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| quote: | Originally posted by Floorfiller
what's the point of hunting? what are you proving? |
Does everything that you do have to be to prove something? I'm assuming that you feel that hunters are trying to prove their superiority to their prey, which isn't the case.
I used to hunt all the time because it was something that I enjoyed doing. I grew up in a rural area, so as I said before, it's common to be a hunter. I liked getting out into the woods and away from everything else that was going on in my life. I guess it's a way to retreat from society for a bit. When you're hunting, you pay a great amount of attention to detail, trying to notice for sign, watching for movement, etc., which can give a greater appreciation for the outdoors. It was also a good bonding experience between my father and I as it was one of the few times when I was a teenager that we weren't fighting over something.
People who grew up in cities for the most part don't get it because they pick up everything from the store. They also don't have to deal with the negative effects that many game animals have on humans (see my earlier comment about crop damage, look at the costs of deer-automobile accidents, both in dollars and human life, etc.). While some people have this idea that we should just let nature do as it pleases, I'd contend that hunting is more humane. A well placed bullet is a lot quicker than starving because of overpopulation (because they're competing with other animals as well as humans for food).
As for the food comment that followed, my family eats everything that we kill when we hunt. From a health standpoint, most of the things that you kill yourself are going to be quite a bit healthier than farm animals. As they aren't confined, the meat tends to be leaner (compare the fat content of venison to that of beef). They're also free of the chemicals and supplements that farmers put in their feed for cattle (or even farm-raised game animals like deer and turkeys). If you take a wild turkey and compare to a domestic, you'll notice that the meat is completely different. Wild turkeys have no white meat, it's all dark, which is more moisture rich.
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