Is hunting animals a sin?

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Sean_Boyle

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NO!!!

I heard some discussion on the radio last night about this. I am amazed that some people believe its a sin to hunt.

What is more of a sin is to disassociate ourselves with the killing of animals for food by buying meat in clean packages with little no evidence that it was once alive. Some people even go as far as to buy meat(meat, fish, poultry) without any bones that may remind them that they are consuming what was a living breathing animal. Is it better to pay someone else to do your dirty work for you? No!!!

You’ll never gain a full appreication for the animals we eat if you don’t see to completion the whole neccessary ugly process from living/breathing to your tables. The life and death of animals are necessary to feed and cloth our families. Turn your back on the sacrfices made by the animal because it’s messy is an afront to God creation.

The hunter assumes a responsiblity before pulling the trigger to make use of the animal in a respectful way (to not waste) and more importantly the hunter has a responsiblity to make a clean kill with as little suffering to the animal as possible.

There are laws that prevent the killing of animal for sport or to waste. It’s called wanton waste. So sport killing isn’t in question. It’s against the law.

If you don’t hunt or think that you are capable of killing an animal to eat, what makes you think that buying it makes you any better? Your better off in God’s eyes if you assume the responsiblity that all hunters assume in the taking of the life of an animal; feeling the weight of the responsiblity that your taking on than disassociating yourself with the killing of an animal.

What do you think??
 
Sean Boyle:
NO!!!

I heard some discussion on the radio last night about this. I am amazed that some people believe its a sin to hunt.

What is more of a sin is to disassociate ourselves with the killing of animals for food by buying meat in clean packages with little no evidence that it was once alive. Some people even go as far as to buy meat(meat, fish, poultry) without any bones that may remind them that they are consuming what was a living breathing animal. Is it better to pay someone else to do your dirty work for you? No!!!

You’ll never gain a full appreication for the animals we eat if you don’t see to completion the whole neccessary ugly process from living/breathing to your tables. The life and death of animals are necessary to feed and cloth our families. Turn your back on the sacrfices made by the animal because it’s messy is an afront to God creation.

The hunter assumes a responsiblity before pulling the trigger to make use of the animal in a respectful way (to not waste) and more importantly the hunter has a responsiblity to make a clean kill with as little suffering to the animal as possible.

There are laws that prevent the killing of animal for sport or to waste. It’s called wanton waste. So sport killing isn’t in question. It’s against the law.

If you don’t hunt or think that you are capable of killing an animal to eat, what makes you think that buying it makes you any better? Your better off in God’s eyes if you assume the responsiblity that all hunters assume in the taking of the life of an animal; feeling the weight of the responsiblity that your taking on than disassociating yourself with the killing of an animal.

What do you think??
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I think the vast majority of hunters hunt for sport (which is killing for fun) and put forward the lame excuse that its killing for food.
You have also used that story in other threads that people can only appreciate food if they see and participate in the process of killing the animal to eating it. Absolute nonsense!!!
 
Your correct, this was discussed on one thread about four or five months ago. It was sort of off topic on that thread. But not this one.

There are about 60 million hunters in the U.S. and roughly the same number fish. So approx. 100 million people fish or hunt in the United States. That would a rather large amount of wasted carcasses somewhere. Where are they? You must live around a lot of people that are unethicial to be of the opinion that the majority of your neighbors kill for the fun of it. It is against the law in most states.

Point to someone that kills for fun with proof, and I can show you how to turn them in.
 
Sean Boyle:
Your correct, this was discussed on one thread about four or five months ago. It was sort of off topic on that thread. But not this one.

There are about 60 million hunters in the U.S. and roughly the same number fish. So approx. 100 million people fish or hunt in the United States. That would a rather large amount of wasted carcasses somewhere. Where are they? You must live around a lot of people that are unethicial to be of the opinion that the majority of your neighbors kill for the fun of it. It is against the law in most states.

Point to someone that kills for fun with proof, and I can show you how to turn them in.
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So you are implying that 60 million people have no money to buy meat in a supermarket and the reason they hunt is just to put food on their table. Sorry but I don’t buy into that. America is the richest country in the world and the people who can afford to hunt are not doing so because they would go hungry. The genuine poor in the US would not be in a position to go hunting.
 
The point was the disassocation that we as a people have with the necessary killing that takes place which is part of our daily lives. People buy meat at the store with little or no regard for the sacrifice that the domestic animal has made for that meal. They don’t assocate the meat with an animal anymore. Life has become to easy.

