Striper Phil

Now I just finished reading a locked topic , Whats with that freeedom of speech stuff. Any way I do respect deer from the hunting perspective but they are animals who if not shot eventually die of starvation as they weaken in old age. With that said a poor shot and wounded deer only changes the time frame of a painfull death.
Just last week in Colchester Connecticut a deer came through the front window of a van and killed a man. Ask his wife and kids about shot ethics!! In connecticut 15000 deer a year are killed, 12000 by hunters and 3000 by cars. Lots of people hurt here!! I hunt on a farmers property who dosn't hunt and has lost mucho crops over the years to deer . He actually hates deer!! He would not mind if they were exterminated and left to rot. Point here, deer killing ethics is a personnel thing and not up to any one else to trample on.

Sorry had to Vent on this Ethics thing. Striper Phil

jred

Striper,

I read your post, but I am a little concerned. Are you saying that is is O.K. to take un ethical shots at deer, one that may have a deer suffer or be crippled perminately?

We as humans have encroached on thier land and have given these and many other animals no other choose but to run across roads. Fine, the human race is growing and room is needed.

Respectfully, I at this point am not trying to, trample, on anything. But it sounds like to me that you are suggesting that unethical shots are fine in general.

Now, if you make a bad shot by accident, fine learn from it and try your best to no do it again. The animal deserves this.

But, if you are saying that (bad) shots are fine because deer are in two many numbers and kill people. In my opinion you'er wrong!

All the best.



KEEP HUNTING THE GREAT OUTDOORS & GOD ALIVE, PASS IT ON!

skeeter 7MM

I agree deer ethics is a personal thing.....BUT as hunters I think it should be more than personal but base knowledge. We are ultimately protectors of the sport and the animals we hunt...no? I mean their are many who think hunting is cruel, unfair and wrong...those numbers are growing not shrinking. So we owe it to our sport, the tradition and the animals to be very ethical and respectful. Not only do I think it is the thing to do, but when anti movements point at hunters with those killer fingers...we can point back and show how much we truly do care for the animals in which we hunt. We are used as population control for our urban lifestyles...but as such we are entrusted to make every effort to ensure good, clean, ethical and humane kills are made to justify the need for hunting. If we run around shooting and maming or even the mentality that it is just an animal that will die eventually...our fragile wooden leg will break.

This not to say mistakes don't happen and if corrected ok. But to use the it's just "an animal" doesn't sit well with me. Thus i find it hard to support such an agruement.

You have yours and now you have mine, take it as you will.

Striper Phil

Jred Thanks for answering. NO I am not saying you should take unethical shots. I am expressing that different people have EXTREAMLY different points of view or definitions of ethical depending on the fervor of the moment or there personnel mental baggage. Many hunters on this site have bagged piles of deer, thus no baggage. I remember in New Jersey in the sixties, Buck shot only, a 6 day deer season, and me and many of my friends only got to hunt the sixth day ,Saturday. Most of us went years between shots - Bucks only. Shots at running deer where common and ACCEPTABLE then. Now a shot at a running deer would be unethical by many on this site. Back to my main theme the defination of ethical is very personnel. If this isn't clear I can go to Vietnam analogies but the younger guys and gals will definitly not understand. One Shot One Kill Striper Phil

Is this getting clearer now!!!

NorthernMN

I am all for ethics but it bothers me when people are dying on the highways hitting deer and people believe that it is caused buy us (people) invading the habitat of deer. The fact is that before we (Whiteman) came to this country the estimated population of deer in this country was around 4 million. There are several states that have millions of deer now. It is us (people) that have cause this situation. We have developed farmland and made perfect habitat for deer to thrive. We now manage them like cows. We just don't use fences. When we think the numbers are too low we harvest less so we can hunt more. Face it, they are walking steaks.

I am by no means saying that it is OK to wound deer or be sloppy hunters. I take my hunting very seriously and I wish more hunters did also. My point (yes I have one), I am with phil. It is all perspective. Most people could run over a skunk on the road and not bother to stop and see if it is suffering. Why do we treat them differently than deer? We like deer. We think Bambi. In fact they are all fuzzy animals. We just have this mental thing about some animals. I think if more people took Ethics in college we wouldn't need to discuss this. Ethics is a personal thing. What we believe is unethical even in this county/culture is often looked at very differently in other countries/cultures.

my thoughts...

jred

Striper and Northern,

I can understand and see your points and I am happy you both agree that sloppy hunting is a, no.

I also think 7MM make some very valid points. I do feel that in many states we/builders,corporations etc. have over developed. On the the other hand ,again, I can appreciate your point as well, but there is two sides to this.

We have deer jumping through windows at Burger King and in Apts. Deer falling into pools and yes a ton of deer being hit and killed by cars inturn injuring and killing people. In these cases, I truly feel this is due to deer being driven and pushed in to other areas to survive. This goes for many other wild animals.

There are people out there that wouldn't give it a thought if they hit a deer and just keep driving, should they be able to. Others, would go out of thier way to try and assess the deers' condition.

Unfortunatley, most deer hits are not a very good out come one way or another.

As far as the skunk, I am hearing you but, I feel that it would be different, should you or I nail a skunk with a go-cart verses a 3klb. car the results would be, alot different.

A 10-15lb. skunk only has one out come when struck by a car, death. And too more than likely for the deer. But, the damage and injury wouldn't be much of a factor, nailing a skunk for us people.

All said and done I understand where you are coming from.

Happy hunting!

KEEP HUNTING THE GREAT OUTDOORS & GOD ALIVE, PASS IT ON!

Edited by - jred on 11/21/2002 21:08:17

Striper Phil

Thanks NorthernMN you got the point.