Kudos for posting an actually unpopular opinion.

I'm not vegan in the sense that I do still use animal products; I realize that it's wrong, but it's difficult to get away from. I haven't eaten meat in over a decade, so I guess that "vegetarian" is probably the best description.

That being said, I have FAR more respect for those who go hunting and fishing than for those who eat meat from a restaurant or supermarket. Eating a hamburger or a steak is easy. You simply go to a store and buy it. Yet people stick their head in the sand and ignore the fact that factory farming is a brutal practice that causes an absolutely disgusting amount of pain and suffering for animals. The masses conveniently ignore that fact and continue on with their meat-based diets.

Hunting an animal for food means that although you're killing the animal, it's still lived a natural life. It hasn't suffered on a factory farm and been raised solely for human consumption. Hunters cause far less suffering than farmers.

Agreed as far as sport hunting goes.

I grew up in the boonies where this was commonplace (and expected), and I realized early in life that there was just something "wrong" about trophy hunting and the people who relished in it. Don't get me wrong: I hunted in my youth and still go hunting on occasion, but I eat everything I kill and find taxidermy distasteful.

On the flip side, there is a legitimate population control aspect for hunting seasons. Left unchecked, deer population explodes to become a nuisance to humans (causing car accidents, eating crops, etc) as well as limiting resources for the deer (hence the strict laws / regulations surrounding it). So, it does have its purpose, but it also seems like it appeals mostly to the "psychopath" types you're describing.

I realize this doesn't cover fishing, but I don't have a horse in that race. Fishing is so damn boring that I could never get into it. But I'll agree with you on trophy fishing as it's the same mindset.

I'm not talking about the consumption here, so please prove to me you are literate by not bringing up that point

You can not talk about it all you want but you're being intellectually dishonest by refusing to do so.

Eating meat that you know comes from a factory farm, a literal SAW like tortured life of cruelty, just to be on a conveyor assembly line to be slaughtered and you to eat, feels less psychopathic in the moment but in reality is just disassociating yourself from the literal torture you are causing.

What I'm talking about is spending days and a bunch of money planning to kill something, doing the killing, and skinning/eviscerating what was killed, and often displaying the stuffed corpse. Hunters and fishers refuse to admit they're obsessed with taking pleasure in killing something.

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll sit in a boat and drink beers all day.

The majority of the time spent hunting and fishing is spent hanging out in nature with your friends. There's lot ls of reasons to enjoy it, even if you don't enjoy the actual killing.

And if you're going to eat meat anyways, then forcing yourself to nut up and kill the animal yourself arguably leaves less suffering in the world than plugging your ears and contributing to factory farming. Both require disassociating from the evil you're committing, and our brains are good at that because disassociation from violence was an unfortunately necessary part of our survival.

Miss me with the "tradition" stuff, it's just peer pressure from the dead and a fallacious argument. Don't tell me it's to eat, like I said, I'm not talking about the consumption here, so please prove to me you are literate by not bringing up that point.

Well you're clearly not literate.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_management

The population is managed through hunting to as to avoid the overpopulation of deer, which is catastrophic for the ecology.

Not because every single hunter is some sort of psychopath. What a childish notion.

Not many years ago, there was a big controversy involving a bit of park where a bunch of large bovines were released. They multiplied, and at some point there were more cows than food. Without any real predators to keep their numbers down, the choice was either "get rid of some" or "let a bunch of them starve".

The people in charge chose to let nature take its course, as opposed to the normal choice of reducing their numbers by killing a bunch of them. Some animals would suffer, but humans wouldn't need to intervene. Then a bunch of people got upset and started secretly entering their habitats, feeding the cows, setting them up for even worse famine next year. A bunch of them were killed anyway after that, under great protest of the cow lovers (who, of course, had neither the space nor the money to sustain those animals themselves).

I'm not opposed to hunting for population control in areas where natural predators aren't around anymore. In my country there's a huge controversy over a dozen or less wolves, but that's no way to maintain a deer population that doesn't graze itself into a slow starvation. You're not shipping 300 deer and 200 boar to a zoo, but it'd be inhumane to let them all die slowly.

Another exception I'll make is calling a hunter to put an animal out of its suffering after it got hit by a car. There's no point in letting it bleed out with all of its ribs broken and its jaw smashed.

However, most hunters seem to be the types that really like killing. I can see the need to keep a couple around, but they sure sound like psychopaths when they talk about their hobby. Usually they'll wrap it with "it's good for the population" or whatever, but you can see in their eyes that they're just making up excuses.

This is kind of a weird argument to make. Are specifically talking about only hunting/ fishing where the animal is killed and not consumed in any way?

Since I've personally never seen that as someone who's been hunting a couple times and around people who hunt.

And how do you not expect people to bring eating animals when that's basically half the purpose. People don't just go around hunting without the intent to utilise the meat.

Also do you kill roaches or worms etc. In which case what makes the thoughtless killing of one better than the other.

Also I personally love it as an outdoor activity which I rarely get.

Personally I don't see anything immoral with taxidermy either.

Upvoted for actual unpopular opinion tho.

What about catch and release fishing ? Or is that just animal torture ?

You sure nailed unpopular, although I'm on the fence about of its unpopular or your set of rules and refusing to hear the argument about eating is what's unpopular.

Either way going to the grocery shop and buying meat is a purely psychopathic trait.

Knowing the animal has farmed for the soul purpose of being consumed, its entire life spent in a small enclosed area awaiting death.

The amount of disassociation that must go on for you to do this is insane.

And miss me with the sustainable farming and ethically farmed story. I'm not talking about that, just the torture and slaughter of millions of animals so you can have a burger from the shop.

I agree, also here in Europe in many countries hunting is a hobby for rich people, and it has nothing to do with respecting nature. Its more about killing and showing off the trophies.

Big cars, expensive weapons and over the top attitude. Wish they would ban it.

Wow. Really leaning into the unpopular. I can dig it.

“It’s just peer pressure from the dead AND a fallacious argument.” Man, this is great.

Let’s ignore the dead people in the room (are they with us now?) How is it fallacious?

Finally, an unpopular take.

I'm not talking about the consumption of animals

So you're totally cool with outsourcing the killing of animals so that you can eat them, but draw the line at harvesting the meat yourself, eh? Animals from factory farmed meat plants live absolutely miserable lives. Participating in that industry is far more psychopathic than being willing to expend the time, and money to harvest your own meat, and being willing to be close enough to the process to completely understand exactly what you're doing when you eat that juicy steak.

Don't tell me it's to eat, like I said, I'm not talking about the consumption here

There are hunters who eat what they harvest, and trophy hunters. Trophy hunters are far more rare these days. They're pretty open about the fact that they're pursuing a trophy animal to kill them for sport. They're probably not reading your post, and they don't care what people think about what they do. Are they psychopaths because of that? Probably not, but they definitely lean more towards the apathetic side of the emotional spectrum.

Not an unpopular opinion here. I'd go as far as to include fishing just for the catch/photo/competition and horse riding, and most certainly horse racing.

With your logic, accidentally killing an animal with a car is the best thing. No premeditated thought, no planned anything. Just BAM! Finally some amino acids.