Ethics & Killing.

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Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley

Well-Known Member
Certain situations make me uncomfortable.
One of them is when I hear/witness critters being shot that are very edible and can produce a good meal, but they are discarded in the bottom of a ditch or left on the field.
The sort of thing I'm thinking of when let's say a foxing buddy wants to shoot a hare at the end of the night because he's travelled a few miles and hasn't had a shot... I never allow it.
I've noticed a few YouTube videos with chaps with all the latest wizardry blowing up rabbits & hares with let's say a .223 "because the farmer wants them gone".. a complete waste of good meat in my opinion, and just live target practice to make a film for the channel.
Pigeons as well being either smoked up with a CF or left for the foxes :doh:.
I must be getting soft in my old age, I can't see the point in shooting critters that you can eat and then not making the most of it, it makes me wonder why these folks don't just shoot gongs & paper.
Atb
BD
 
Bo Diddley said:
Certain situations make me uncomfortable.
One of them is when I hear/witness critters being shot that are very edible and can produce a good meal, but they are discarded in the bottom of a ditch or left on the field.
The sort of thing I'm thinking of when let's say a foxing buddy wants to shoot a hare at the end of the night because he's travelled a few miles and hasn't had a shot... I never allow it.
I've noticed a few YouTube videos with chaps with all the latest wizardry blowing up rabbits & hares with let's say a .223 "because the farmer wants them gone".. a complete waste of good meat in my opinion, and just live target practice to make a film for the channel.
Pigeons as well being either smoked up with a CF or left for the foxes :doh:.
I must be getting soft in my old age, I can't see the point in shooting critters that you can eat and then not making the most of it, it makes me wonder why these folks don't just shoot gongs & paper.
Atb
BD
Click to expand...
Not sure any mammal or bird in the uk is inedable, some we just dont want to eat.
Ill eat most things but the biggest killing for fun with no interest in the animal ending up on a plate is game shooting
 
It feels bad, but in the production of food, a high percentage is wasted, either from not being sold, sold but not eaten, eaten unnecessarily în gluttony (guilty!) and so on. When you're shooting most wild animals, the law is that you're not allowed to shoot primarily to eat them. They are legal quarry because there is sufficient good reason to shoot them - crop damage, environmental harm etc.
Is it unethical to perform the service of reducing crap or environmental damage? Most likely not. Whether we eat them is neither here nor there.

That said, I would certainly never allow someone to shoot a hare without eating it. I shoot things for two reasons - either they are a pest or food (or both).

What are the ethics of shooting animals to sell them for very little?
 
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I am totally with Bo Diddley on this one. You are not getting soft in your old age, you have morals and ethics. Well done for you. I would like to disagree with shakey jake on the subject of game shooting, but I fear he has a point. It does not happen on my shoot ( a very small one ) but I do worry about the larger shoots. We should all be aware of the image we portray.
 
Bo Diddley said:
Certain situations make me uncomfortable.
One of them is when I hear/witness critters being shot that are very edible and can produce a good meal, but they are discarded in the bottom of a ditch or left on the field.
The sort of thing I'm thinking of when let's say a foxing buddy wants to shoot a hare at the end of the night because he's travelled a few miles and hasn't had a shot... I never allow it.
I've noticed a few YouTube videos with chaps with all the latest wizardry blowing up rabbits & hares with let's say a .223 "because the farmer wants them gone".. a complete waste of good meat in my opinion, and just live target practice to make a film for the channel.
Pigeons as well being either smoked up with a CF or left for the foxes :doh:.
I must be getting soft in my old age, I can't see the point in shooting critters that you can eat and then not making the most of it, it makes me wonder why these folks don't just shoot gongs & paper.
Atb
BD
Click to expand...
I got your back, can’t stand to see good food go to waste but I don’t fancy fox bolognese 🤔👍🏻
 
I suppose the simple point I was trying to convey was the taking of a life and completely wasting that life by not making anything of it... forget about all the ridiculous laws we have to abide by like GL's for a moment, it seems like we have lost the point of it at times.

