Is hunting considered green?

Question

I know that the responsible killing and eating of an animal is green. I also know that people heavy into the environment are usually not in support of hunting. These two things seem to conflict with each other. I do not want to compare hunting to being a vegan, the majority of the population consumes meat. Do you consider hunting green living

Answer 1

Yes, I believe hunting can be green, but the idea of it being a sport or competition leaves me cold.  I grew up on a subsistence farm and we hunted from necessity.  

In the county we grew up in there was also "The Deer List".

If you hit a dear and it wasn't too damaged most people took it home and ate it.  But we also had lots of tourists so when they hit a deer they would call the sheriff and he would call the next family on the list.  Shall we call this gross but green?

On the other hand a guy that lived up the road used to trap beaver, mostly in the state forest and around reservoirs.  I didn't consider his trapping green just mean.  The cash he made at it went to buying rims for his Chevy and a Holley carburetor.  He threatened to shoot me when he caught me tripping a trap with a stick.  It's been 30 years but I think I'm still mad.

Answer 2

Eating what you hunt is a responsible way to enjoy your sport. Of course if everyone were to hunt for their food that would not work in our world of overpopulation. But if sportsman consume their trophies then they are not eating a comparable amount of farm produce meat products, therefore green.

Answer 3

My husband hunts, and we recycle and try to be considerate of the environment.  I think hunting is very green, for those who are responsible with it.  

When you eat wild game, you're eating animals who have grown up in the wild, with natural freedom and  no force-fed chemicals.  They haven't been cruelly cooped up all their lives in a little cage, worn out from over-breeding or given horrible things to eat (the truth is scary!).  

Plus, deer are truly a danger on the highways. Hunting is needed to keep the population down.

I have heard of irresponsible trophy hunting, and it makes me sick.  I have no problem with someone mounting heads, as long as it makes them happy & I don't have to live with it (it makes me think of Gaston from Disney's movie Beauty and the Beast..."I use antlers in all of my decorating!").  I have relatives who do so.  It isn't my thing, but we're all different, so peace to them.

But I am saddened when I hear of people killing game and then wasting it.  What's the point if you aren't going to eat it?  I wish everyone had a respectful view of taking life, like the Native Americans had when hunting.  

Unless you're going to be a vegetarian (which I never will; I like meat too well), you are responsible for the death of an animal whenever you eat meat.  Eating meat that comes from hunting is more humane to animals than eating meat that comes from slaughterhouses.

P.S.

We are Republicans and evangelical Christians...just in case that shatters any more stereotypes for you.

Answer 4

Even though I'm a vegetarian, my gut reaction is to say "yes", so long as it is done in a sustainable way. Furthermore, if left-over materials are used (such as skins for clothing) it is very green indeed.

However, when we consider hunting as " one of the oldest professions" and consider the "noble savage" and all that, it is perhaps interesting to think about, historically, how many species we have hunted to extinction (especially large birds and mammals), devastating their ecosystems.

So my final answer is that yes, it can be, but only if it is done sensibly and in a controlled way.

Hope this is "food" for thought. :)

Answer 5

I think that the thought of even killing animals is horrible and shouldnt be done.

Answer 6

MODERN DAY HUNTING

The question was GENERAL and

the answer to this should be from a global perspective ,not just from Kansas or your particular back yard ,as most people here tend to do.That is called tunnel vision or at best narrow mindedness.

In the Netherlands are no wilds to speak of and people will hate you if you keep turkeys in a pen or break a branch of a tree.

Few countries have the same amounts of empty wilderness as America and especially Canada have,

In Africa just about the only game left intact as components of eco systems is in national and private parks.

In central and northern Africa most game, is killed by starving populations and the lions are hunting the people instead.

Hunting in the wild in the old sense ,even for food is an idea of the past at least for the public at large

I know that hunters are involved in conservation but they are an elite group or there are not too many people involved.

So what i say here may not apply to a small section of Humanity.there are always exceptions to the rules.

