I agree 99% of it is horrific, in particular poultry and pig farms. I have posted about ways to find meat that has been vetted to have a more humane life up to its death. That hasn't been a priority for our society, and as people have said people mostly live thinking ignorance is bliss. I appreciate the direct nature of hunters to take on their kill. It is certainly more authentic than those who prefer to think of a chicken breast as an objet simply grown that way like a fruit. Is the argument that hunting is less ****ty than eating Tyson chicken so that makes it good? Like, it's the lesser of two evils?
@HudsonBuff wrote a very nice post, and I appreciate that. I respect your process more than the average meat-eater. (Although I'd say we as humans have blown up the ecosystem and are trying to overcontrol it for our own convenience.) I wish more hunters felt a similar sentiment as him, but most of people I know just like to do it for fun and to show off their kills. Perhaps not overtly, but it's a hobby, something to get excited for, something to fill the time when you're not at work. Seemingly because they don't have better ways to fill their free time. They start going to the gun range, but that gets boring, so why not actually use the bullet in a productive way.
I'd guess that the majority of you grew up around it and that it has a nostalgic impression on you. There is a bit of a conditioning going on, because kids don't tend to want to kill things, so we ritualize and rationalize the process to give it a meaning. I see deer on my property and think it is just a cool animal living in nature that I have no desire to prevent it from continuing to do so, even to eat it. Like I said, I wouldn't give a **** if an alien felt pained and more connected to me if they decided to hunt me or my family for food. I'd rather just go on living my life, however simple and uninteresting they might consider it.
Hunting is such a huge industry. There are so many great things to do with our time, to me it's too bad people don't find different outlets in nature than killing things. As for archery, I appreciate that it seems more "fair" than using a gun (which feel like a human cheat-code.) The common amount of extra suffering mentioned flips that on its head though. A quick death is the only way killing animals for food can be ethical.
As for the funding of conservation and public land, that is just an extra device to feel good about what's going on. That funding could and should come from anywhere to help protect nature for the sake of protecting nature.
Anyway, I know most of you hunters aren't evil human beings, but I still want to suggest finding new hobbies.
