Is it more ethical to hunt for meat, or farm meat?
Hunting is more ethical
Side Score: 40
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Farming is more ethical
Side Score: 27
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Animal farming is a stress on the environment and causes pollution. Also, animals are overwhelmingly treated badly. We must also realize that factory farming consumes a gigantic amount of resources, beginning with housing and feeding the animal, slaughtering it, transporting it, packing it, refrigeration. The Western meat-based diet is as responsible for pollution and oil prices as is driving a gas-powered automobile. We could also probably take about half the grain and water we invest in animals every year and feed all the poor in the entire world. We slaughter billions of animals a year for a quick bite and then some. Do you not think that, eventually, this might have some major repurcussions on the environment, energy resources and health costs? Hunting is by far more ethically, nutritionally and environmentally sound than feeding one's money into a faceless death machine responsible for mass pollution of the environment, rampant obesity, heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and the needless torture of animals whose only 'fault' is that they weren't lucky enough to be born with opposable thumbs, or, they don't happen to be your average everyday housepet. Side: Hunting is more ethical
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IMO animals are happier in their natural habitat. Even we humans who adapt so quickly still benefit from the open space, green scenery, and natural sunlight. Additionally, wild animals have genes that were naturally selected; not bred by humans. I'd rather perpetuate the need for wild animals and natural habitats than hybridized and inbred livestock on monoculture farms. Side: Farming is more ethical
Hunting is more ethical because we are part of the ecosystem and it makes us more accountable for our role within it. Hunt the same thing too much and run the risk of their prey overpopulating and/or losing your food source altogether. It also makes us accountable for our size and demands - keeping the integrity of the food chain. Farming rids of us of the responsibilities we have at the top of the food chain. It puts our wants and needs above the rest and allows our populations to out pace our food source. Which explains where we currently are - artificially speeding up the growth and yields of plants and animals so we can increase our food supply. I like steakhouses though so I in no way am advocating that I want to go back to a hunting/gathering society. Just pointing out that Lions are more ethical than we are. Side: Hunting is more ethical
How do you farm meat? I understand what you are saying, but through the definition of "farm", you cannot farm meat. Meat is not a plant, therefore you cannot farm it. And whether you raise your cattle in a farm or go hunting the wild ones, you are still hunting the animal by the definition of "hunting" therefore making this entire argument obsolete. Side: Hunting is more ethical
Semantically you are wrong too. Look in any dictionary. The Merriam Webster for instance clearly states that the verb "farm" means: 1: Make ones living by growing crops and rearing livestock 2: Use land for growing crops and rearing livestock 3: Breed or grow commercially a type of livestock or crop. Side: Farming is more ethical
I don't know about where you live. But where I'm from the animals live on owned property. Hunting season is not defined by their migration patterns because they don't have anywhere to go - we keep them 'fenced in' so to speak. Instead, hunting seasons are based on the best time to cull the populations of certain species, otherwise known as pruning. When hunting said species there isn't really even a need to track. You can just sit up in a tree and wait because the small plots we allow them to roam guarantee that we will cross paths, regardless of whether we want to or not. And most of all, almost no one is hunting for survival or to feed their families. They are doing it for recreation, much like a gardener would. Side: Farming is more ethical
San Diego, Ca mate! No penned in animals here! Only the endless sea and the wonderful beaches! [; but ya, i understand where you are coming from, I mean hunting season for you sounds pretty tricky having to end the poor animals' lives at just the right time. . . ! And never letting them experience the pleasure of free grazing. . . It'll be just like that South Park episode with the mass cow suicide levels! [; Side: Hunting is more ethical
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Right, except for there being hundreds of thousands of factory farms, and significant differences on a number of levels between supplying meat via factory farms, and supplying meat via hunting. I understand what you mean semantically, but since most people probably have a decent concept of what "factory farm" means, and since how the world is supplied with meat has and will have a large impact how many artificial hormones and antibiotics people ingest, the environment, and the economy, among other things, this debate is absolutely a valid one. Side: Farming is more ethical
Current farming practices raise cattle on either extremely densely populated feedlots or free range. Both are far worse for the local environment than is hunting. Feedlots take a tremendous amount of biomass and attempt to concentrate it into a tiny, closed system. Because the closed system cannot provide all the nutrients and exercise required to raise cattle to market size, outside elements must be introduced to the system to make up for this. In most cases, exercise is replaced by steroids and growth hormones, and the nutrients required are given in the form of grains in a trough. Economically, this poses no real problem. The issue is that the extremely high concentration of cattle impacts the local environment severely with runoff containing dangerous chemicals, such as the nitrogen and potassium supplements added to the grain, creating a detrimental impact to local watersheds and wildlife diversity. Free range cattle raising is also problematic because domesticated cattle have no place in an established ecosystem. The presence of these large herbivores creates a drastic change in the tropic levels of the entire ecological system, often permanently altering a landscape for the worse by desertification or deforestation. Hunting is the morally correct choice because no disruption is made to the existing ecological system. The environment that has produced and reproduced for so many thousands of years can certainly supply meat for humans without requiring drastic intervention. Side: Hunting is more ethical
