HUNTING
PROMOTES VIOLENCE
There comes a time in life, when you must reflect upon what
you were taught, whether what you were taught is true and how what you were
taught affects your current life. That time is long past due when it comes to
hunting. Hunting propaganda seems to be passed down from generation to
generation. Talking with a hunter can be a most exasperating experience. Most
hunters will call themselves “conservationists”. They will proudly take
pictures or display their kills. Since childhood they have been taught that
this is appropriate behavior. This is what you do to be “a man”. They then
teach their children to kill and their sons learn that they are not men unless
they have killed something. Daughters are taught to kill to show they are just
as good as men. It is very sad, that they actually believe these things.
Hunters will call themselves “conservationists”. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Hunting hurts all species. Hunters are looking for a proud trophy, something to
show the world how great they are. So they kill the biggest and healthiest of
the species. This leaves the sickly and weaker to breed, making gene pools weaker.
Chronic Wasting Disease was directly caused by hunting. When wolves, coyotes,
and other predators hunt, they go after only the sickly and the weak.
Unfortunately, hunters kill these animals and leave nature a mess.
Hunters will tell you how they control populations. Again,
nothing is further from the truth. As I mentioned above, killing the biggest
and healthiest leaves only the sick and weak left to breed. In predators, this
can be devastating to their populations. Here in Wisconsin, we have a deer
hunting season. Hundreds of thousands of deer are killed in a two week period.
This artificial population decrease actually increases the deer population, as
pregnant deer will increase the number of fetuses they carry to accommodate the
lower population. This is called “compensatory reproduction”. States with the
most deer hunting, have the highest deer populations. In a natural world, there
isn’t such a thing as “overpopulation”.
Hunting parties are big here in Wisconsin. Hunters get
together, get drunk and go off to hunt. I imagine they get their “courage” to
kill from a bottle. How can something that you have to get drunk to do be anything
worth doing? You may say there is something very wrong with these people that
they make a party out of killing. But this makes perfect sense. It takes great
courage to go against the norm, against the status quo. Having a lot of people
doing the same thing makes it easier, even if it’s doing something wrong. In
1951, Solomon Asch did a conformity study. He found that 75% of his subjects
would give an obvious wrong answer just to go along with the majority of the
group. So even though, these hunters think they are being “tough” by killing
innocent animals, they are cowards. They need a group.
Bow hunting is the most inhumane hunting. 50% of animals
are cripple and not recovered. They die agonizing deaths from blood loss and
infections.
Psychology and criminology studies have shown that violence
toward animals often leads to violence toward people. Albert Schweitzer wrote,”
Violent acts against animals are considered recognized as indicators of a
disease of the psyche that is not limited to animals. Anyone who has once
accustomed to the life of any living being as unworthy of life, there is a risk
that one day he also comes to the conclusion that human life is worthless.”
It is interesting to note, that the one common denominator
with most of the school shootings, is hunting was big in the families of the
shooters. Parents encourage violence of their children, and that is what you
wind up with. Teaching children to hunt, should be considered child abuse. There
is definitely something wrong with people who derive amusement from an animal’s
fear or suffering. Serial killers often start by abusing animals, including
hunting them.
States like Wisconsin, continue to encourage hunting for
one simple reason—money. Animal agriculture encourages hunting because animals
like deer, wolves, bears, bison, etc. either threaten or compete with their
livestock. We can end this barbaric practice very simply. Go vegan. Let’s take
the money and power away from animal agriculture. Let’s stop encouraging animal
abuse. Let’s start encouraging and teaching compassion.
