Thread: Explaining Hunting to Vegetarians and Animal People

Originally Posted by stumpy

there is this as well tho.... always an option

I still look at it though haha. Normally stalking but sometimes talking to mates

Some hunters may live in town. Yet I believe it's spending time in the country that gives you an understanding of a pest and how to deal with it. Those that have never left town won't understand. They just see the cute rabbit not the hole that it dug which broke your $3000 bulls leg, or the vegetables it ate you spent so long caring for.
Might as well beat your head against a brick wall instead of trying to explain it.

Ok thanks for all the comments.

Just posted up some photos so we will see how it all goes.

Right after someone posting about that dentist in Zimbabwe, ironic haha.

I am not shy about discussing it and don't feel the need to apoligise. Also I think explaning it by saying that it's a source of food is a bit of a cop out as not every animal thats shot is eaten. Killing for pest control, thropies and sport is also valid.

If someone ask me why I would kill species X I like to look at them with a puzzled look and say "well they are not going to kill themselves are they?".

The basic truth of the matter is that as a species we are slowly killing all the other life on the planet. If you are a vagatarian then you may not be directly responsable for causing a animal to die but you are directly responsable for encroaching on their habitat which is worse in the long run.

So when you animal rights friends ask you why you feel the need to kill things ask them what used to live on the 1/4 acre section that they live on. Most people would say grass and sheep and before that bush and birds. By occuping that space (and the rest) they are reducing the amount of land that mother nature can occupy on this planet. Then ask them what they have done to directly benifit the birds and animals that live in this country and then talk about the duck ponds you have created and the preaditor control that you do.

Whats worse, shooting a duck in a healthy\increasing population or destroying the habitat that ducks use in order to carve out a lifestyle block to live on? With the former the species still propsers, with the later the species declines.

A particularly wierd thing about NZ is that most greenies\animal rights\vegetarians have no empithy for introduced species. If they did there would be a lot more protests against private cat ownership and 1080.

As others have said if they are still friends then they are friends. Respect is a two way thing, they need to respect what you do just as much as you need to respect their choices.

On a side note, I tend to open my mouth a little and point to my sharp teeth and remind them that they are canines and incisors made for eating meet. This to me means I'm made for eating meet and that if they don't then that is their abnormal choice.

Originally Posted by Gibo

Fuck faceplant.

+ 1 Fixed it @Gibo .. Mates missus said the other day how come you have only 20 or so friends on facebook. I have like 2000 she said.
I replied ummm mine are actually friends not imaginary friends you know like real people you ummm actually know..
. I know them and face plant is simply a vehicle to stay in touch and talk as most are not in the same place ... yep she went quiet ...

Oh, and I also point out that I have two forward facing eyes which means I have binocular vision that nature has developed for hunting. Vegetarian animals generally have an eye on each side of the head. If they push their view the question is not so much why I hunt (when I can) but why they don't.

I don't have any vegetarian friends

Originally Posted by enp

I'm 28 and just got into hunting over the last year or so.

I'm on Facebook and when I go hunting (or do anything out of the ordinary) I like to share photos on it to show family and friends what I'm up to. However, I have a few friends who are vegetarian and quite against hurting animals, etc.

I'm pretty good friends with them and would like to continue to be.

However, I'd also like to put up the pics to share with family and friends of pig and deer hunting that I've done as I like sharing the stories and I feel hunting is going to become something I do more often.

On one hand, I've always lived that if people can't accept who I am (i.e. enjoy hunting and fishing) then I couldn't care less if we remain friends or not. However, since I've only recently got into hunting and these two people in particular have been friends for almost a decade, I'm undecided what approach to take.

Sure others have gone through something similar? Thoughts?

Honestly mate, I went though a stage of having Facebook then getting pissed off with the absolute dribble that gets posted so deleting it etc
Then I realised that I should only have friends on there that I want to go to the pub with.
If they don't have a current Fishing or firearms licence I'm not friends with them.

Originally Posted by JoshC

Don't worry about it man. They obviously know you eat meat, explain why you like to harvest your own vs. buying from a supermarket. Explain that more often than not the odds are in the animals favour. And explain you respect animals and make sure your kills are clean and instant.
Offer to take them on an adventure, that's what I do. There's a shit load more to hunting that shooting an animal, and 99% of anti hunters don't realise that. It might not change their mind, but it will help them understand why you want to do it. If they still refuse to understand, tell them to choke on a cabbage.

Very well said!

Vegetarian is an old word for the village idiot who couldn't hunt/trap or light a fire isn't it?

Originally Posted by enp

Ok thanks for all the comments.

Just posted up some photos so we will see how it all goes.

Right after someone posting about that dentist in Zimbabwe, ironic haha.

That tw@t kills on canned hunts for trophies.......He's not a 'real' Hunter. ......He's a glory hunter........

They aren't all bad. Have a very good friend (girl) who's been a vege snaffler since the age of seven. This was my birthday present from her. What a champ!

Heaps in the suburb I live in, I love winding them up.

Originally Posted by Scouser

That tw@t kills on canned hunts for trophies.......He's not a 'real' Hunter. ......He's a glory hunter........

That's not actually true. He paid for a guided lion hunt on a not fenced in private land. The guides decided the best way to get a lion in front of this bloke was to kill an antelope, drive it into the national park where the lions were and drag it back to the private land so that the lion followed it out. While not ideal and not what he paid for but it's not a canned hunt by my definition and it's also not a lot different to a farmer putting salt licks out on the bush edge to attract deer or me feeding my duck pond to attract ducks.

The meat hunters don't like the trophy hunters cos they only take the antlers.
The trophy hunters don't like the meat hunters cos they shoot stags in velvet.
The deer hunters think duck hunters are lazy boozy bastards who just like shooting things.
The duck hunters think the deer hunters don't have the patience to wait for a duck and the skill to call it in.
Nobody likes the waro guys.

And the idiots on facebook don't understand how there can be any difference between any of the above groups. Can't we all just get along?