I like all your comments. We only shoot what we need. We freeze alll our meat and it doesnt go to waste, we leave some bones for dog treats and the rest is taken to the bush to be eaten by thw animals. Hunting is way more humane than eating meat from a store because the animals are loaded with hormones. We eat our own beef and they have a great life being raised out in the green pastures. As stated above, if everyone stopped hunting, the ecosystem would become overwhelmed as those species thrive
Actually, not trying to be a know-it-all, but (almost all) animals grown commercially are not loaded with hormones. I'm an animal science major and I took a class with a huge section about it. The only thing they give them is an implanted growth hormone that makes them process their food more efficiently. Not saying that eating your own beef is bad! Just wanted to give you some info! Like the marketing scams that say "milk from hormone-free cows"? Not true. Every dairy cow is given a special hormone (BST: bovine somatotropin) to help increase milk production. Every single one. Beef cattle are the same way. Without the hormones (which are harmless!!) there would not be enough meat to feed the country. One steer can be cut into 250 servings of beef! Hormones increase their fat to muscle ratio, making their meat more palatable and helping them to get more cuts of meat from them. Sorry, don't mean to rant or anything but there is a lot of misunderstandings about the care of commercially grown food animals. They are very well cared for, the number of hormones used are going down and they are very healthy. As in, a pig nursery is cleaner than a hospitals NICU center.
Sorry for taking the thread to a different place!
Actually, not trying to be a know-it-all, but (almost all) animals grown commercially are not loaded with hormones. I'm an animal science major and I took a class with a huge section about it. The only thing they give them is an implanted growth hormone that makes them process their food more efficiently. Not saying that eating your own beef is bad! Just wanted to give you some info! Like the marketing scams that say "milk from hormone-free cows"? Not true. Every dairy cow is given a special hormone (BST: bovine somatotropin) to help increase milk production. Every single one. Beef cattle are the same way. Without the hormones (which are harmless!!) there would not be enough meat to feed the country. One steer can be cut into 250 servings of beef! Hormones increase their fat to muscle ratio, making their meat more palatable and helping them to get more cuts of meat from them. Sorry, don't mean to rant or anything but there is a lot of misunderstandings about the care of commercially grown food animals. They are very well cared for, the number of hormones used are going down and they are very healthy. As in, a pig nursery is cleaner than a hospitals NICU center.
Sorry for taking the thread to a different place!
Factory farms? No such thing as far as I know. There are cow-calf operations that take care of the calves until they are weaned, stocker calf operations and feeder calf operations that take care of them and feed them until they are harvested. They are then transported from the ranches/operations to the processing plants (which are very sanitary) and then stored in a freezer. Swine and poultry have variations but it is all very humane.
I was just trying to give a little information, not redirect the thread. If you'd like to talk more about it, please PM me but I'd rather the OP keep their thread on Hunting! Sorry!
I like what a few have said, As far as taking the large trophy bucks, when I shot myne, there were about 3 or 4 other younger bucks that were in the same field, removing a large mature buck like that does enable new genetics get into the pool
I certainly wasn't trying to point you out when I mentioned trophy animals - sorry if it seemed like that! It's just te general trend, and there's a fine line between beneficial thinning of the gene pool and taking out all of the good genes.
So do you primarily hunt with a rifle, or do you bowhunt as well?
IMO hunting is fun and helpful. My family hunts all sorts of animals- deer, geese, ducks, rabbits, and more. I believe that God put those animals on the earth for a reason, and that reason is to be hunted and provided as food. I don't like it when animals are poached, like tigers or other endangered animals though.
I am curious about the distinction being made between sport and subsistence hunting. Here, there isn't a difference. Even if you get the animal stuffed you often get to keep the meat. Is this not how it works elsewhere? I suppose it helps that the animals here actually taste good.
As far as culling goes, I've seen firsthand how necessary it is in wild deer and Canadian goose populations. These populations would have died out long ago if not for culling season, because there are SO MANY of these animals that they would foul their own feeding grounds and then run out of food and they'd all starve. It's actually necessary to cull some every season in order to maintain a healthy, sustainable population. And of course we have protected areas too. Hunters here tend to be conservationists, and the same land used for duck hunting may be planted with rare grasses and bird houses for endangered fowl to encourage growth. Hunters realize that being able to continue hunting depends on a healthy eco-system. Which is not to say there isn't any controversy about hunting certain animals. We just had our first wolf hunt in years, and a lot of people were upset about it. It seems a little weird that we almost lost all wolves here forever, then brought them back from extinction, and we're now back to killing them :P
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
Similar Threads
