Hunting and fishing, to me, are about being a little more independent from the ‘system’ while getting a little closer to nature at the same time. Since I am a meat-eater who loves eating meat and does not plan to quit eating meat at any point in my life, but is concerned about animal welfare, it makes me feel a whole lot better when I eat meat that I know came from a wild animal that I killed and butchered myself. At least I know that the animal I am eating lived a free and natural life and was killed as humanely as possible. Also, I know that the carcass was handled property, and I know just how fresh that meat is. Furthermore, meat from wild animals tends to be much lower in fat and cholesterol than most meat from domestic farm animals, therefore it is even more healthy to eat and, in my personal opinion, most wild meats seem to have a much better quality and flavor than their domestic 'counterparts' do. Wild animal flesh in general (that is fresh and uncontaminated, of course), is a nutritious and healthy source of protien, iron, Thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), nicotinic acid (niacin), and B12 (cyanocobalamin). Also, meat is not the only useful thing that can be derived from a wild animal's carcass; wild animal skins (with or without their fur) can be turned into durable, warm, and beautiful clothing, rugs, decorations, and other useful items. Antlers, horns, fur, hair, feathers, teeth, and bones can also be made into all kinds of interesting, beautiful, and useful things. Plus, I simply *enjoy* going out into the woods and out to the lakes and ponds and partaking in the acts of hunting and fishing (as do most other hunter/anglers), and I try to do it as often as I get the chance. However, I do believe that it is very important for me to use as much as possible from the carcass of each animal that I kill, in order to minimize wastefulness.
I believe that hunting and fishing are the purest, most ethical, and most natural methods of obtaining meat for human consumption. Unfortunately, though, not a great number of people regularly participate in hunting and fishing activities these days. It seems that most individual humans in our society have too little time, too little energy, or are just too lazy and/or squeamish to go out and kill wild animals for food anymore, especially since so many people have to work full-time jobs doing other things (usually not related to killing or butchering animals in any way) in order to make enough money to pay their bills, and because they are so used to buying pre-slaughtered animal flesh that is cut or ground up into nice and neat little pieces or chunks that come in nice and neat little packages from the local grocery store and cannot even imagine themselves killing or butchering an animal on their own, which I think is sad. So many people these days are not taken out early in life (or ever in their entire lives) and taught about the fundamentals of hunting and/or fishing, nor are they taught to have the proper respect for nature and all of its creatures (including other human beings) that goes along with being an ethical hunter/angler as well as an ethical *person*. They never learn the skills needed to hunt and/or fish, or dress, clean, and butcher the carcass of any animal; do not have the will, motivation, or desire to go hunting or fishing at all; and/or are outright opposed to hunting and/or fishing (because they do not understand it or see its importance to other people) even if they are not veg*ns and do eat meat and use other animal-derived products on a regular basis. Of course, it is so much easier and more convenient to just purchase animal products from the local grocer, however, most of those usually come from the infamous 'factory' farms and large commercial slaughtering plants that are said to cause so much pain, suffering, and misery to the livestock animals which are kept and/or slaughtered in such places. For more in-depth information about the determents of factory farming and factory slaughtering, please visit this page. Don't get me wrong, I believe that technology is an overall good thing, but some age-old practices, like hunting and fishing, should not be allowed to disintegrate from our culture, for our own sake as well as for the sake of our planet and all of the other creatures that share it with us.
There are several different types of hunting and fishing people out there. Some people are solely 'sport' and/or 'trophy' hunters/anglers; some hunters and anglers are called 'meat hunters' (people who hunt/fish solely for meat); some people (like me) are actually a combination of sport, trophy, and meat hunter/angler; and some people are just outright poachers (people who kill wild animal illegally for ambiguous reasons). It is very important to know the differences and refrain from lumping all hunting and fishing people together, because we are certainly not all the same.
