(not sure if this is the right section)

since i started working as a ranger i have seen a lot of people that hunt for food which is normally why i hunt but there are a lot of people that i've seen that only hunt for sport and most of them just kill an animal and leave their.

so i was wondering what are peoples opinions about the two

Honestly, I don't get the concept of hunting purely for sport. For example, if someone goes deer hunting, most of the time you are in a cramped shelter, motionless, silent, probably cold and wet. For hours. That does not sound like a fun time to me. So when the deer finally show up, and you successfully bring one down, you better believe there's gonna be venison for dinner. At least that way you have something to show for all your trouble. Plus, hunting purely for sport seems wasteful to me.

Hunting for food is okay. Whenever someone around here (I live on a dairy) gets a kill, they normally share it with everybody.

Hunting for sport is wrong. You should not kill an animal just for fun, so you can have its head on your wall.


My uncle used to hunt deer (for food), but he also had two (buck) heads mounted. My aunt and I put sunglasses and hats on them.

just got back from my patrol area after tracking down a couple of poachers who were only there to kill animals then get photos not even planning on taking any meat*shakes fist* they give humans a bad name

Wait... do you hunt poachers with your sword? Do you live in Chucknorristan?

It's different if people who fish lets the fish out again after fishing it and the fish go on to live after. You can't just hunt and kill, and then just leave the dead animal out there. I don't wanna stumble on dead animals without head in the forest when I have my family with me for a sunday picnic. You kill an animal, you take it home.

I wouldn't even call it sport. You hunt and litter.

@Mistermook,no i don't use my sword my boss wont let me

Hunting unnerves me, but I'm fine with people doing it for food. I come from a family of hunters, but I just can't stand watching a deer thrashing around on the floor struggling for life. I'm much too much of a wuss to do it myself. I still remember when I was a little kid watching my grandpa hang a deer carcass from the garage ceiling with a coat hanger and peel off it's skin like a banana. D%

I understand hunting for food, but not for sport. It's alright as long as you plan to eat the animal, but killing an animal just for fun and leaving it dead in the woods is just wrong.

Fishing for fun and throwing the fish back out in the water is equally wrong. You hurt the fish, even if you think you're so nice by letting it go. If you don't plan to eat the fish, leave the fishes alone.

I don't understand either. I totally don't get hunting for sport. Killing something and watching it die is supposed to be fun? Yeah, if you're sick!
Don't get me wrong, I'd never trample on anyone's right to hunt. I just don't get it, but I won't impose my views on anyone.

Myself, I'll get my dead animals where any civilized human being would - the grocery store.

Well, someone has to kill it, whether they hunt it or farm it.

That's all fine and good, as long as I don't have to do the killing. Only time I kill a living critter is if it violates the sanctity of my home. Most of those critters are usually gnats and an occasional fly. I usually capture and release spiders outside.

That's a shame. The picture of a wildman running through the woods hunting deer hunters waving a sword is priceless.

I support hunting for food and I'll even support hunting for sport as long as the species being hunted for sport is invasive or has reached a certain point in their population where it's required. Some species have to be gotten rid of one way or another, and sport hunting seems as legit as any other way to do that whether I agree with the mental sentiment going on inside those guys heads or not. I'm a practical sort of guy.

Hunting should never be a sport and done for relaxation or entertainment. What kind of person kills for the fun of it?

Me too. I have only killed mice, gnats, and other bugs.

Anything tiny with more than 4 legs (insects, spiders, flying bugs) that violates my personal space is not safe. Other than that I don't kill animals. If they stay away from me, I let them live. Unless they show up in the grocery store. I'm not a vegan/vegetarian, nor have I any plans to become one. I like vegetables, but meat and fish taste so much better. I just let others do the hunting and fishing for me. The only time I've ever tried fishing I didn't catch anything anyway, and I would never feel right with hunting (unless I was stranded and had nothing to eat). Hunting for sport is gruesome. If you hunt wild animals, you better eat them as well.

i just spent most of the night tracking another wounded deer because of some jack-ass who A) cant shoot straight and B) doesn't have the decency to put the poor animal out of it's suffering.

I personally don't eat meat because I simply can't stand the idea of killing animals, however I do have to say that I think that eating an animal that has been hunted for food rather than bred and slaughtered in captivity is, in my opinion, more agreeable - at least that way you can know that the animal had a good life and good living conditions. I just wouldn't personally want to eat anything that had been killed so I could eat it when I have vegetables
I can't stand hunting for sport, however. I don't see how anyone can find it fun to kill another creature and still use it for nothing other than decoration. If you really must kill it, then I think people should at least make it more useful.

