Animal Rights folks: good opportunity to raise other DUers' awareness

Consider posting a comment at this link about turkeys:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=2025761#

Not suggesting a major blitz, just thought you might want to weigh in on this.

See this post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=2024503&mesg_id=2024503&page=

You can't argue with hunters no matter how reasonable you are willing to be.

"Forget it. Apparently if you care about animals you're crazy."

I encounter that far too often... :(

it literally makes me sick. :puke: :cry:

I do this all the time. Used to it. Wish they paid me for it.

That is a GREAT post.

I LOVED it! :yourock:

One or two people even mentioned they found the photo offensive. Would be good if more were of that mind.

the VAST majority of "sport hunters" aren't in it for the meat (their constant excuse), they're in it for the "sport". I've heard many of them describe the kill as a "rush", "euphoria" or even "an almost orgasmic high" (truly). Pumping bullets into a living body is the way they feel power and a sense of control, among other things. It's sick! I won't socialize with anyone who sport hunts, period.

...for the majority of them, the thrill is pulling a trigger, and watching a lifeform fall. The "I do it to get food" mullarky is total bull for 99% of them. If they eat meat, they can find it at any supermarket. If they and their children are truly starving, as a refugee in Sudan does, then I'll cut them a little slack. But I wonder how many actually fall in that category?

When I was around 12, my Dad and a bunch of people he knew, took me out on a weekend "hunting trip" to go hunting. I shot a mountain goat, because that was what was expected of me. I'm 40 years old now, and I regret what I did to this day. In fact, I regretted it, right after I did way back then. Maybe thats what made me change. I'll never forget the smell. The gutting of the goat. It was grotesque. After they gutted the goat, they rubbed blood on my face because it was my first "kill". It is sickening to even think about it, and to think about the kind of mentality that thinks thats cool.

Sorry for the rant, but thats my two cents worth....

Really, I'd rather see people who feel they just *have* to eat meat go out and take the responsibility of killing the animals themselves. Besides cutting down on meat consumption, I think it would cause less cruelty--a wild life and a relatively quick death vs. the hell that is factory farming and conveyor-belt slaughter.

Tucker

...I don't like any of it. And I don't condone any of it. Nuff said.

I'd rather be a deer out in the forest, and take my chance with hunters, than a pig in a cube at some factory farm where there is no question what my fate will be. Also, at least I'd have a taste of freedom and actually know what the earth felt like beneath my feet.

I hate hunting, but at least those people KNOW exactly how the meat got on their plate. People who run down to Safeway and buy a hunk, wrapped in plastic have no idea what was involved in getting that to them. If they did, they'd probably think twice about it.

I'm talking about "sport" hunting; killing for "fun". It has nothing to do whatsoever with eating.

There's a magazine called "trophy hunter"; and that's obviously that the subscribers are all about. To hunt does not always mean to eat. One doesn't eat an elephant, or a leopard, or probably a large percentage of the bucks killed in America. It's about ego, and don't let them convince you that there's a noble "survival" aspect to it. Sure, factory farming sucks, but in this case it really isn't "either/or". It's the thrill of the kill that motivates most of them, not a taste for wild meat.

If a guy kills an animal so he can pose for a photo or stick it's head on his wall, what does that have to do with factory farming? Enlighten me.

There's no room in my life for these types, either.

If you truly want sport, then go up against a species with the same intelligence, skills, tools & weaponry you have. Yep, we should let the hunters hunt the hunters. Now that would be sport. What sport is there in killing an animal, who has no awareness of your intent, with a high scope rifle? They are pathetic little men with huge self-esteem issues.

It just drives me CRAZY. Why is it acceptable that our views are trampled on? I like that guy who posts a deer with it's throat slit open. Yeah. Really manly of him.

I try and be understanding. For people that hunt FOR FOOD because it is cheaper or whatever, fine. I really don't see any difference between that and buying meat, both result in the death of an animal. But those guys that are displaying and posing with dead animals? It's disgusting. That photo almost made me physically sick. The second some hunter "poses" or "brags" about what a great job he did killing that defenseless animal (who by the way, didn't even know he was participating in this "sport") the "I only did it for food" defense goes right down the tubes.

Some of my family members grew up on an Indian reservation, and their families did hunt for food because they were very poor. When an animal was killed, the tribe gathered in the evening to say a prayer for it's soul, burn sage to ease it's passage into the next realm, and thank it for it's great gift to them. The hunt was done with reverence for life, not as a macho "sport". To me, it's the difference between killing a person in self defense, and murdering someone in cold blood. Someone ends up dead either way, but it's the INTENT that makes all the difference.

My grandma is native american (latin american, that is) and she grew up on a small farm. Since they didn't have much money, they really respected the animals that they did have and treated them even better than they treated themselves. If they did have to slaughter an animal, they did it as quick and painlessly as they could and it was so that they could eat. Anyway, this last summer, I went with my family to the state fair in Ilinois and my grandma and I were shocked at how farm animals are treated. Marked by cutting off their ears or tails. My grandma was closed to tears when she would tell me how much she loved "lambs" because there was no gentler animal and how she thought it was horrible that they were treated so cruelly.

It's amazing that despite how far we've come technologically, we've come so far back culturally.

I know many hunters and I don't even bother trying to argue with them anymore.

If you'd like to help educate! I'm looking for those studies linking it to Alzheimer's, etc.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1001771

and on top of the Breaking News threads ! It's a very civil discussion thus far.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1001771

Educate, educate, educate !

spreading among deer and elk. A man who caught it eating venison in New Your died a few years ago. Sorry, but I don't have the link, I just remember the story.

It started out West and is slowly spreading to other states.

Democratic Underground Forums - PETA: Kosher Slaughterhouse Abusing Animals
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1035629

Some misinformation about PETA's "doctored" undercover videos. I thought Democrats should know better about corporate propaganda :crazy:

coming off that thread. I'm not going to tell anyone to not eat meat, but the lack of compassion and utter callousness is a little disturbing to see here at DU. :scared:

and also the height of hypocrisy to see such cold meaness coming from people who claim to be caring and concerned about this World. Sometimes I actually begin to think the freepers are correct in calling some liberals hypocrites. :cry:

...they can't bring that kind of hypocrisy here :-)

...that's why I posted a "stop slaughterhouse abuse" link from another group over there to take some of the pressure off PETA.

but also indicative of the general feeling about animals rights on du (and in the population in general.)