Practical Issues > Fishing & Hunting > Hunting - Index

Hunting QA

Barry Kent MacKay answering Eugene Khutoryansky

My view is that diluting the message reduces the likelihood of changing minds, which presumably is the purpose of such exercises.

That said, though, instead of directing the show away from the central question, and aiding the hunters in promoting the idea (which I would question, at any rate) that somehow they are more benign than people dining at KFC or McDonald's (since most people do) try to pin down hunting as needless and cruel. I would, however, acknowledge the cruelty of most commercial meat production, pointing out that two wrongs don't make a right, and point that the very fact that the omnivorous public DOES dis-associate itself from commercial meat production is because most folks don't want to be involved with killing or with suffering, and don't share hunter's ability to be entertained by such activity. They (most consumers) may be mistaken in their belief that they need meat; may be conditioned from infancy to think it is essential to their diet, but they don't consider animal slaughter to be sport.

There is an expression "united we stand" that actually is a very solid concept that we should remember. If we are to discredit hunting, and if we have this opportunity, why "piss off" our fellow anti-hunters? It isn't an either/or situation; there's no need to be complacent about factory farming, but I'd try to stay on message and remember that antipathy toward hunting is based on shared values that exist even with meat eaters (however ill-informed they may be).