I would amend this slightly. Killing highly intelligent species with complex social bonds for sport is barbaric. Even more so in front of their kin.
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Actually, hunting has demonstrable mental health benefits. And I mean the act of hunting, not killing. This becomes less true commensurate to how commercialized a form hunting takes (hunting as TV, hunting as competitive sport, paying guides, etc.). for example.... 1/2
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If you walk into the wilderness with a bow and some camping gear and spend a few days hunting, it will become obvious that it is far healthier than most of the alternative ways you could spend that time. It's like going back to our roots as human beings whether or not you kill.
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I believe that you are right, at least for some people. I have many friends who are hunters, who have shared the meat of their kills with me and mine, which I appreciate more than buying meat at a store. I don’t hunt, but I do understand the appeal of many aspects of it.
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I have known of sports hunters to be called in to hunt out of season, by the Conservation Department, because a herd of deer was suffering malnutrition, starvation, and disease due to overcrowding. Sport hunting protects the quality of life of these herds.
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Deer, especially in North America, have had their predators systematically killed off by humans. Also, we eat deer meat--or at least we can, and when deer are killed, we should. There are a few ways that this (hunting African elephants) is a different situation.
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I don't know for sure this is what was going on, but some of these 'hunts' are population control measures. It looks like in this area, two elephants per year are taken. It's not pretty, but hunting/big game mgmt in Africa is so screwed up, good practices can look pretty bad.
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Many times, the meat is given to locals, and the value brought in by foreigners coming in to 'hunt' the animals is enough to get local buy-in for antipoaching measures. Again, I don't know the specifics of this one, but I think it's important not to paint with too broad a brush.
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I'm sorry. I think it may have ruined mine, too.
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I think if they were killing the elephant for food you would have the same negative reaction to it
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True. My standards for what should not be hunted for food are fairly clear (although the boundaries can be discussed): Long-lived, socially-complex animals that live in multi-generational groups and pass information on not just within their lineages but between--not food.
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I agree with you. The two lives are not equivalent--that feels like climbing on a slippery slope, but it is true. Salmon are not social, are not cultural, are running mostly on programs they had on-board at birth. They are hardware. Elephants--like us--are largely software.
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So, "hardware" implies that they are incapable of suffering, like Descartes animal machines? Or do you mean that the suffering is different, not qualifying for moral consideration?
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They don't have memory of suffering, another salmon dying next to them doesn't even register. They don't shift their behavior around particular events that might qualify as emotional.
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That might not be true. I'm not really competent enough to understand the paper below, but it suggest that growth-stunted salmon in farming is because of chronic stress. If that is true, I would call that emotional suffering.http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/5/160030 …
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There can be no doubt that salmon - despite their lack of memory - feel pain. This begs the question: do they suffer? Therein lies the dilemma. There is too much conflicting info on fish, pain, and ethics for me -a current pescatarian - to be totally comfortable eating them.
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Does it really matter? So what if a salmon can't suffer and only feel pain. How much pain is ok? For how long? If there's no need to cause either pain or suffering, then why should we?
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