bones going to good use. I've had awesome venison sausage that I assume used all the meat of the animal (assuming this isn't just a cliche about sausage) but I honestly don't know the first thing about dressing or cleaning or even where I would go to get the meat taken care of. I don't know what would happen with things like the brain, eyes etc. that you wouldn't normally think of. Is there a way that's typically used for these?
I'm in Florida so I think I'd be looking at deer, hogs, and maybe something like turkey (wild turkey run around in peoples' yards here) but again I don't know.
It would really be a long journey before I even took my first step but it's something I've been debating for about 2 months. I haven't decided if I will or won't pursue it but I thought I could get some good insight here. I don't have any resources. Nobody in my family hunts and several members of my family might go so far as to think it animal cruelty (we're all animal lovers by nature but that means different things to everybody). I think this would restrict me to doing it when I turned 18. I do have a friend who hunts hog every once in a while, but the funny thing is I don't typically like pork and I would not want to kill an animal and end up not using the meat because I won't eat it. Does the meat taste different than something store bought? And another related question, do others have similar feelings toward animals and have any experience taking their first animal and the mental state associated with it?
I'm sure these are a lot of stupid questions for people who are familiar but this is a whole new realm for me and whether I decide to ultimately do it or not I want to be able to know I made an informed decision