When is something NOT food?

[Blaine91555]

So what's YOUR take on it? 

Hi Byrd! It's great to see you here.

I kind of like the Inuit's take on this. When we take an animal's life it should be for food and no part of the animal should be wasted out of respect for the life taken. We should never take a life just for a trophy or to use only a part of it and discard the rest.

I tend to view we humans as animals, just like all other animals, and we have the right to eat our natural diet just as all animals do. I think we get carried away with the amount of meat we have in our diets and as I age I eat less and less meat, but I won't give it up.

If I hit a bird with my car I mourn it as a needless killing of an animal, but I have no regrets when I take a game animal for food. There have been times in my life when the fruits of hunting have been an important part of my income and the meat was needed.

The idea of how some livestock are treated sickens me, but I've never been around it. Growing up around farmers and ranchers I learned that livestock are pampered as mistreated livestock is of far less value and it's just wrong. I was taught to never kill an animal unless I intended to eat it and I needed it.

In answer to your core question, killing any animal not being used for food is wrong. Livestock should be pampered and wild game should be properly managed and culled when it's needed and all wild game taken should be for food and not as a trophy.

I'm truly bothered when people interfere by using lawsuits to stop Fish and Game from managing wild game. They always do more harm than good and almost none of them know what they talking about. They don't understand that if you do not cull herds all of them suffer. Not allowing hunters to take them for food is cruel.

When a herd is too large to make it through winter the winter kill can be as high as 90% and the remaining animals are unhealthy. By culling perhaps 30%, the remaining animals can survive and be healthy. I have personally seen most of a herd starve due to a crazy law suit by well-meaning people who simply do not have a clue what they are talking about.