HUNTING PROMOTES VIOLENCE

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.