At least hunting reinforces that connection to the killing, the responsibility of the hunter, and the sacrifice of the animal in the mind of the hunter and his/her family.

Buying at the store has become part of the problem. The problem of disassocation. It gives us that disconnect. That separation from the killing. There is no second thought to it anymore. Just go to the store and buy it.
 
No, it is not. However, we are called to be Stewards of Creation. If we hunt just to kill things, we are not being what we are called to be.

I don’t care what anyone says, any wild animal tastes 1000x better than any domestically grown animal. (God grows them best).
 
No–that is being ridiculous to say that those who hunt must be too poor to buy their meat in the grocery store to avoid “hunting for sport, not for food”. If the hunter eats what he kills, he is hunting for food. There is such a thing as preference, and it’s entirely legitimate to prefer venison to beef or pheasant & quail to chicken and turkey.

Yes, those who hunt enjoy the sport of what they’re doing and aren’t doing it for raw survival needs–that does not change the fact that what is killed is eaten by the hunter (and his family).

There are people who keep and kill their own chickens because they feel that the factory method of producing chickens for the grocery stores is immoral (or that their way produces better tasting chickens and eggs). They’re not killing the chickens for ‘sport’ even if they have the money to buy pre-packaged chickens rather than killing their own.

Hunting without waste isn’t sinful. We’re not required to spend our lives avoiding all possible occasions of enjoyment.
 
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thistle:
I think the vast majority of hunters hunt for sport (which is killing for fun) and put forward the lame excuse that its killing for food.
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Based on multiple surveys taken at hunting license renewals about harvests in the prior year, food use was consistently the leading reason for game taken. What’s lame is that the anti-hunting and anti-gun types consistently ignore those surveys, and don’t really have an excuse for continuing to repeat the false accusations about hunter’s motivces even after they’ve previously had those false assumptions challenged.
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thistle:
So you are implying that 60 million people have no money to buy meat in a supermarket and the reason they hunt is just to put food on their table. Sorry but I don’t buy into that. America is the richest country in the world and the people who can afford to hunt are not doing so because they would go hungry. The genuine poor in the US would not be in a position to go hunting.
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It looks like you’ve decided in advance that it is impossible to hunt for food instead of sport unless one is in danger of starving to death AND that there are not genuine poor in areas rural enough to hunt in AND that the US government has an endless stack of money to throw at issues you think it should. None of these presumptions are supportable.

The second, about the ability of the poor to hunt, shows such an obvious lack of knowledge of ways of life in various part so the US that it has finished off any hope of you speaking credibly on this matter that you hadn’t already lost back in the gun ownership thread. The poverty in the very sparsley populated Appalachian Mounutain area is well known. From newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=565 we read this:
The family survives by hunting and eating deer and pheasants. “If it wasn’t for shooting a deer and a few pheasants, we wouldn’t have any red meat except for maybe a piece of beef once in a while,” Larry told the AP. Iva cans food from the garden for the family to eat during the winter. The couple spends about $45 a month at the grocery store.
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Hunting, in and of itself, is not sinful. However, certain forms of hunting, such as “canned hunts” where folks can pay to kill aged, drugged exotic animals, are at least morally problematic. We need to keep in mind that while good intentions cannot make an objectively wrong action into a good action, evil intentions can make an action immoral.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
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mlchance:
Hunting, in and of itself, is not sinful. However, certain forms of hunting, such as “canned hunts” where folks can pay to kill aged, drugged exotic animals, are at least morally problematic. We need to keep in mind that while good intentions cannot make an objectively wrong action into a good action, evil intentions can make an action immoral.

– Mark L. Chance.
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I agree with this and with the OP. While I don’t choose to hunt, I have found responsible hunters to be some of the most life-respecting people I know. Most are extremely pro-environment, care about clean kills, and efficiently use the products of the hunt for food and to support charities. Hunting fees are the single biggest financial support for preserving both wildlife and wilderness. The OP nailed it when he said the disassociation between the harvesting of food and consumption of it can lead to a lack of respect for the life given for our table. Fishing is the same way. Most either keep the fish for consumption or catch and release. The “industrialization” of our food supply is what leads to callousness towards both our environment and the care of food animals.

We know at least that Jesus ate fish. He didn’t call us to be vegetarians. I can respect an anti-hunter’s point of view ONLY if they are totally consistent in not consuming or acquiring any animal products (that includes shoes, purses and belts!)