'Sport' hunter/anglers:
'Trophy' hunters/anglers:
'Meat' hunter/anglers:
'Combo' or 'general' hunter/anglers:
Poachers:
Personally, I do not agree with people who hunt solely for 'sport' and/or for 'trophies' only, but I don't have any real problem with them as long as the meat from the animals which they kill is not wasted (I consider discarding the carcasses and letting them rot to be wasteful, even if some wild scavengers do happen to get a meal out of it, because that is never guaranteed; in my opinion, that is just being lazy and careless). Even if they don't use the meat themselves, if they give it away or sell it to people who do use it, that is cool with me. I suppose that even if the meat is just used to feed meat-eating domestic animals (like pets, zoo animals, etc.), at least, I guess that is better than just leaving it for bacteria, worms, and/or insects to consume (which is just a pet peeve of mine).
There are also some people who kill certain wild animals simply because they are a 'nuisance' to their livelihood. Many farmers and ranchers, for example, can obtain special permits to kill deer and other 'vermin' that cause serious and unacceptable damage to their crops and/or other types of their personal property, damage that must be prevented by killing the animals. Sometimes the meat from the animals they kill is used, but oftentimes it is discarded. I understand that people like farmers and ranchers have to kill certain animals that cause them problems, and such people do not always have the desire to use the meat themselves or the time to process it. However, wild animal meat is a valuable commodity that is not easy to obtain, and there is always someone, somewhere, who can use that meat, especially considering how many starving people (including children) there are out there. Even if one (a wild animal killer of any type) does not want the meat from the animals that he or she kills for him/herself, and does not have any family members or friends who want the meat either, there are several charitable organizations that will accept the meat and will use it to feed destitute people. Some of these organizations will accept entire animal carcasses at no charge whatsoever, though others require only the meat from the carcasses and sometimes prefer it to be ground or cubed prior to donation. Some of these groups only accept venison (deer meat), but some of the others will also accept meat from a few other types of wild game animals which are known to be good eating, such as wild turkeys, waterfowl, pheasants, rabbits, wild boar, etc.
Some charitable organizations that accept wild meat/carcasses to help feed the hungry:
Many of these groups also rely on monetary donations to pay for the inspection and processing of the donated meat/carcasses as well as volunteer workers. If you would like to donate wild meat/carcasses, give money, and/or volunteer your time and energy to such charitable organizations as the ones listed above and need help finding places in your area to do so, you should contact your local DNR (Department of Natural Resources) and ask them for information about it.
We ethical hunter/angler/trappers all need to unite together (quit having animosity and/or contention towards one another) and try to educate the public about hunting/fishing/trapping in general whenever possible, because there are so many non- and anti-hunting/fishing/trapping people out there who are completely clueless about who we are, what exactly we do, and why we do it. Thanks in part to poachers, ARAs (animal rights activists), and the biased media, many people have this mistaken idea that all hunters, anglers, and trappers are 'evil' people who just go out into the woods and try to kill and butcher every living animal that we can find because (they think) we are all 'bloodthirsty' and just want dead animal parts to hang on our walls.
Even though I believe that hunting and fishing are vital parts of human life (or should be; they are for me, anyway), I do realize and recognize the fact that hunting and/or fishing is not necessarily for everyone, especially veg*ns. Of course I do not expect a veg*n to want to hunt or fish; no self-proclaimed veg*n should ever be doing those kinds of things anyway, at all (unless, on the off-chance, he or she is using the meat from the dead animals to feed other people who do eat meat, but even that might be questionable, depending on the circumstance). I understand that many people simply live too far away from areas where hunting and/or fishing are possible or permitted. Also, since the overall human population of this planet has reached a crisis level and the subsequent encroachment into and conversion/destruction of the wilderness into urban territory for human habitation/usage has had devastating effects on the natural ecological balance in recent decades, there probably isn’t enough wilderness and natural habitat left to sustain animal/fish populations which are hunted/fished by humans, or accommodate all of the human hunter/anglers at any given time, if *every* human hunted and/or fished for all or most of his or her meat in this present situation. However, it is my personal opinion that every single meat-eating human (who is able-bodied enough and is not an aspiring veg*n, of course) should have the ‘intestinal fortitude’ to kill an animal, butcher its carcass, and prepare its meat for consumption on his or her own, or at least be able to physically help other people in some way with the conversion of a living animal into their food, even if they don’t have to do it on a regular basis. Basically, killing animals and eating their flesh goes hand in hand; if you don't have the stomach for both, then you have no business doing either, IMO.
