Hunting is a despicable act - readers

March 03 2009 at 04:12PM
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* Sanlam cancels hunting trip

By Ainsley Daniels

Complaints from several animal rights organisations have forced the investment giant Sanlam to rethink a planned hunting expedition for its select clients.

IOL asked readers: "Hunting is a..."

Of the 890 people who voted in the poll, 7 percent (64 votes) said "leisure activity"; 38 percent (336 votes) said "despicable act"; 43 percent (382 votes) said "Personal choice" and 12 percent (108 votes) said "great test of skill "

Some reader comments:

# Graham F: If people want to kill wild animals they must meet them on equal terms. The hunter must be completely naked and just have his hands , feet and teeth as the animal has. Some very primitive people still have to hunt for food. Most "hunters" have more than adequate food available in supermarkets and appear to think they are "manly" to kill defenceless animals for no reason.

# Lejane: Anybody who shoots a defenceless animal with a high-powered rifle from a hidden position is a coward. As for hunting being a part of CONservation, breeding animals just to kill them and then telling the world that its a part of CONserving our natural heritage - what a load of crock

# Hunter Joe: I trust you are all vegetarians.. if not, I'd visit an abattoir before calling hunting in the bush with a rifle a despicable act. See how THOSE animals are treated, hear their screams, watch the eyes of the others as they are herded in to be slaughtered. Now tell me that, stalking the animals properly in their own environment (ie. VAST open spaces) and killing them instantly with 1 shot (or arrow as some of us do) is worse!To those that think if we breed them we shouldn't control their population, maybe you should read up on ecosystems, too much of one species destroys the entire system. It's your choice!

# G A Barry: Unfortunately in our society, only things wit a commercial value survive, and this includes animals. Some species have been brought back from the brink of extinction because they have a commercial value. Whether this is right or wrong can be debated for ever. Only if you are a vegetarian can you object to hunting. Visit an abattoir, cattle/sheep/ chicken farm, then go on a hunt. You will soon make up your mind. Hunted venison contains no artificial growth hormones, antibiotics and chicken litter and also very little fat. I would rather be a buck shot while relaxed in the veld, than be farmed pig, caged, transported and slaughtered at an abattoir.

# Jeff Carley: I am a lepidopterist and would rather see people keeping a piece of land in it's natural state, which they would have to for wild animals to survive than destroyed for a golf course. If you survey the number of butterflies that fly on a golf course or in a holiday resort you will see that it is much lower than on a game farm. People speak with emotion when it comes to animals being shot, but wouldn't worry about another wetland getting drained to make way for another housing complex. It really is a matter of, you won't get a population of tortoises, chameleons or butterflies in a housing estate but you will still see them on a game farm. I don't hunt but I am a conservationist.

# Veritas: Hunting is a cruel and callow activity. Why do these brave and macho hunters not hunt with nothing other then their bare hands? Perhaps it's because they are not man enough to do so.

# Jon: A wild animal is happily alive one second and stone dead a split-second later. It isn't herded down an abattoir channel to be slaughtered, its nostrils full of the smell of the panic and death of other beasts. It isn't even chased down by a predator and slowly torn limb from limb. It's a quick, clean, unexpected death.