is hunting and eating meat ethical?!
Answers:
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
I have written two articles and both of these are published in the Ezine Directory.
1. Meat eaters Versus Vegetarians
2. The Sacrilege of Eating Animals
After reading both these articles would you consider whether hunting
and eating meat is ethical.
I have been a vegetarian for over30 years - here is the link for further information
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julie_Eden
My boyfriend and I both hunt, we also process the meat ourselves and freeze it to eat throughout the year between hunting seasons. I do not feel it is wrong to hunt, I also do not believe it is wrong not to hunt. If a person is hunting solely for trophy or pleasure and allowing the meat to go to waste I do not agree with it. Many people feel the need to quote the bible as a source for not killing animals. I find that curious that they quote the "Thou shalt not kill" commandment and avoid the scripture when God provided Abraham a ram to sacrifice in place of his son. As another person stated in a post I read, "especially after the flood when all the vegetation was destroyed, man had to either eat kelp or resort to eating some animals, so God had specified for Noah that if he was going to eat meat he was to eat the clean meat." and Genesis 9 in the first 4 verses, "1 God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! 2 Every living creature - birds, animals, fish - will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You're responsible for them. 3 All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else. 4 Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it - don't eat that." I feel it is a personal decision for a person.
Would be a lot less ethical to stop hunting after we've turned most of their land into farms and housing.
At this point, deer and other wild animals only have so much land where they can get food. What food there is isn't going to be enough to feed all of them if their populations keep going up unchecked. Particularly in the east where there are few predators interested in deer and hogs. The only thing besides hunters and angry farmers taking them out is cars.
Death by car isn't always instant either. I've seen more than a few animals who've been hit by cars, struggling to walk as their insides fail and they're in extreme pain from broken bones. It's hard to watch, and much more cruel than being shot.
I think as long as the shot is a quick and painless kill as possible and of course it's legal (using tags and the like), that hunting is alright.
Like it or not, humans are the Number 1 species on the planet. Our brains are one of the most developed, and we have used them to help us along. With our brains and the machines we've built with our knowledge, we can tear down mountains, change the course of rivers, or even send people to the moon and, before long, other planets.
As the number one animal on the planet though, I think it's our responsibility to realize our actions have consequences. Not just for us but for every living creature we share this planet with. While I think our first priority is to look after ourselves, we shouldn't prioritize ourselves in such a way that we forget how important nature is.
Some of these posts ("killing for entertainment") prove beyond a doubt that most vegetarians know little or nothing about hunting.
There is nothing remotely unethical about hunting or eating meat- but "ethics" is a matter of individual opinion, as long as nobody else tries to dictate their "ethics" onto me.
Likewise, a human's "relationship" with animals varies between individuals.
* Jewell, I read your articles.
They are FICTION, and mediocre fiction at best.
Hunting for food is ethical, the animal isn't tortured. Sure, dying is painful no matter how it happens, but the animals aren't being kept in factory farms. They run around like normal, and die as they would normally in the wild. The laws make it sustainable, prey animals in the U.S. have been greatly increasing in population and pretty much every hunter eats what he kills. The hunted meat is healthier too.
Hunters like to rely on some seriously flawed arguments to justify their actions. The old "we need to control the population or they'll starve to death, and that's cruel" is a favourite. I've never had a hunter give me an answer when I've asked why they aren't going straight over to Africa or Asia to shoot the starving children in order to prevent their suffering.
Also ethics is based on logic, not opinion. That means it is illogical to allow humans to starve while allowing the killing of deer because their predators were hunted to extinction. It is illogical to maintain animals in farms for food when they produce less energy than they require as feed, when the feed can be used for something else (like producing foods or biofuels for human use). It is illogical to waste resources like water by producing animal products when it could be used more intelligently, for example it takes 1000 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk, but it only takes about 226 litres to produce 1 litre of soymilk.
For those of us living in the developed world, there really is no logical reason why we should continue to follow the ways of cavemen when we have the knowledge and resources to do it more sustainably.
http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=file…
http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=file…
http://www.soya.be/how-to-make-soy-milk.…
I think If you can hunt it, skin it, cook it, and eat it, it's perfectly natural and fine. but thousands of cows lining up to their death so we can have a big mac at 1 AM, that's about as far from natural as we could possibly get. I'm not a hardcore animal rights person, I just think that the way we get our meat is unsanitary and just plain unnatural. cattle ranches and farms have been turned into concentration-camp-style cow pastures. the cows can't even graze! they eat corn (which is another dirty industry), live in their own feces, and then cut down and packaged. the meat is then trucked out to grocery stores and fast food processors. we are so disconnected from our food, we don't even think about where it comes from. all we care about is the price on the label, not the price on our planet, culture, or future generations.
I'm not saying we should all become vegetarians, but it is very easy to just eat less meat. once or twice a week is all you really need at the maximum. instead of pepperoni, get olive instead on your pizza :)
hunting for entertainment is wrong. hunting to eat is fine. if animals are here on the planet, then why not eat them? as long as it is done in the most humane way possible, i dont see a problem. I am a vegitarian (thought i might as well throw that in, although im more of a pescaterian (i like fish)), i just dont really like the taste of meat.
Why in the **** are people saying they kill for fun? Are you seriously that much of a murder to kill something to watch it die for fun? You might as well go kill humans too.
Hunting is wrong, and so is eating the meat. People don't need to hunt, because they can go to the store to buy meat these days. It's just a pathetic excuse to kill an animal.
YES, as long as it is to feed you. Letting animals such as deer starve to death in winter or fall prey to to other animals is cruel. There is a huge difference between wild animals and pets. And there is equally a difference between hunting for "sport or entertainment" and feeding your family.
hunters care the most about the animals, the most unethical and cruel thing we could do is not hunt things like deer and let them starve to death, plus i think getting shot in the head and not knowing what happened is better that being hunted by a pack of animals and getting my throat ripped out and left to bleed to death.
no. nonhuman animals have JUST as much of a right to live out their lives freely as humans do; theyre are capable of suffering, we know what that feels like---therefore we should empathize with them.
http://wayfaringvegans.weebly.com/index.…
every time i've gone hunting i've eaten what i've killed. Most hunting is for fun as well as food. Nothing is wrong with eating meat. And if you kill the animal yourself it's better because it's not as if it came from a slaughterhouse.
It really depends on the person and their beliefs. I personally think eating meat is neither ethical nor unethical..
Vegetarian
Yes eating meat and hunting to eat meat or kill pests is completely ethical and moral. Animals have no rights look it up. There are laws that protect their well being but they have no rights.
I don't see anything unethical about it. It's the way of nature. Some organisms depend on others for food (energy and nutrition).
It's what we've been doing for thousands of years. It's better than them going in a slaughter house.
I don't have anything against it.
RESPECT THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hunt for food. Not so much for pleasure.
I hunt and have many pets...
nothing wrong with me
Yes, of coarse. It is just part of the food chain
I'll hunt you. Is that ethical?
In America, people hunt because it's "fun."
It's killing for entertainment, and that's wrong.
I don't care so much about what the relationship is (whether they're pets or should be left alone) as long as we aren't hurting/killing them.
Watching animals get killed and eaten is to me very entertaining.