As our society becomes more and more reliant on high technology for its existence, I think that our species will, sadly, suffer a great loss of its natural survival abilities, attributes, and skills in the future if such things are not exercised by more people more regularly. Don't get me wrong, I believe that technology is an overall good thing, but I also believe that some age-old practices, like hunting and fishing, should not be allowed to (let alone be forced to) disintegrate from our culture.
People who hunt solely for 'sport' don't really care about the nutritional value, tastiness, or usefulness of the dead carcasses of the animals they kill; they just hunt and kill for the thrill of hunting and killing, and that is it. They will either leave the carcasses of the animals they kill to rot and/or be consumed by wild scavengers, or they will donate the carcasses (or just the meat) to their family, friends, other people who want it, or to charitable organizations that accept it and use it to feed hungry people. People who fish solely for 'sport' usually practice 'catch and release' (the act of catching live fish then immediately releasing them back into the water they came from), but I imagine that some of them may keep at least some of their catches some of the time to give to other people who want to eat the fish.
People who hunt and/or fish solely for 'trophies' are only out to obtain certain body parts from particular wild animals that can be preserved through taxidermy and displayed as 'trophies' (such as a deer's head or a fish's entire outer body, for example, which is cleaned, treated, stuffed, and preserved to appear lifelike and often mounted on a plaque of some sort which can be hung on a wall). Like 'sport' hunter/anglers, they may leave the rest of the carcass to rot and/or be eaten by wild scavengers, or they may save the meat to give to other people who want to eat it.
People who hunt and/or fish solely for meat are known by some as 'meat' hunter/anglers. They do not care about sport or trophies, they only want to get some wild meat to eat and that is it.
Some hunters and anglers are sort of a combination of 'sport', 'trophy', and 'meat' hunter/angler, I guess. I consider myself one of these. I like to enjoy all aspects of hunting and fishing; I like to make the most out of these activities in every possible way when I am participating in them. I love the meat from the wild animals (including the fish) that I kill, but I also love the 'sport' of hunting and fishing: in hunting - the anticipation that comes from tracking and hunting for animals in the wild, the rush I get while stalking a wild prey animal, and finally the thrill of making the kill; in fishing - the anticipation of a fishes' strike while using lures or bait to attract the fish, the rush I get when hooking and reeling in a big fish, and then the thrill of finally landing it. As for keeping 'trophies', to me, it is not just about having a 'status symbol', like it may be to some people. To me, keeping a 'trophy' is also about creating a tangible icon that will always stand for a great hunt (something that will remind me every time I look at and/or touch it) and also which seems to capture some of the wonderful spirit of the animal that I harvested that day, to keep for myself as well as to share with others.
Poachers, on the other hand, are people who kill wild animals illegally, oftentimes just for money. Poachers are *criminal* freeloaders, unlike law-abiding hunters, anglers, and trappers who pay their dues and follow the necessary rules. Poachers disregard the law, other people (other hunters, anglers, and trappers as well as everyone else who cares about the wilderness), and the welfare, conservation, and preservation of wild animal species and their habitat. Poachers are a serious threat to wildlife populations, as they often kill endangered species. They also tend to litter more often, be more wasteful, and be more inhumane to the animals they kill, simply because they don't care about anyone or anything else but themselves (for the most part). Poachers disregard the rights of, and the preservation of the rights of, hunters, anglers, and trappers everywhere while angering outdoors people and nature lovers in general, because they lack basic morals and fail to comply with the basic ethical standards of hunting, fishing, and trapping (set up by our society for good reasons). They are, in my humble opinion, *bad* people, overall. Furthermore, they make all of us good law-abiding hunters, anglers, and trappers look bad in many people's eyes, because many people don't know any better and tend to confuse regular hunters, anglers, and trappers with poachers, lump us all together, and espouse the idea that all hunting, fishing, and trapping is 'bad', 'wrong', and/or 'evil', based on the attitudes and actions of poachers alone. Poachers are a serious determent to wildlife, the environment, and humanity. We ethical hunters, anglers, and trappers all need to do our part to deter poachers by doing things to discourage them and turn them in to the authorities whenever we get the chance.
Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry [FHFH]
Hunt for the Hungry
Sportsmen Against Hunger [SAH]
