: HaP: "Let me ask some questions then:
: How old are you? Where do you live? Are you a vegitarian? Do you like long walks on the beach? How do you feel about killing plants? Do you eat plants?": I am 25. I live in Wolfville, NS, Canada. I teach in a rural school nearby. I know many people who hunt, for sport and for subsistence. Prior to this I lived in Ottawa, ON, Canada. It is a largish city, and the hunters I met there were all sport hunters. I love walking. The beach is okay, but I prefer the forest. I usually end up standing awestruck if I go to the beach. I feel that killing anything for food when it is necessary is okay. I feel that killing anything for sport or unnecessarily is not okay. I do not feel a sense of power or conquest when I kill plants.
I am not into sport hunting. I feel that if a hunter kills an animal he should be killing it primarily for food. Not just to put it's head on the wall.
: Regarding plants, I eat them because it is more nergy efficient to do so (the whole 10% trophic levels thing.) I also will admit that I don't think plants suffer to the same extent as animals. While I cannot prove this, and while I do believe plants can feel to a certain extent, it does make me less uncomfortable to kill a plant. Besides, as I mentioned elsewhere, if I kill an animal, the animal AND the plants it ate had to die.
: You asked me elsewhere about the cow and the wheat. It's a little more complicated than you make it out to be. As I said, if I ate the cow, there would need to be, overall, more wheat. Also, if I chose not to eat the cow, then people would not factory farm cows, and their numbers would dwindle off naturally. I am sure they would find some lovely grass to eat when they turned feral. The current cow population is artificially maintained, not naturally formed.
: So, yes, I eat plants, yes I consider them equal to animals, and yes I consider humans equal to all other life forms. Eating plants: a) minimizes suffering b) is more energy efficient c) is more healthy d) is more environmentally sustainable e) is not based on some macho bullshit power thang.
In response to your list:
a) the suffering is minimized when you eat plants but if we stoped hunting there is a little thing called overpopulation which has occured-take the snow goose for example- with out hunters they are giong to die of starvation which in my mind is a lot worse then dieing of a bullet
b)Thats is true and i can't do anything about it. Except the animals will die anyways so why not use their energy also.
c)It may be more healthy for you but if we stop hunting then there will be overpop. which leads to disease for animals and ultimately death.
d)Actually hunting sustains the population as I have said before.
e) Finally it is not based on "some macho bullshit power thang" at least not for me. It might be for some other hunters but is that a reason to ban hunting.
