General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Hunting - horrifying to see 12 year old girls and grown men slaughtering animals and feeling [View all]Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)1) Prey animals have felt terror since other pre-human animals have preyed on them. "Contribution" to suffering an be lessened by the use of appropriate weaponry, and the knowledge of skilled use. Humans can be vegetarians, but they are predators as well, differing little from other predators in that basic instinct.
2) While some argument can be made by relative efficiencies when livestock is considered, eating wild animals through regulated hunting has little impact on ecological systems. Agricultural practices? Not so much. My killing a deer or two each year doesn't stack up to the damage done by farming which alters entire ecosystems. Note also that if eating, say, beef were prohibited, cattle would essentially go exinct in most areas because their site is self-defense skills have been bred out, and no rancher is going to let huge numbers of animals wipe out the "natural environment" waiting for that extinction.
3) Healh can be argued endlessly. I rarely eat beef, preferring the economy and natural nutrition of deer, gamebirds and squirrels.