Hunting for food is perfectly fine with me, and deer jerky is delicious. I also know that sometimes the deer population can be too large and if that was the case, hunting for sport wouldn't bother me terribly much either--I mean, why condemn someone for that when otherwise the deer will be hit by cars because there's too many of them? It actually bothers me that I eat meat and don't have to see the animal being killed. I know that's a bit strange, but it's like this thing was killed so I could eat it, and I don't even know how it suffered or what it was like. It's like, I don't have to deal with the uncomfortable truth of this being's death. But I am also not super strong-willed and enjoy eating meat, so I'm not sure what the solution is. I may consider being a vegetarian at some point in time, though. I was for a year or so in the past but then gave it up.

efolger makes a good point- in some areas, hunting is an important form of population control for certain species, especially if the region has been stripped of most of its natural predators. Where I live, Rocky Mountain Elk are a non-native species, but in the decades that they've been here, their population has exploded, driving out native species and seriously damaging the forests, which aren't accustomed to such large herds of huge animals, in addition to posing a danger to people as well (My former Park Ranger side is showing here- it astounds me how many people think of wildlife in the desert Southwest as if it were in a petting zoo... Deer and Elk are DANGEROUS, people! Those antlers and hooves are pointy for a reason!). I don't hunt, but I would actually like to see the yearly quota allowed for hunting elk RAISED here, so that the population can be reduced and the species that are actually native to the area can start coming back, gradually improving the ecosystem and allowing it to recover somewhat.

And since it's an interesting part of the argument that often gets missed (at least when I've seen this kind of discussion before), I would also want to point out that, contrary to what it may seem, hunters are often some of the strongest voices in favor of conservation and preserving public lands. This isn't to say ALL of them are, but many of my friends and neighbors who hunt have made strong arguments in favor of keeping local national forests undeveloped, and in fact, one of the historic figures who made the greatest strides in preserving wild lands in the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, did so in large part because he was an avid hunter and saw the value in preserving natural lands so that game would still be plentiful for people like him. People I know who take this approach also tend to be some of the most opposed to hunting for sport- probably half the houses on my street have iceboxes in their garage filled with venison from last year's hunting season- they're not likely to leave hundreds of pounds of (quite frankly delicious) meat just sitting out in the woods for coyotes and vultures! Their kind of motivation may be to preserve an area for hunting, but it also keeps the forests preserved for LOTS of other uses too. I love the fact that I can drive for 5 minutes and be in the middle of millions of acres of relatively untouched forest, and whether that's because of Teddy Roosevelt-idolizing hunters or John Muir-inspired conservationists makes little difference to me- I'm happy to see green spaces like that kept wild.

I've never hunted, but I live in an area where most people do. Most people I know do eat the animals they kill (mostly venison), but I don't think their motivation is "hey, let's go get a thing to eat." I don't really know why they do it, just that it's kind of a tradition 'round these parts. No joke, on the day of the fall deer opener (the first day of deer season) my campus was practically deserted. A lotta people cut class to go hunting with their families, and I guess I can respect that?

I even enjoy shooting sports, but I prefer shooting at targets, rather than living things. I just don't get hunting. I'm not a vegetarian by any means, but hunting is just such an odd sport. I don't understand. Heck, I'm the sap that catches spiders and lets them go outside.

I think hunting foor food is alright, as long as the species you kill aren't endangered. Like when you live in the middle of nowhere with the next town, village or city 100 Miles away.

Hunting for food and to use the carcass for clothing or what not, fine. hunting for sport whether it's a deer or for rich people that get to hunt exotic animals flown in for a trophy. I have an issue with.

Now if hunting was a true sport, it would be fair to both sides. So humans vs animals. No weapons for humans and the animals get to choose if they want to play- Or arm the bears and gorilla's for warfare!

How about hunting for killing a nuisance? When I moved here years ago I never saw a deer. Then they started showing up in the winter, but the damage was minimal. This past winter was brutal in more ways than one. They destroyed almost every non-deciduous shrub I have had. The female holly bush mostly survived because it was buried under snow for most of the winter - the male bush is pretty much gone. Holly doesn't seem like a tasty meal, but I think they ate it just to be dicks. Sometimes the leaves would be scattered all over the ground, uneaten. And I live a few blocks from Main St., not in the country.
So now I have this fantasy that I'll buy a rifle and blow those motherfuckers to kingdom come. And because I'm a vegetarian, I'll butcher them and give the venison to the soup kitchen.

Well, where I live people hunt a lot, but I am pretty sure that when it comes to stags and deers the meat is eaten. I've had some stag sausage and deer roast in the past. Unfortunately people also hunt foxes, stoats, owls and stuff like that, just to stuff them and have a nice trophy. My family has a cabin on a mountain near here (I live in the bottom of a valley) and it's full of stuffed squirrels, birds, there's a badger too; they were on display at the school where my father teaches (!!!) and after the place went through renovation my father decided to put them in our cabin instead of just having everything thrown away.
I'm not going to say that I approve hunting as long as it is for food, because we don't need that kind of food (here, at least). It's not like i'm going to starve because I didn't eat deer. But as someone said before, there are some places where not only these "edible" species are not endangered at all, but they also compromise things like vegetable gardens, so I see little wrong in killing a few and make the best out of them (as in: food etc.).
On the other hand, killing un-edible and un-harmful animals (like foxes or stuff like that) is no different from killing minxes or chinchillas for fur.