To kill and eat...or not

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The black bear butchering thread raised an interesting issue...again. When do you think it is ok to kill an animal and not eat it? I don't mean self defence, but actual hunting. Folks go out and shoot grizzlies, wolves, coyotes and other smaller critters and don't eat the meat. How do you decide? Is it the size of the animal? Is it social norms? Maybe personal experience?

I look at it this way. If an animal is a pest, like gophers, it is ok to shoot them and leave them. If a predator species is gaining in population, it is ok to shoot them. Actually I think it is important to hunt predators in order to maintain a healthy balance out there. That means wolves, coyotes, foxes, cougars etc. Bears fall under that category too.

How do you decide?
 
I'd love to hunt year round but I've never been able to talk myself into shooting anything bigger than a gopher if I was not going to eat it to and I don't really want to eat a wolf or bear so I've not shot them to date.
 
It does not concern me as much about dumping a coyote that may happen by ,spend a day helping a farmer reduce the numbers of vermin on their farm land, but the animals/birds that may fall prey to a small group that have no moral fiber at all.
I talk here of waterfoul that ends up tossed in a ditch in large numbers or fish rotting on the side of a stream. Or a member of the deer family left in a field or in the bush with no effort to retrieve it.
It would seem that why this happens is just certain individuals without thinking, taking this wildlife ,then moving on like they had just shot up some tin cans at a local range.
To me this kind of behavour is far worse than poachers and should not be tolerated.
There are many , and I mean the vast majority of true sportsman and women that feel this way, who love to hunt game animals, upland game, and waterfoul.
Conservation includes hunters in the taking of game which is regulated, predator control, and management of the habitat.
This is my take on all of this, and see only a small group out there that should not walk under the disguise of true sportsman.
Frank
 
I guess the question may be "why do you hunt?"

Is it only for the meat?

We may all enjoy the meat, and take great care in handling it, but it's not *the* reason many of us hunt.

The truth is, most of us would be better off going and buying a cow from a farmer if the only reaosn we hunted was to get meat.

There are alot more efficient ways to get better meat than to climb on top of a mountain and shoot a old billy goat!:)

If a coyote coudl talk, I am sure he woudl tell us that he values his life every bit as much as a deer values his life.

So, in that context, what is the difference if you take the meat and use it or not?

Somethign to think about, anyway. There is not a simple answer.;)
 
HeadDamage said:
I'd love to hunt year round but I've never been able to talk myself into shooting anything bigger than a gopher if I was not going to eat it to and I don't really want to eat a wolf or bear so I've not shot them to date.
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I think you have an argument with the bear.

Not with the wolf though, they are predatory varmints, a threat to farmers, and worse yet, my daughter's kitties.

I have no troubles with shooting a wolf or coyotes and spoiling the meat. But I would see to it a trapper got the pelt.
 
Like Gatehouse, I hunt not for the meat, but for the enjoyment of hunting. The meat is the bonus. I hunt deer, moose and bear and will eat the meat. I will also shoot coyotes when they start destroying the farm crops. (And I give the pelts to a local taxidermist, who is also a trapper). I have also shot a couple of racoons. They were close to the house (under 50 yards); with two small kids and a couple of dogs, rabies is a concern.
 
hunting to eat??

I hunt because I like to kill things and eat them,period! If you are not pre pared to eat em don't kill em!! Ground hogs are delicious!! So is Skunk if your careful,Coons need some marinating,I use Teriyaki sauce/red wine/garlic and ginger.OK??:D :eek:
 
I would shoot the wolf... and then shoot the kitties... :) Ok so bad joke... the only cats I have killed were wounded by cars, and farm machinery/generaly being a nussance(spraying everything with piss), or sick. game/varmin that I don't eat, but kill coyotes, foxes, if there in our area(they take our chickens), racoons, skunks, badgers, snakes, gophers.
 
Gatehouse said:
The truth is, most of us would be better off going and buying a cow from a farmer if the only reaosn we hunted was to get meat.
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Yah, but cow don't taste like venison.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm, venison...................
 
I'd have to say you gotta eat the bear cause it's edible.

The wolves and yotes on the other hand are probably edible and won't kill you to eat it but I'd have to pass.

One of the wierdest things I've ever seen is the time we got a yote in deer season and skinned it out on the picnic table outside the camp, we tossed the carcass about 75 yds from the camp thinking it'd keep the song dogs away from the deer hanging and woke up in the morning with a missing carcass, seems the little buggers are cannibles.
 
this is how I go about it.

I'm not a varminter except for groundhogs in spring and summer. Some I ear (good tasting too) but most I toss. I help control their population in fields where they scrap farmer's equipment with their sandmounds.

Small game and big game I eat... period. Haven't had the chance to go after a bear yet. I'll eat it and if I don't care for it, I'll put more ev=nergy in other hunts.

I will toss any animal that doesn't look healthy. I've tossed grouse, hare and ducks that were suspicious. I don't like to do it but then again, I culled diseased animals from the population.
 
I have a bard time with killing bears without eating the meat, my son shot one last year, we didn't keep the meat and that bothers me a bit. It bothered his mother big time.
 
I generally hunt only amnimals that I am going to eat , but if some animals is a nuisance I have no problem with killing it . not a varmit hunter per sae but I have knocked off a couple pest animals . I think that one should make the best use of animals taken . the meat is obvious but the hide or horns or whatever else you can use you should try to If you can .
 
I look at it this way. If an animal is a pest, like gophers, it is ok to shoot them and leave them. If a predator species is gaining in population, it is ok to shoot them. Actually I think it is important to hunt predators in order to maintain a healthy balance out there. That means wolves, coyotes, foxes, cougars etc. Bears fall under that category too.
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Yup
I agree
I would like to hunt bear but eating I just don't know.
 
unusedusername said:
my dad always said
"son, you can kill what ever you want as long as you eat it"

if we taught all kids this we would have alot less murders :)
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I assume you are joking, right?


I forgot one other category ....sick/injured animals. I would think a deer with a badly broken leg, or a serious festering wound should be shot. I would have no problem shooting it and leaving it.

Gatehouse raises an excellent philosophical point. If they could talk, I bet the gopher/coyote/other small varmint would say "I enjoy living just as much as a bear, deer or moose". It seems the value we assign to life varies quite a bit, and the reasoning behind this is very interesting. Some of you say I wouldn't shoot anything I'm not willing to eat. How do you feel about an ever growing predator population? Do you feel that nature will balance it out, and that hunters do not have a role? I'd say that as the peak predator we do have a management role, albeit one that comes with responsibilities and obligations.

I do like the actual killing aspect of hunting. I almost always feel a little bit of remorse after I kill an animal, but it never lasts more than a few seconds, and it doesn't stop me from pulling the trigger. And, oddly enough, it doesn't stop me from being happy about what I just did.

By the way, you should see what bears do in an oat field. They can be just as much of a pest as a woodchuck, gopher or coyote.
 
I view bears as a good source of meat and I resent those self righteous types who kill them only because they are a predator to a limited extent. If a specific bear is causing someone problems then I have no problem with it being shot for that reason but only that specific animal not bears in general. I think the law requiring bear meat to be removed from the bush was long overdue.
While I strongly feel; you shoot it --- you eat it, if the animal turns out to be diseased or inedible for some reason then fair enough; leave it to rot.

cheers mooncoon
 
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