B77":2gjx5yay said:
Hmm don't you think if people didn't/hadn't kill/killed all the , Foxes, Martens, Buzzrds, Kites, Harriers, Stoats, Wildcats, Polecats, Weasels that the populations would control themselves ? Same as crow & magpie 'oh they raid songbird nests say the 'pest control' brigade. Farmers grubbed up the hedgerow the primary habitat of songbirds to increase field/yeilds, the woodlands the primary habitat of corvids were left alone.....lets shoot the farmers or better yet humans, after all we have reached epidemic proportions.
No matter what justifaction you give it you wouldn't kill animals or spend lots of money on kit if you didn't enjoy it.
Your last point first.
I take part in deer culls.
The part I enjoy is nothing to do with killing animals.
Farmers are actually involved in many schemes to set aside land for fauna, and have been for decades. The countryside is much safer in the hands of farmers than power companies.
Ideally we would leave lots more to nature, but we are where we are with respect to production of food. The UK's food production is already extremely efficient, moving forward it would seem we can do a lot yet to minimise environmental impact and I am sure that will happen.
Humans have reached a great number, agreed. Population control is a natural result of increasing living standards, so that seems the way forward at the present time.
Meanwhile we have resources aplenty if we reduce greed.
Look at the average portion size in a US eatery. Often 60% of the food is left on the plate. The USA consumes resources vastly disproportionate to the population size.
This sense of 'entitlement' to consume is what we need to overcome.
Were we all to think about how our behaviour effects the world at large, we might just leave that extra portion of meat, potatoes or salad. We might drive a little slower to save fuel, and we might settle for less clothes or CDs, blah, blah, blah.
My take is that getting out and interacting with nature does nothing but increase our awareness, and this is bound to influence our behaviour. It is clear that going out and seeing how animals are raised and slaughtered effects most people in a good way; they take more interest in their diet, the source of their food and the welfare of the animals they eat.
I would much rather eat an animal that had a decent life and was dispatched humanely than one domestically reared and led to slaughter en mass, with all the fear and suffering that causes.
Speaking as a vegetarian, (mainly).
Sure there is an element of dick dangling involved with any hunting, but there is also an incredible amount of learning, and assimilation with the ways of nature.
If the initial draw is the thrill of playing with guns, etc. the end appears to justify the means.