When game is bred and protected ,a certain amount of culling by hunters will replace the action of otherwise natural predators.And the game would be more than in normal natural conditions

But as far as everybody is concerned NO

In Portugal when it is hunting season the whole world goes around the suburbs,which used to be the wild ,and shoots any thing that moves ,little birds ,cats, squirrels the odd donkey ,and frequently other hunters or innocent by standers.and so on

3·000 animals have gone in extinction in the last 50 years

loss of habitat,is global and on a grand scale.

Humanity has overstepped the Natural accepted equilibrium.

And the Animal populations have shrunk too much for us to pretend to be predators and nibble at the numbers that are left

The animals we got ,are now important components of Eco systems which we cannot afford to reduce.

Most professional hunters that i Knew in Africa and Canada have become involved in conservation.

So if we set up parks and breed animals ,we can let people cull some of them at high fees under strict supervision and let them believe that they are still hunters.

In this sense the hunting aids conservation because part of the money returns to the management of the animals.

This is the deal for game lodges in Africa,

Quote,

it cost about R5 million (rands) to get the concession for Tinga (the game reserve) and that money went straight back to the National Parks Board.They then pay 10% of all profits to the National Parks Board. So it is a good income stream for them. On top of that they run training programs for locals in all sorts of things, including game rangering, tracking etc.

They are also very strict in environmental damage etc, No trees are allowed to be cut, not even dead wood removed for fires etc,no off road driving except for leopard or lion tracking, and then they have to repair any damage done So the whole concept is very environmentally friendly.

Although there are also unscrupulous operators under this concept ,who for example dart lions and then let the brave hunter shoot the drugged animals for fantastic fees,but these operations are detested by regular conservationists.

The only real hunting today In Africa ,is done illegally by poachers who shoot Lions,Elephants and Rhino`s for body parts that have great value on the foreign markets,(and Tigers in India.)

Urbanizations and expanding farming operations deforestation for the production of Ethanol (

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

. gives opportunities to collect the animals that now find themselves with out habitat

And the market in first world countries like the USA entices the poor from these Natural territories to hunt exotic animals for pets or for body parts such as the hides.And the only way to stop this is to stop deforestation and improve local economic conditions which will not even happen with the skies full of flying pigs.

And the USA still has hunting as part of their culture ,and they will regret it in the end when everything has gone

why animals are important

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

saving endangered animals

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Having said all that, i have hunted plenty of times for the pot myself ,but not lately, i like animals better alive these days.

Although i see no problem with putting a young male antelope, that has been damaged beyond repair by the Alpha male ,on the menu of the restaurant.

Answer 7

good question!! I'm gonna have to say yes.  there's a lot less harm done to the environment that manufacturing/processing food

Answer 8

As long as you destroy the balance of nature by OVER hunting I think it should be considered green and enviornmentally safe.

Answer 9

Back when I was a vegetarian, the only meat that I would eat was animals that I killed myself.  

I think I would consider hunting a green alternative - if only because we would eat so much less meat, as a culture, and would protect so much more wilderness, if we had to go out and kill it ourselves.

I think that the tie-in between vegetarianism and environmentalism, however, has to do with respecting wildlife.   Both movements focus on allowing animals to exist in their natural envionment with as little interference from humans as possible.  And hunting them would be considered interference, I think.

Great question.

Answer 10

We are animals, we hunt, we eat, we p**p... It's definitely better then going to some mcdonalds restaurant and having it served to you like your the queen bee and the other bees feed you while you produce babies...okay i went in a totally different direction then i wanted, but you get the idea.  To be truely green living i think we have go back to our hunter gatherer days, that way we get more exercise and we go back to our animal instincts

Answer 11

Hunters are the greenest people I know when it comes to hands-on preservation!  Others may adopt lifestyles to slow down the eventual filling of landfills, but hunters are the ones you'll find fighting the encroachment of man on undeveloped land...they're the ones most likely to report illegal dumpers...they're the ones MOST concerned about the balance of the ecosystem where they derive a large percentage of their protein.  Give me hunters over hippies any day!

Answer 12

"I also know that people heavy into the environment are usually not in support of hunting. "

Don't come to Kansas and say that out loud.  The hunters of Kansas have recovered and converted thousands of square miles of wetlands, prairie and woods.  Check into the Ducks Unlimited organization and see what they are all about.  Hunters have more to lose than anyone with loss of habitat and they are working harder than anyone--and getting results.