Are you in Florida and concerned about the proposed constitutional amendment about hunting and fishing? That right exists now. Why the constitutional amendment then? Vote No on it. If it passes we will lose the ability to manage lands for all plant and animal species in favor of hunting and fishing targets.
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As does not killing wolves and big cats et al. Saying weāre the solution to a symptom of a problem that we created is a little fraught if weāre not also earnestly addressing the problem.
and do only hunters who can shoot with enough skill and restraint to actually hit them there get a licence to shoot them?
āHuntingā isnāt the problem - who we let go hunting is what probably needs to be addressed, and ābeing rich enough to do a course and buy a licenceā is probably not the selection criteria that will actually solve it ā¦
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I both hunt and fish as does my husband, who taught me how to shoot and the essentials of gun safety. He in turn was taught by his father. I learned to fish from my father. We live in Alaska and are fortunate to have millions of acres of public land on which to hunt and fish. We do this because we have both the ability and desire to harvest our own meat. We are absolutely against trophy hunting. We are extremely careful to utilize every part of the moose, caribou and Dallās sheep that we take. We hunt far off the road system, sometimes as much as 5 miles, and get there by foot, canoe, or dog team. We get 15-30 salmon from the Copper River every year and fish our local streams for arctic grayling and whitefish.
A few years after I first started hunting, I had an epiphany of sorts ā the caribou we ate became part of me and by returning to the same spot I was completing the circle of life, in a way. Our hunting and fishing trips bring us into an intimacy with the natural world and the natural cycles of animal behavior in a very focused way. These trips are always rich with memorable experiences.
I wonāt go into the complexities and contradictions in fish and āgameā management because they are far too fraught for this forum. I will just add that in recent years, erratic weather resulting, in part, from climate change, has decimated caribou and Dall sheep populations across Alaska and thatās affecting us personally.
Thank you for asking the question.
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I am not trying to say that we did not create the problem to begin with, but we are now solving a result of the problem, even if it isnāt the real problem. Hunting for me is more about food anyway.
No, that is unfortunately not the case at all. It can be hard to get a good shot, and many hunters should be ok with letting the trophy buck walk away if itās at a bad angle, or a bad spot. Not all hunters are responsible.
There should be some measure of responsibility from those buying permits, although I donāt know how this would be regulated. I agree with you, but without some sort of test (like a driver licence test?) there would be no real way to know anything about the individual hunters.
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I think (at least in NY) the hunter education course you have to take can turn people away if they show unsatisfactory performance, and then you donāt get the license.
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So then, I also agree, thatās exactly what Iāve always thought, too. Maybe it is because itās the most logical perspective that can be based on a naturalist set of ethical values and priorities.
A wise naturalist will know that animals experience suffering, and will, of course, as most healthy humans, be against suffering, so will try to do anything possible to avoid animal suffering.
But naturalists also know that we humans have to eat, and that animal suffering is present through the whole food chain, so we would just behave as predators in an ecosystem, which does not annulate animal suffering.
And besides that, most of us naturalists know the inhumane lack of ethics behind most farmed beef and poultry and pork and industrial fishingā¦ and farmed fishā¦ just no! We all know the immense suffering and the heartbreaking conditions most of these animals live in and/or are killed in. We all know that many of these animals contain nasty industrial chemicals and get a disgusting diet (and a few extra parasites), so they are not even healthy themselves and are definitely a threat to consumersā health. And most of us know that this monstrous industry destroys the environment in many ways.
So, hunting and fishing are far more ethical for the animals, the people, and the environment than buying a chicken with antibiotics that comes from who knows where, or going to a restaurant and eating a steak from a poor cow that eat bone or fish meal, or buying a farmed salmon from Norwayās fjords that came from a polluted and disturbed fjord ecosystem.
Fishing here in Mexico is good, and as good Mexicans, we still fish for meals as we live close to the sea, although many local fishers are quite tricky and abusive. Still, fish have, gladly, survived to being wiped out.
Hunting in Mexico has some regulations, as in North America, although they arenāt very different (in the sense they arenāt as adapted to Mexican conditions) nor carefully planned. Hunting by locals can get quite out of control, since they eat whatever has legs or wings. But the regulations have some major, unbelievable flaws I donāt want to talk about.
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In the Dominican Republic, I occaionally hear a gunshot off in the hills. I have been told that they are shooting at guinea fowl. Since guinea fowl are an introduced species in the Islands, someone occasionally shooting one is not harmful to the native biota. What concerns me much more is that every Hispaniolan boa I have ever seen, except for the one on my own place, I found already slain. Irrational hatred of snakes is harmful to the native biota.
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Is that hunting at all?
No, its ādefenseā agianst something that probably isnāt a threat
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pointless slaughter of snakes is not hunting. killing invasive pythons in Florida? thatās fine, they are terrible for the environment there. killing native snakes for no reason besides hatred? in my opinion even worse than trophy hunting.
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Yeah, definitely a terribly common practice and not hunting.
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along these lines, for fish i dont catch myself i always try to buy line-caught wild fish, which is better for other marine life, though i dont know much about which methood is better or worse for the fish, if any.
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Killing invasive pythons in Florida for food? Ideal.
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It is better to damage one fish you know you were targeting than to damage a whole ecosystem, throwing nets and killing whatever has a terribly bad luck.