Moralizing about the means to harvest animals is hypocritical otherwise. There is more massive in-humaneness in one day of industrialized animal production than there could ever be in a year of legalized hunting.

If you’ve ever had to slaughter a farm animal for food, and you’re heart and mind are in the right place, you can only feel a big debt of gratitude to the animal and to God for what their life means.

May God bless you.
 
It is not a sin if it is done in a truly sporting manner and not to inflict needless suffering on the animal. No hunter I know ever wants to do that. They strive for a clean kill and are very respectful of life.
 
Jesus was not an accomplise to an evil holocaust when He told the Apostles to put their nets in the water which put to death a massive quantity of fish. Peter did not sin when his obedience to Jesus caused the death of a great number of fish.

Hunting and fishing is not a sin.

NAB LUK 5:4
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have been hard at it all night long and have caught nothing; but if you say so, I will lower the nets.” Upon doing this they caught such a great number of fish that their nets were at the breaking point. They signaled to their mates in the other boat to come and help them. These came, and together they filled the two boats until they nearly sank.
 
Hunting is a sound management practice to keep game populations at a healthy level based on carrying capacity of the habitat. It’s a science and it’s not perfect and those of us that hunt for food are very fortunate; we get to enjoy the great outdoors,
we can be selective in our quarry and enjoy the beauty of other non game species, the rippling of a river, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, while giving thanks for the opportunity and if we are fortunate; to enjoy some of the tastiest food on earth. If our freezers are full we can share our bounty with the needy. There are many programs that take in unwanted game meat to feed the homeless. Thank you God for providing us hunters such splendor.
 
While I have yet to hunt, I fish regularly. There IS something elementally honest and complete about going out into the wild, killing, cleaning and cooking your dinner. It is a reminder of how creation was in the beginning, how people lived in earlier times before technology isolated us from nature.

I can’t help but think there IS something spiritually beneficial about it. Any argument against hunting (presuming the hunt results in the food being eaten) must logically conclude that only vegetarianism is moral. I mean really, how can you conclude that a meat packing plant is more moral than hunting? Since God himself seems to have told Peter it was OK to eat pork now, I think it is safe to say that argument is pretty flimsy.
 
I love to hunt! I bowhunt and gunhunt, i have been to Montana twice Elk hunting and Deer season in Wisconsin is like a holiday! Personally speaking I have so much respect for animals from my hunting experiences and always try to make ethical decisions when in the field…and when everything goes right there is NOTHING like venison tenderloins fried with butter and onions…YUM!!
 
I’m really going to get tomatoes thrown at me here…but here goes…who says you really need meat and fur coats to survive? Warm clothing can be made without fur nowadays. You don’t have to torture and kill any animal for fur or leather. We now have the ability to sustain ourselves without killing other sentient beings. While I’m not totally vegan, I’m moving slowly in that direction. Just read on the horrors of animal farming and production and I know I do not want to be part of inflicting pain on anyone, man or beast. There are wonderful meat substitues now, you can find vegetarian lasagna, meatballs, hot dogs, even bacon. A store like Whole Foods has even more variety than your standard supermarket. If you need a supplement like Taurine or Iron you can take them in pill form. You will be healthier in the long run, with a lowered cholestral and blood pressure readings. Seventh Day Adventists who don’t smoke, drink and most of them don’t eat meat have the longest living members. Just my :twocents: worth. Now you can start throwing the tomatoes.
 
I prefer wild game over processed meat…besides venison is very lean and is good for people, why would you want to restrict people from eating it?
 
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Celeste88:
Warm clothing can be made without fur nowadays.
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True.
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Celeste88:
You don’t have to torture and kill any animal for fur or leather.
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Strawman. I own a leather jacket. I didn’t torture anything to get it.
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Celeste88:
We now have the ability to sustain ourselves without killing other sentient beings.
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Animals aren’t sentient. Well, at least not most of them.
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Celeste88:
Just read on the horrors of animal farming and production and I know I do not want to be part of inflicting pain on anyone, man or beast.
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Good point here. Check out Matthew Scully’s Dominion if you haven’t already done so. There are some very serious moral problems with the way many food animals are raised and processed in the U.S. today. But note: The moral problems are with the methods by which food animals are raised and processed, not with the fact that animals are used as food.

Which, of course, has nothing to do with hunting itself.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
Dominion was one of the best reads ever…although I am a biased Catholic vegetarian.
 
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