Should hunting animals for sport be banned?

[opebo]

Government exists for one aminal.  Namely, the most highly evolved one. 

Well, it depends on what you mean by 'for'.  If you mean for their benefit or to serve their interests, it only exists 'for' the owning elite.  If you mean to in any way deal with or control them, then yes, it includes all humans.

Somehow, though I think people always mean the former, since after all the State also at times deals with and controls animals, just as it does with the lower classes.  To be accurate we should say 'government on behalf of the privileged humans, and for the purpose of controlling the lower orders of humankind and other animals.'

[memphis]

I love animals, and thus I could never fathom killing one just for the hell of it. However, I believe that hunting is a right that should be respected and protected from the grasp of government intervention. I do agree with Jedi however, animal torture (such as seal clubbing) should be fought with hard fines.

I really do wish people would just do what I do instead...go to the gun range!

I don't hunt either and I much prefer shooting paper targets or tin cans, but really how different is it to shoot a deer than it is order a cheeseburger which ultimately results in the slaughtering of a cow? We humans, at least most of us,  are carnivores. We eat meat and that means killing something, either by our own hand or someone else's.

^^^^^^^^
And cheeseburgers are mighty tasty too

[angus]

Government exists for one aminal.  Namely, the most highly evolved one. 

Well, it depends on what you mean by 'for'.

Ha.  well, mostly just misquoting our nation's most ultranationalist and first Republican president.  But to pry deeper, let's take the quote in the context of the sentence in which it was written.  Well, that presents a bit of a problem, since the oldest copies of Mr. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are the Nicolay copy and the Hays copy, and they don't always agree.  Here is that passage according to Nicolay:

" It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "

And according to Hays:

"It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Either way, it's very nationalistic, very God and The Flag.  Whether it means anything or not it is certainly a rousing speech to make at a time when the US won a battle.  Hell, I can't even remember a time when our country was winning battles anymore, but according to the history books there was such a time.

Anyway, I think it is basically a very rousing GOP-type reference to the Great Experiment in Democracy that is (or was!) the United States of America, which had suffered, and seemed to be successfully answering, its first "close call" with demise.  Somehow animal rights discussions always remind me of felching, and felching always reminds me of shaving, and shaving always reminds me of Lincoln, and Lincoln always reminds me of ultranationalism, which always reminds me of hunting, which brings us full circle, really.  So we're back to the question, "ban hunting?"  I say no, it's really not the business of government to ban the hunting of lower life forms.  Now, if you want to broaden the discussion to a government banning of hunting all animals, including humans, that would be interesting.  Clearly, we hunt down fugitives.  We lock up those who insult our civil sensibilities in cages.  You can be jailed for the most frivolous sorts of things.  And we allow execution of human criminals, and we encourage War.  So clearly we do not ban the hunting (or killing) of human animals.  I say that's probably a more interesting discussion than a discussion of a potential ban on hunting non-human animals.  Not sure where I stand on the ban of hunting human animals either, by the way.  I can see advantages and disadvantages to hunting down humans.  The hunt for Osama, for example, brought out our finer nationalistic instincts.  On the other hand, the "war on drugs" and its attendant hunt for the drug smugglers has only redirected our attention and our dollars away from more pressing issues.  Maybe it's a wash.  But I'd be open to hearing arguments from both sides. 

[Ban my account ffs!]

Not all of us encourage executing criminals (10 states or so). 

As far as hunting for sport goes:  I don't know anyone who goes hunting just for the hell of it.  Some people purely enjoy it as a sport, and they'll give the animal to someone else to clean and eat.. but nobody ever just leaves the animal to die because they want to kill. 

People who enjoy watching animals die usually become serial killers.  I also read somewhere that if you hook your y's and your j's, that you have serial killer tendency.  I stopped doing that immediately

[angus]

Not all of us encourage executing criminals (10 states or so). 

As far as hunting for sport goes:  I don't know anyone who goes hunting just for the hell of it.  Some people purely enjoy it as a sport, and they'll give the animal to someone else to clean and eat.. but nobody ever just leaves the animal to die because they want to kill. 

People who enjoy watching animals die usually become serial killers.  I also read somewhere that if you hook your y's and your j's, that you have serial killer tendency.  I stopped doing that immediately

not all of us encourage voting for George Bush for president, but that doesn't make him any less the president.  Similarly, you may or may not support your federal government's use of capital punishment, but that makes it no less the case that we, the People, collectively, have decided that the federal government can kill people.  I also can't name a personal acquaintance who hunts for sport, but that probably has more to do with the fact that I don't hunt and so it doesn't come up in conversation.  But people surely do.  Dick Cheney, for example does.  And John Kerry wanted you to know it so badly that he televised his now-infamous turkey shoot back in the fall of 2004.  Moreover, it has always been a tendency in all societies to enjoy a little bloodsport from time to time.  Maybe we no longer unleash lions on the criminals in great arenas, but we certainly enjoy a good car crash, or a good sensationalistic newsstory about the rape and killing of someone's estranged lover.  Our movies and novels are full of such stories, and sell better the more gory they are.  The Governator may never have killed a man in real life, but not one among us hasn't seen him lay waste to his enemies on the silver screen.  Even the most bored attendee of a hockey game, who hasn't paid attention to the game at all and is only there because his buddy dragged him along for company, will watch intently if there's blood.  And even more intently if it seems like a fatal injury.  We thoroughly enjoy this sort of thing.  Maybe it's all that pent up ability to kill that we evolved in order to be successful as a species, but now can't use because our society won't let us.  Maybe it's confinement in cities when our instincts make us want to go out and club mammoths that makes us enjoy a good fight or a good public hanging.  I don't know.  But I do know we encourage killing.  It's part of who we are.