<p>Right again Mini - if he had trained rats to fight, I doubt he’d be in much trouble. **** fighting has gone on for years with nowhere near the attention. I have read there are people who like to put two male betta fish in the same tank and watch them fight. It’s the famous slippery slope.</p>
<p>Hunting is also used for animal population control and maintaining a balance of animals and food in the wild. Areas that have become more suburban are now overrun with deer and other wild animals partially due to the decline in hunting activity as areas populate. They end up having to use other methods to keep the balance somewhat in check.</p>
<p>We have had several arrests in WA for ****fighting. Mostly Mexicans.</p>
<p>But Barrons - why would people want to harvest those plain old deer when they can go someplace to kill the ones with the gigantic antlers that people are breeding and selling. And they’re tastier and leaner than the ones we dodge on the interstate. That’s conservation at its finest.</p>
<p>“Hunting is also used for animal population control and maintaining a balance of animals and food in the wild.”</p>
<p>I’m not opposed to hunting - though I think to make it sporting, we should equip Bambi’s Mom with an AK-47. Having said that, I have NEVER met a hunter who has told me he went hunting “for animal population control and maintaing a balance of animals and food in the wild,” and certainly none of those who decide to go hunting, but not in the wild at all. </p>
<p>“It’s the famous slippery slope.”</p>
<p>It ain’t slippery at all. It’s DOGGIES.</p>
<p>Oh barrons - how well you served up that can of worms.</p>
<p>okay mini - how about cat fighting - where would that rank? How about those raccoon dogs from Japan that look like dogs but evidently make really warm coats? Could they fight?</p>
<p>I doubt many people would care - and I doubt Michael Vick would have been into it - for cultural reasons - in any case.</p>
<p>My husband’s family hunt elk every year because they like to eat elk. (Blech.) They just tramp around in the wilds of Colorado until they get one, and then it’s ‘elk’ steak, ‘elk’ burgers, ‘elk’ sausage, ‘elk’ bourguignon…until you want to scream. For them, I don’t think it will ever be a primarily entertainment thing; it’s spillover from a time when my father-in-law was young and the family subsisted on what they could herd or hunt. (…Goat herders from southern Colorado/northern NM.)</p>
<p>hmmmm…don’t know why I think that’s important…just thought I’d share…
:)</p>
<p>Again, there are a ton of reasons people do anything. Lumping hunters into one size isn’t fair. I’m sure there are alot of reasons people hunt. I don’t have to like them, but as long as it is legal, I shouldn’t have a real problem with it beyond not doing it myself. </p>
<p>Why on earth would I get up at 3am, go sit out in a deer blind in freezing cold, cover myself in “deer scent” (urine) and wait for a buck to come by, when I can go anytime to the market and buy burger. Seems crazy to me. </p>
<p>However, that said, I’ve gotten up at 3am to drive 8 hours to stand along a sideline in pouring rain, soaking wet, to watch a kids soccer game. </p>
<p>To each his own enjoyment. Both activities are legal and the participants find their own joy in the activity. Nobody else has to like soccer, but I do.</p>
<p>so, if dogfighting was legal, you wouldn’t have a problem with it?</p>
<p>I don’t care much for either hunting or soccer but I can understand the need for both–whatever the motivations of the participants, both appear to do more good than harm. </p>
<p><a href=“http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E7D81038F935A35752C1A960958260[/url]”>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E7D81038F935A35752C1A960958260</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://brianoconnor.typepad.com/animal_crackers/2004/02/animal_rights_v_1.html[/url]”>http://brianoconnor.typepad.com/animal_crackers/2004/02/animal_rights_v_1.html</a></p>
<p>“if dogfighting was legal, you wouldn’t have a problem with it?”</p>
<p>I would not like it, no. I don’t like golf either, just so you know and it’s legal too. </p>
<p>And no, I still don’t beat my wife anymore… or any less than before. ;)</p>
<p>Sometimes when something isn’t hunted, it becomes too populated. We’re having this right not with alligators in Florida. For many years, they were protected from hunters. Now they’re starting to crawl up in people’s yards, eat their dogs and babies.</p>
<p>from my understanding, good hunters ( and I am not a fan of hunting) do not want to inflict pain, they want a quick clean kill</p>
<p>and to equate soccer with dog fighting? what can I say…any person who thinks itt is okay to deliberately inflict pain on animals is sick</p>
<p>“and to equate soccer with dog fighting?”</p>
<p>Boy you are really reaching to fight again aren’t you? </p>
<p>The comparison was with hunting and soccer. Two legal activities in most situations. And there should be no problem with either if done legally. A legal activity does not require 100% acceptance from a community, just a voting majority. We don’t and aren’t expected to “like” what everybody esle does for their jollies. There are many things in this free society I don’t like and choose not to participate in. In order for me to expect people to respect the right to activities I like to do, I have to at least respect their right to do their legal activities. </p>
<p>Maybe if you don’t understand what my point is… ask?</p>
<p>“from my understanding, good hunters ( and I am not a fan of hunting) do not want to inflict pain, they want a quick clean kill”</p>
<p>Right. It’s more “entertaining” that way. </p>
<p>“Sometimes when something isn’t hunted, it becomes too populated. We’re having this right not with alligators in Florida. For many years, they were protected from hunters. Now they’re starting to crawl up in people’s yards, eat their dogs and babies.”</p>
<p>It’s the people who have become too populated. And also took away their water. Anyhow, let 'em eat the babies (it’s not illegal for an alligator to eat a baby); just make sure the DOGGIES are safe!</p>
<p>As much as I hate hunting, I would not outlaw it - not regular hunting anyway. I would outlaw the canned game preserve hunting. I just cannot related to anyone who thinks killing an animal is fun and I believe most people hunt because they enjoy it - not because they love exotic meat or want to thin the herd. I think there is something seriously wrong with people who pay to hunt animals in what is akin to a park. I just can’t justify in any manner breeding animals for target practice.</p>
<p>
This is obviously a very popular sport amongst many women I know, on and off this forum :D</p>
<p>“It’s the people who have become too populated.”</p>
<p>Can you tell that to the influx of thousands every year? They just keep coming and coming and coming…</p>
<p>I’m 4th generation Floridian if that makes a difference. Sort of like saying “I was here first!” I guess. But…I was here first!</p>
<p>Also, there was a time back pre-70’s when gators were hunted. Remember alligator purses and shoes?</p>