People shouldn’t be hunting in the first place. Toxic masculinity (toxic humanity really) thinks killing/exerting power over a weaker innocent is a good thing though

People hunt because it is cheaper and more ethical than cow.

i don’t have the stats, but if I had to bet, I’d bet that most people do not hunt for that reason, and they end up spending more than they would otherwise

also, almost nobody in the US needs to eat cows or any other animals. Lentils are cheaper than all of the above, and that’s without looking at externalities like climate impact

Growing up rural and poor, venison was the difference between everyone eating well or my parents having to skip meals. A box of shotgun shells cost $10 and if we took 2 or 3 deer it would be enough to fill a chest freezer and last most of the year, also we would trade it with local farmers for vegetables and watermen for seafood.

I can understand why people with no other choice would hunt. If there are other options though, it’s unnecessary killing and violence

White tail deer must be killed, we have broken their habitat.

Over the last 400 years Millions of acres of Forrest have been converted to planes and farmland, and most of the large North American predators have been killed.

So instead of deer having to forrage in Forrest they can be eat more effectively by grazing, and without natural predators like wolves the deer population can grow unchecked. Deer will reproduce until the area can’t support the population leading to starvation. Also the deer population has let them spread to new areas where they can out compeat animals like moose, elk, and caraboo, causing the larger animals population to plummet.

Do you think the same strategy should be applied to feral housecats? How about overpopulating humans?

This is apples to oranges to cucumbers.

We probably should cull and/or spay feral cats because they do have a large measurable ecological impact.

We shouldn’t cull humans for the obvious ethical reasons, but we should try harder to treat the planet right.

We shouldn’t cull humans for the obvious ethical reasons

nor should we cull other species, for the obvious ethical reasons. If your solution to a problem is “kill until it’s not a problem anymore”, guess what, that’s not good enough

What obvious ethical reasons?

Unnecessary killing is wrong? Killing is something to avoid? Taking anothers life should be a last resort and if it is absolutely necessary, we should always be trying to stop it or find ways to make it unnecessary? Live and let live? Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you?

idk those are pretty obvious to me, if they’re not obvious to you then idk what to tell you

I think we just have different values when it comes to wildlife, and animals. “Live and let live” “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you” as social contracts work for human interactions, but animals lack the capacity to understand those concepts and can’t hold up their end of the contract. A cat won’t live and let live, a cat will kill every bird it can get it’s hands on. Nature is a brutal unstable equilibrium, and human actions have made it more unstable. But as thinking animals we have the ability to reduce the harm we have caused. We need to reduce suffering where we can, and maintain the welfare not just of individual animals but of their populations and environments.