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Animals hunt, so it's obviously a natural thing to do. I'm certainly not against farming coming from WI and all, but it's not like I would be happy to watch a baby calf grow into a cow, give him a name and everything, and then eat him. I'll stick to buying my meat from the supermarket, i think. Side: Hunting is more ethical
Its more ethical to hunt. At least by hunting, the animals have a fighting chance. But, in farming, you have an animal in a cage or a pen looking down the hollow end of a rifle, or the sunlight glinting off the edge of an ax and have no where to run. Side: The hunted have a fighting chance
hunting is giving an animal a chance, when you farm meat its not just breeding then killing, they have to feed the animals, and the feed the animals from sheep tissue to chicken litter. In hunting, it is survival of the fittest, there fore you could still lose your prey. Side: Hunting is more ethical
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3 ounces of meat is all a person needs in a given day. Humans are omnivorous so we need a mix of different kinds of food to be healthy. There is a reason why people who eat mostly meat get fat and are far more likely to die from heart disease. You can't fight genetic limitations. There for we should only farm fruits, vegetables, and grains. Meat should only be acquired through hunting while also regulating it to protect animal populations. Side: Hunting is more ethical
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I don't know about more ethical but surely it must be more fun to hunt them down ;) I mean, give them a freaking chance! Although a high power rifle with a scope reduces an animal's chances of getting away, but hey, if they could shoot back they would so.... Side: Hunting is more ethical
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With proper management practices, animal populations can provide a renewable, environmentally practical source of nutrients for humans. Hunting today is far more refined in practice than it was so many years ago. Management systems have been developed that can take advantage of the available surplus created by the environment, and harvest it without damaging animal populations. In some cases (most notably the white-tail deer), a hunting program could improve the condition of the ecosystems in which large excesses of the animal are present. Side: Hunting is more ethical
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The problem is it's not done properly. Factory farms are all about profit, so the animals live in horrid conditions, undergoing painful and terrible procedures (debeaking comes rushing to mind), all in order to bleed to death. Since people insist on eating meat, I'd much rather the animal get to run free until their day comes. Side: Hunting is more ethical
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"Farming" for meat sounds a little sick, I mean, when I read that I get a picture of silent crops of meat shooting out of the soil. I've grown up next to dairies and farms, and I think that, if properly taken care of, as some are in California, farming is perfectly acceptable, and I think more ethical. If they are let lose and "hunted" the animals my be more susceptible to disease, starvation, blah blah blah... There just wouldn't be as much to hunt in the end as what we need... and though they would be free, they wouldn't live as good of a life overall, unless their freedom is worth the consequences. There are many farms in California (and might be the case elsewhere too), where the cattle or livestock is let loose within a pretty big area, to just wonder and eat and fuck or whatever else animals do (poop?), but are taken care of by people. They are fed well, treated for disease and in some cases groomed. So long as we treat the animals with a little respect, as they are living things like ourselves, I think farming is actually better for them. Now, when it comes to slaughtering them, it will always seem like a bad idea because killing something isn't pretty, especially if the livestock comes to trust people. Really though, what's the difference between a hunted animal and a farmed animal when it comes to death? We think that the hunted may escape? That the hunted gives us reason to kill them because they see us as hunters? If that's all that matters, what the hunter or farmer feels when doing it, grow the fuck up, you're killing many things, all you have to deal with is killing them and getting over it. You're not losing your life, you know? So, overall, livestock lives better, and dies the same. How is this a difficult question? P.S. Animal treatment in any case is important and I completely disagree with the way some (maybe most) treat their livestock. Animals are living things, do not torture them because you already know their fate, that is undoubtedly immoral. Side: Farming is more ethical
From my point of view there is nothing unethical in hunting animals for food or in farming animals for food. We are supposed to eat meat. That's the human nature. Is there anything unethical in a tiger eating some animal? Why isn't it considered unethical to kill a poor potato and eat it, but it is unethical to kill a cow and eat it? The only thing that i see unethical in hunting - hunting for fun, and hunting rare animals - that's crazy. Side: Farming is more ethical
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Both are massively inefficient when compared to eating plants however you could not feed the current human population by hunting so hunters are almost entirely unjustified in saying that they need to hunt to sustain themselves. Hunt(or farm) some wheat instead, it complains less. Just thought of this, for a lot of crops you don't even need to kill them to obtain the food so yeah, don't eat animals. Side: Farming is more ethical
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They don't have an easy life. They have a scary, painful, horrible life until their throats are slit or their heads are bashed in. All so that people can pretend their steak wasn't really an animal before it ended up on their plate. Hunting, at least, forces people to take responsibility in what they do. There would be many more vegetarians if people had to kill their own food. Side: Hunting is more ethical
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Oh, I don't know. The cows I see are pretty happy. The bunnies that roam free in the wild have a scary life (coyotes, owls, hawks, cars, etc). They have to find their own food or go hungry for the night. They get diseases, lice, ticks, etc. until some predator or a car does them in. I would say the cows have it easier ;) Side: Hunting is more ethical
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