I think not dismissing all anti's as senseless trouble causers. When meeting someone who is against hunting to listen to their concerns and answer honestly and truthfully about how you feel about things.
I used to be a vegan for 12 years. I even went further when i studied ethics and moral philosophy at university and became a fruitarian - didn't even eat plants either. I was quite far out there, but for me it was about living a philosophical debate within my own head that i had to work through for myself about where my food comes from and how it is treated. I wanted to be sure in my mind that as i went forward in life i took the right course in where my food came from.
What i discovered eventually was that intensive farming was the most awful and sickening treatment of animals there is. So i try as much as possible to steer clear of that.
When i talk to anti's now i am fully equiped for any debate they want to have because i've done the whole trip, even adding university courses on ethics and moral philosophy to back it up. When i lived in London i had a quarter acre allotment where i grew my own fruit and veg and now that i've moved to the countryside i'm starting to get into hunting, fishing and gathering wild food. I've yet to have an anti walk away disgusted with me when i've explained my full views on food and what i've learned over the years.
A lot of it is our attitude, and how we're perceived. Be polite and be respectful of other's views even if they don't always agree with how we get our food. Listen to their concerns and try to understand what they've been exposed to that has given them those concerns. A lot of anti's are only that way because they've been exposed to some awful stuff that would sicken even the hardened ethical hunter. To show that you agree with them on some of their concerns is at least a step in the right direction and hopefully you may find them agreeing with some of your views as well.
To round it off, i know i go on sometimes... what brings me to wild food is that the wild food is conceived and born of nature, it wasn't conceived from a syringe against the animals wishes, or put in a rape rack as pig farmers use to force sows to mate with boars that they wouldn't mate with if left to their own devices. Wild food is weaned naturally until the young are independent, unlike intensive farmed cattle that are taken from their mothers far too early so that the mother's milk can be used to make profit for the corporations that own most of the farms these days, leaving the young weak and needing anti-biotics to fend off disease because they never got weaned properly. I take fish with one rod, i don't rape the seas with giant drift nets that kill birds and sea mammals just to put food in corporate food markets to make excessive profits at the expense of the Natural balance of the oceans. I'm learning to gather wild veggies that grow without the need for fertilisers and pesticides so that i don't have to rely on intensive farmed vegetables that are grown polluting the very Earth that we were blessed to be guardians over. The list goes on, but i think you'll get the point.
I will finish with saying this. That since coming to this forum i have met with some incredibly thoughtful, considerate and helpful people. This is by far the most polite and friendly forum i've ever been to on the internet. If we show the same attitude to others outside of here as we do to each other while we're here then we can't help but change people's attitudes for the better.
The future is what we all make it.
Topic: What gives hunters a GOOD name? (Read 594 times)
