General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How many of the hunters hunt only for food?? [View all]Daemonaquila
(1,712 posts)Virtually all hunters, including all of those I know personally (and I also am a hunter), are interested in the meat. Period. None of us take or put up trophies. We get fresh food for months at a time from a single deer, or sometimes another animal, such as wild hogs that tear up the land. We process the carcass sometimes at horribly late hours, and either cut it up for greater processing at a professional processing business, or to finish off processing and packing ourselves. Anything my friends and I don't use (as with roadkill, with game warden permission) goes to feed wildlife undergoing rehabilitation. Other hunters and game wardens also bring both roadkilled and illegally taken carcasses to the center to feed those animals. Occasionally a deer skin gets processed for use in clothing or furnishing.
The animals taken are either problems (wild hogs) or deer, which are overpopulated in the area, particularly axis deer which are an exotic species that have overrun the area and are crowding out the native whitetail population.
You think hunters don't think twice about pulling the trigger? That they aren't thankful, and that they don't apologize? Your biases are your problem, not hunters. All the hunters I know, including myself, have to swallow really hard before pulling that trigger. The biggest fear many of us have, especially those who haven't done it over decades, is that we will muff a shot and harm, but not instantly kill, an animal. I was taught to use a high neck shot by my mentor, which is a much harder shot than the conventional heart/lung target, but which is the best for a sure kill with massive spinal damage and extremely fast bleed out. You either hit or you miss, but you don't just wound a deer that might get away and die a slow and ugly death despite your best efforts at tracking it. We clean every usable bit off the carcass to avoid wasting. When I have venison in my freezer, I am acutely aware of where it came from, and none of it is wasted - that's a DUTY if you take a life for food.
Hunting isn't the avid sport followed by reckless idiots that so many people want to believe it is. There ARE trophy hunters and idiots who just want to shoot at things. They are not hunters, but murderers. A real hunter is out for healthy meat, often on a budget, to replace factory farmed food (do PLEASE explain how factory farming is more "humane" than a nearly instantaneous, clean kill on an animal that has lived its life quite fully in the wild). Others supplement grocery store food because they like wild meat, and they appreciate the skills they have been taught and do not want to lose them. I know people who hunt for the vast majority of their meat, and others who take a couple deer, and maybe a couple turkey, per year.
Don't make crap up about people and practices you apparently know nothing about. That's what the GOP and the teabaggers do. DUers should be better than that.