Thread: Is hunting morally acceptable in modern society?

I can't make fire without matches or a lighter, and (besides a bug) have never killed anything, not even a fish. I'd be so SOL.

Wait for me, okay? Just... wait.

What kind of prey are we talking about?

Originally Posted by alanmt

What kind of prey are we talking about?

Tasty.

I do pride myself for being self sufficient in the wild. I know how to navigate by the stars or by making a sun compass. i can make my own fish hooks or traps, snares for small animals and such but prefer a bow or black powder rifle.

Consider the animal kingdom. All of the vegetarians, with a few raptors being the exception, have their eyes on the side of their heads such as sheep, cows, squirrels, beavers and such. They are meant to graze on plants.

The predators have their eyes in the front to be able to locate, stalk and kill game such as all cats including the large ones, dogs, owls and....man.

Originally Posted by Ditch

I do pride myself for being self sufficient in the wild. I know how to navigate by the stars or by making a sun compass. i can make my own fish hooks or traps, snares for small animals and such but prefer a bow or black powder rifle.

Consider the animal kingdom. All of the vegetarians, with a few raptors being the exception, have their eyes on the side of their heads such as sheep, cows, squirrels, beavers and such. They are meant to graze on plants.

The predators have their eyes in the front to be able to locate, stalk and kill game such as all cats including the large ones, dogs, owls and....man.

If you are trying to say that having binocular vision indicates that humans are designed as predators, that's not the case at all. Many pure herbavores -- particularly primates like humans -- have binocular vision. It is a trait more closely associated with having the depth perception necessary to move around safely in trees. Humans are omnivores, not carnivores.

Hunters beware:


North Carolina man says he's got video of Bigfoot

'You can hear it snarl or growl at me' in video, man says
Below:

"One thing I know is the smell of it was horrid. It smelled like a cross between road kill and a skunk," said Thomas Byers of North Carolina, who shared this still photo from a short video he took of what he believes to be Bigfoot.By NewsChannel 36 Staff

— A Shelby, N.C. man says he has captured video of Bigfoot.

Thomas Byers e-mailed WCNC NewsChannel 36 in Charlotte, N.C., saying he saw Bigfoot walk across Golden Valley Church Road in Rutherford County Tuesday evening. Byers' says he was about 15 to 20 feet away from the creature when he captured a five-second video.

"It ran across the road and into the woods right in front of us and I was able to film it," Byers wrote. "In the short video you can hear it snarl or growl at me."

Furthermore: "One thing I know is the smell of it was horrid. It smelled like a cross between road kill and a skunk. And it did not like the fact that I was there on the road with it. In the video you can hear it snarl or growl at me as it crosses the road."

Originally Posted by Terry D

If you are trying to say that having binocular vision indicates that humans are designed as predators, that's not the case at all. Many pure herbavores -- particularly primates like humans -- have binocular vision. It is a trait more closely associated with having the depth perception necessary to move around safely in trees. Humans are omnivores, not carnivores.

Explain our canine teeth then. We still have them, although they are smaller than a cat or dogs. Still they are only found on predators who were meant to eat meat. Evolutionists might say that they used to be longer. Still, we have four teeth that are meant to cut through and tear off meat.

Originally Posted by Robinjazz

Hunters beware:


North Carolina man says he's got video of Bigfoot

'You can hear it snarl or growl at me' in video, man says
Below:

"One thing I know is the smell of it was horrid. It smelled like a cross between road kill and a skunk," said Thomas Byers of North Carolina, who shared this still photo from a short video he took of what he believes to be Bigfoot.By NewsChannel 36 Staff

— A Shelby, N.C. man says he has captured video of Bigfoot.

Thomas Byers e-mailed WCNC NewsChannel 36 in Charlotte, N.C., saying he saw Bigfoot walk across Golden Valley Church Road in Rutherford County Tuesday evening. Byers' says he was about 15 to 20 feet away from the creature when he captured a five-second video.

"It ran across the road and into the woods right in front of us and I was able to film it," Byers wrote. "In the short video you can hear it snarl or growl at me."

Furthermore: "One thing I know is the smell of it was horrid. It smelled like a cross between road kill and a skunk. And it did not like the fact that I was there on the road with it. In the video you can hear it snarl or growl at me as it crosses the road."

If Bigfoot indeed exists which I doubt, why hasn't a hunter shot one yet? That would make a fine mount on a wall and would make any redneck proud. Not to hijack the thread, but if someone did shoot a Bigfoot, they couldn't be convicted of murder as it isn't a person, it is an animal. I wonder what they taste like?

Originally Posted by Ditch

I wonder what they taste like?