Some of those YouTube videos leave a bit to be desired, like I said a few are showing hares being blown up and wasted, I guess I'm a little "Old Skool" in my love of the countryside and the critters that I've grown up with.
 
Apthorpe said:
the law is that you're not allowed to shoot primarily to eat them
Click to expand...
Every day is a school day, I never realised that. I knew I'm not allowed to shoot the fat woodpigeons in the garden and make a nice rustic Mediterranean dish with them (I think that's bonkers)
 
shakey jake said:
What bit?
Crows toxic?
Big bag game days do the guns care what happens to pheasants?
Click to expand...

Sorry Shakey - i was mid flow with something else

So so so so so many of the shoots do utilise the birds - on many now they are eaten for elevenses - a meal after - and even packaged to take home and distribute with friends. I have been on many shoots - shot - beat - and seen none of this disrespect that is mentioned
 
Sometimes, quite regularly, I find myself thinking that there is a Deer, somewhere contentedly mungering around its little world, oblivious to the fact that the clock is ticking down on its existence, the sun has set on its day & I am on my way, rifle & kit onboard, the morning will bring its end .................. Or a Fox is sitting quietly surveying the sunset unaware its end is also approaching.
I wonder just on the odd occasion, have I lost something.?
 
jall55 said:
Sorry Shakey - i was mid flow with something else

So so so so so many of the shoots do utilise the birds - on many now they are eaten for elevenses - a meal after - and even packaged to take home and distribute with friends. I have been on many shoots - shot - beat - and seen none of this disrespect that is mentioned
Click to expand...
No worries, ive seen plenty of guns on big and small days not give two hoots what happens to the targets
 
finnbear270 said:
Sometimes, quite regularly, I find myself thinking that there is a Deer, somewhere contentedly mungering around its little world, oblivious to the fact that the clock is ticking down on its existence, the sun has set on its day & I am on my way, rifle & kit onboard, the morning will bring its end .................. Or a Fox is sitting quietly surveying the sunset unaware its end is also approaching.
I wonder just on the odd occasion, have I lost something.?
Click to expand...

I do that Finn
Then i think of a leveret sat waiting for its mum when the fox comes - or the bird in the hedge on eggs when a stoat or crow arrive
Its good to evaluate mate
 
People are happy to pay landowners good money just to shoot deer, often with the added burden of recovery and lardering.. Some people feel they deserve to pull the trigger and kill something just because they decided it suited them to go out. People are happy to shoot foxes, regardless of seasons or actual need to control them in that location; it actually seems to be a pass time, killing, just to justify owning a firearm.
 
I find it odd that we determine a critters value from a particular perspective which is often somewhat illogical, in that we apply different 'rules' to different critters for no obvious reason.

I doubt many would be overly concenred about the death of the rats that plague farms for example, and are controlled, despite the fact they die in their thousands/millions annually but dont end up in the food chain because their 'threat' as a pest is generally recognised. Whereas they are not valued in the west as a food source.

Conversely wood pigeons, similarly killed are and therefore they should all be picked up an eaten.

I have no problem individuals deciding a particular shooting activity is not for them, but I don't think not eating something is necessarily immoral.
 
Things have changed from when I was young. In those early post-war years as far as I can remember, nothing was ever wasted. We caught vast numbers of rabbits all of which went to the butchers. fox and badger skins were worth money and pigeons were, certainly where I was, all eaten. As a very young beater on the local shoot, all birds were eagerly taken. Nothing was wasted,
Today I've seen piles of pigeons just dumped in hedges, which in my opinion is just completely wrong.
Despite being told we are living in financially difficult times, large sums of money are spent on shooting equipment to shoot quarry worth virtually nothing. Even on the small pheasant shoot I've been involved with, people don't want the birds, as most just can't be bothered (or just don't know how) to prepare them.
Sadly, I think it's a sign of the times we live in.
 
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