You shoot it, you eat it! Weird things on the menu?

**CorditeCrazy** · 04-11-2016, 14:54

Originally Posted by Skaaphaas

Spitballing here.

I learned the "eat what you kill" idea. Later on.

As a kid everything that was capable of being killed with my airgun, except of course pets, was fair game. I shot barbets just to satisfy my curiosity to look at them from close up.

I shot any bird, just to feel a sense of accomplishment. Accuracy and getting close enough to shoot it, without it flying away.

Yes, I enjoyed it. It was all part of the fun I had on the farm, with a dog, a horse and my airgun as my companions.

I am 100% convinced that I am not in the minority, that pretty much all boys my age, with the same opportunities and means, did the same.

When did this become a taboo? When we grew up and understood how conservation works?

Why do we hunt? The PC answer is because we want the meat, the animal suffers less etc. The correct answer is because we like it. Every bit of it. Including the killing bit. If we didn't enjoy the killing bit, we'd go on stalking trips and not hunting trips, and stop by the butchery on the way home.

I was in mozambique once when one of the local boys killed a lionfish with his speargun in one of the rock pools. The holiday makers were outraged and he nearly got a beating. I sat looking and thought, that could just as well have been me. He wanted a closer look. He managed to pull it off. And it's not the last fish that will die in the name of "science".

You framed it very nicely. I think Messor had a soap box moment(not meant badly) some time back about this and part of why we hunt is for the kill

**TStone** · 04-11-2016, 16:40

Originally Posted by Skaaphaas

Why do we hunt? The PC answer is because we want the meat, the animal suffers less etc. The correct answer is because we like it. Every bit of it. Including the killing bit. If we didn't enjoy the killing bit, we'd go on stalking trips and not hunting trips, and stop by the butchery on the way home.

Me and many of my friends grew up in exactly the same way. That we (some of us) like to hunt, and kill, explains why people are willing to spend a lot of money on hunting and killing an animal, without utilizing the meat, and in some cases not even taking the trophies.
As an example, I have guided two vegetarians on hunts.

Fortunately there is a very large demand for protein in Africa and very few animals are killed and not eaten, even if they are not eaten by the person that killed them.