Bow Hunting

[RemyBolt 420]

Wow, there's some varied opinions on this subject.

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of killing without 'justifiable' reason. However, due to people having different opinions, morals, upbringing, and the alike, 'justifiable' is so very open a term.

 

For me, a justifiable kill is a kill with a purpose towards a greater good (now there's another open term) or without detriment toward the environment/ecology/species.

 

So, ratting (my regular shooting) is justifiable in that the breeding rate is massive, and taking out as many rats as I can is still but a drop in the ocean (no comments about me being a crap shot please....even though it's true). So the elephant situation is very difficult to deal with. If it's part of a scheduled land/animal maintenance program, then in my humble opinion, it can be justified...providing it does not cause much damage to the world's population of those elephants. It's like in the US when they shoot certain deer/antelope species, there are certain animals that can be taken, e.g. male at least 2 years old, but not a female with nursing young, or something like that.

 

As for the suffering element, I'm not an expert with bow hunting, neither am I well versed in big game dispatch. So if bow hunting, I'd stick to smaller animals and adjust the arrow head according to the quarry. But if someone needed a silent dispatch of a larger quarry, then the bow makes sense.

 

I watched a cool video of a guy taking out rabbits by a fence with a weird kind of arrow head. Instant death each time. Very impressive shooting. But since I've never been interested in big game hunting, not looked into it. To be fair, I'm sure there are shooters out there who are able to take out large quarry near instantly. I have watched a few deer shots where it's moved a few meters and dropped stone dead.

 

But remember, if you had grown up and lived life like the guy who shot the elephant, you would be like him. He was probably from a hunting family where hunting bigger and better was the challenge. It's a natural progression towards the elephant, is it not? So if you were indoctrinated with this time and again, you'd probably be the same. For this reason, I cannot criticize him. Justifiable reason. Who knows, his might be the only fridge in the US with 4 tonnes of elephant burgers!