Probably like a cross between roadkill and skunk.

Originally Posted by Ditch

Explain our canine teeth then.

They are an evolutionary adaptation to the fact that young women find vampires sexy and want to breed with them.

Originally Posted by Ditch

Explain our canine teeth then. We still have them, although they are smaller than a cat or dogs. Still they are only found on predators who were meant to eat meat. Evolutionists might say that they used to be longer. Still, we have four teeth that are meant to cut through and tear off meat.

You and Terry are both partly correct.

Technically, you guys are confusing predation with hunting animals. Ecologically, there's a difference. Herbivores are predators, as are parasites. Predation is any interaction that results in the exchange of energy (more simply, actively seeking out and eating something).

Terry is correct in that binocular vision is not necessarily a trait evolved solely for hunting.

You are correct about teeth designed for tearing flesh. However, that also doesn't necessarily require a creature to be a "hunter."

Animals might require flesh-tearing teeth, yet be primarily or solely scavengers.

Or, as Alan pointed out, they're useful for attracting vampires.

Originally Posted by Ditch

Explain our canine teeth then. We still have them, although they are smaller than a cat or dogs. Still they are only found on predators who were meant to eat meat. Evolutionists might say that they used to be longer. Still, we have four teeth that are meant to cut through and tear off meat.

That's not acurate either. Many omnivores, and herbivores, including all monkeys, and great apes have fairly well developed canine teeth. Gorillas are strictly herbavores and have huge canine teeth. An animal's molars tell you more about its eating adaptation than do the canine teeth. Most carnivores have ridge-like molars with an edge more adapted to cutting and crushing (like dogs and cats). Herbivores have flat molars suitable for grinding tough plant material (horses, cattle). Omnivores, like us, have a combination.

There are few (actually I can't think of any right off the top of my head) primates which function primarily as predators. Baboons will, on occasion, but that is rare. Predation is a learned trait in humans, not something geneticly programmed into us. I'm not saying that hunting is not "natural", we've adapted to our environment, and through learning, have developed into effective hunters. All I'm saying is that we are not physiologicly carnivores.

We are meat eaters. Man would not have survived the winters when plants were scarce without having eaten meat. Civilized society was the first to question eating meat even though man would never have survived without doing so.

Originally Posted by Ditch

We are meat eaters. Man would not have survived the winters when plants were scarce without having eaten meat. Civilized society was the first to question eating meat even though man would never have survived without doing so.

This, of course, presumes that man evolved and lived solely in conditions where winter was a hardship.

There is quite a lot of evidence to suggest differently. The evidence suggests that we migrated / expanded into such regions.

Read again what Terry wrote. Carefully this time. He said we adapted. That doesn't discount the notion that eating meat helped us tremendously.

You are correct about teeth designed for tearing flesh. However, that also doesn't necessarily require a creature to be a "hunter."

Animals might require flesh-tearing teeth, yet be primarily or solely scavengers.

Scavengers eat meat.

This, of course, presumes that man evolved and lived solely in conditions where winter was a hardship.

There is an abundance of evidence that early man hunted and ate animals such as mastodons.

Meat-eating has impacted the evolution of the human body, scientists reported today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Our fondness for a juicy steak triggered a number of adaptations over countless generations. For instance, our jaws have gotten smaller, and we have an improved ability to process cholesterol and fat.



Our taste for meat has also led us into some trouble—our teeth are too big for our downsized jaws and most of us need dental work.
"It's really amazing what we know now that we didn't know 15 or 20 years ago," said Mark Teaford, a professor at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University. Teaford helped organize a panel discussion on human diet from a number of perspectives:
• How did the ability to eat meat shape the evolution of humans?
• What can we learn about early humans from tooth shape?
Carnivorous humans go back a long way. Stone tools for butchering meat, and animal bones with corresponding cut marks on them, first appear in the fossil record about 2.5 million years ago.
How Did Meat-Eating Start?
Some early humans may have started eating meat as a way to survive within their own ecological niche.
Competition from other species may be a key element of natural selection that has molded anatomy and behavior, according to Craig B. Stanford, an ecologist at the University of Southern California (USC).
Stanford has spent years visiting the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda, Africa, studying the relationship between mountain gorillas and chimpanzees.
"It's the only forest where mountain gorillas and chimps both live," he said. "We're trying to understand the ecological relationship—do they compete for food, for nesting sites?"
The key difference between chimps and gorillas ecologically is that chimps eat meat and gorillas don't. A total herbivore is able to coexist with an omnivore because they have significantly different diets.




Spears were not used for gathering tubers. Bones have been found in caves.