Is hunting that cruel of a sport?

Back in 1999 in Pakistan when I was in grade 6 we had morning assemblies in the junior school branch of the school that I attended.

Each assembly included a few announcements and things to share either by the principle or by the students. It could be anything such as the coming of Star Wars Episode 1 and it's making to anything else of interest. And so it was one morning when the principle invited a volunteer to share something on stage, a girl game up showing a picture of her father kneeling down with a deer he shot with his rifle.

She displayed the photo and explained it was her father who killed a deer. The principle then asked for questions and comments. A student that I was indirectly acquainted with raised his hand and came to the stage and asked what's so good about killing a deer?

I can't remember what happened after that but at that time I felt in agreement with him. Now when I look back I realize we have been brought up to think that way. Human society throughout the world condemns the sport of hunting and dismisses it as "cruelty."

We are taught to hate the sport of hunting and guns in general. Children are taught to "love animals" and condemn the act of taking their life. Hypocrisy and self-contradictions at their best.

Why is the sport of fishing not condemned the same way? Even when it is more cruel and inhumane to catch a fish with a hook in it's mouth and pull it our the water while it suffocates to death whith the hook is still in it's mouth in most cases.

The image below speaks for itself:


Compare this to a simple gun shot when hitting it's precise target kills the animal almost instantly. And even when it doesn't die instantly, it's still faster than fish dying after being caught.

What about animals who are cut up everyday to be put on our dinner plates? Are they not animals who once had feelings of fear and pain too? Why is it that society has not condemned the act of slaughtering animals, an even more cruel inhumane act than hunting with guns?

Even people who catch fish for fun and return them back alive don't realize they have caused a living fish a painful injury from the hook that it had in it's mouth.

Society makes no notice of this and advertises the act of hunting as "cruelty" but not the same for fishing or farmed animals. Why? Even when they are far more cruel and inhumane.

In some countries, hunting is restricted and animals with visible off-springs are not to be shot by law in order for the dependent off-springs to survive. Why is the same rule not applied in the case of fishing? It's not that I don't oppose this rule. I support it, but why is not the same rule applied to animals farmed for meat slaughter?

Do people think that large fish and animals caught and killed are always not with any off-spring? Why do we not show them the same sympathy as animals killed for eating? Do those cows who's beef we eat always not come without calves?

This cartoon clip from the Disney production Bambi shows our selective mindset when it comes to killing animals for food and how we export it to the media:


As the above video shows, we humans have a twisted sense of morality that we seriously need to reexamine. How come we don't make cartoons of mother/father fish and cows being caught or slaughtered by humans?

What many people also don't release is that hunting and gathering was our main source of survival until about a hundred centuries ago when we discovered agriculture. Our discovery of agriculture allowed us to increase food production and grow our population to the unsustainable numbers that we are today.

Those unsustainable numbers gave way to industrialization and a planned killing of animals through farming which is far more inhumane than hunting ever was.

Hunting with spears and arrows in prehistoric times was indeed cruel as well but with the invention of guns, bullets hitting the animals on the surface much harder and faster allow them to die more easily than arrows and spears piercing their flesh and bones while they are still alive.

For those who think killing animals for meat is outright cruel and needs to be banned need to remind themselves how non-human carnivores survive. Even in maritime environments sharks must eat other fish to survive.

I also do not condone hunting without the use of guns. Those who hunt using painful traps and killing tools that rip the animal while they're still alive are also killing inhumanely.

I just seek to point out the fact that hunting is not as cruel as propagated. The use of agriculture has brought humans to where we are today. With massive food production came human overpopulation which created problematic and interlocked economic systems. Much of today's cruelty that the world suffers through which includes inhumanely farming animals and cutting them up for food. The video below explains it all: