I have found that I don't like the taste of wild venison or goat very much. I'm not sure why, I just don't - it's a bit strong, I think.

Is it a gamey taste that makes it to stronge? becuase sometimes the animal has had a hard life so its not very nice meat. It also depends on what the animal has had to live on for example we shot some rabbits in a lovely lush grassy place the meat was beautiful we also shot some rabbits in the wheat belt and they where grose! so it really depends

Yeah, it would probably be because they move around a lot more than farm animals, too.

Often you can also notice the difference in taste from farmed animals too, depending on how they have lived, what they have eaten etc. Personally I dislike the taste of the ordinary pork meat you get in shops because I grew up eating meat from pigs that had been running about outside, doing what pigs like to do, and eating a varied diet.

Actually I think most meats you get in the supermarket is so tasteless that one might as well just eat tofu instead.

As for hunting for sports.. I think there is always some element of sport in hunting, but as long as there is other purposes too, I see nothing wrong with it. Animals kills other animals to eat them, that is just the way the world is. And there is a lot of grey areas between pest control and sport.

Being a pacifist/vegan I don't think I could ever kill anything, but I agree that I would rather eat meat that I had killed myself than from the supermarket. I think it's hypocritical for people to denounce hunting and then to eat meat anyway.
Just wondering, was it true that Prince Phillip watched a member of his hunting party beat a fox to death with a flagpole? Because I read about the artist who ate a corgi (that had died of natural causes) in protest against it because the royal family liked them so much.

Lush cosmetics are supporting hunting sabs atm. we're selling fantastic mrs fox and the proceeds to buying new equipment to help the foxes. It's crazy though, in our store i've been shouted at by a group of hunters for it :/

^I'm prejudiced, but I can't quite bring myself to see English fox hunting as proper hunting.

Seems more like a disgusting local tradition to me, derived from what posh people (eww) found entertaing.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, I'm sure there is a lot about fox hunting I don't know.

I didn't even know what SABS was...thanks to google I now do. Well done Lush.

Irilar, I think the impression you have of English fox hunting is correct. It's an upper class tradition that they claim is "pest control" when really it's just a blood sport.

its horrible. we've had all the posh pricks protest outside our store. if your ever in bath come pop in and see me :P

^ Bought myself a bar. It smells like those black cough sweets so quite a happy bunny.
I'm pretty ok with hunting for food (I don't think I could) but I hate people that hunt animals just for the sake of it or when they know the species is under threat.
I have the thought that "if you can eat the cow why not the deer?" There is a stall that comes every year selling meat such as kangaroo, boar, crocodile, etc. I find it funny that my meat eating friends think the meat stall "gross" but I point out that it's all animal flesh, it just tastes different.

^ I agree. I think that people who will eat one type of meat but not another, because thats "wrong" are just hypocritical. I also agree with what people have said through out, hunting for sport is wrong, and although i couldn't do it anyway (being a veggie and what not) eating meat that people have hunted themselves is better than eating farmed meat. (: At least then the animal had a happy life in the open and you know exactly were its from.

Well, personally as an animal rights activist and vegetarian, i say no to all forms of hunting, espesially ''as a sport'', but i also see a point, because i know a lot of meat eaters, who squirm at the sight of blood, and so i had a thought -


if everyone hunted for their on food, i know for a fact that there would be a lot less animal cruelty, as so many people would find it difficult.

If the other animals in the world were vegetarian, I could more agree with views that eating meat is animal cruelty. But as it's a practice spread throughout the animal kingdom and across the world, I accept it as something completely natural. But, I can understand where some animal right's activists views make sense as well.

I think the most humane way to acquire meat would be raising it yourself. You are fully able to make the animal happy and content and you know for certain if the animal is leaving behind any dependent young. Hunting is better than buying meat in the store, but sometimes things don't go as planned. I've heard a number of stories about the hunter not hitting full on and a deer escaping away with no more nose and such.

Hunting is a valued skill though for ITEOTWAWKI situations.

-- Edited by Lostfiniel on Friday 6th of November 2009 08:22:19 PM

Growing/raising/hunting/foraging all our own food would be lovely, but then we'd have little time to do anything else.

But you can still grow/raise/hunt/forage some of your food and have plenty of time left to do other stuff. Of course if everyone was doing it, we would have a radically different society than we have today
.
I don't think that it would be desirable for everyone to do it, some people wouldn't like it at all and rather make the space elevator or paintings full time. But today loads of people are employed making useless crap, or repetitive work that would be better suited for a machine to do, so there is actually a surplus of human workforce that could be redirected to a more rewarding and healthy way of life.


My stephfather, a passionate hunter, is of the opinion that if you want to eat meat you should also be willing to do what it takes to get that meat on the table. The meat doesn't grow in vats, it comes from a living individual whose life got snuffed out in order for people to eat it.

I don't know how to explain it properly, it is about respect and about being in touch with life and the world we are living in.

If each individual were to source all of their own food, life would kinda suck. We'd each spend all our time farming, hunting, making bread, all that jazz. If we split the work, we'd all get "jobs". Then if we started using machines, we'd have people assigned to repair those machines. Due to differences in climate, we'd have people who needed to transport some foods from A to B...
And then we get to where we are today :)

I do agree about knowing where your food comes from. Being as close to the process as possible is good, but I still prefer a life where I can have so much time for recreation to one where most of my time is spent gathering fruit.

No, we would not spend all our time farming. Hunter/gatherers have much more spare time than most people in modern societies. Even medieval peasants had more free time than most people in the western world today.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

But we are of course talking about Irilar's dream world here, everyone being mostly self sufficient are about as likely to happen as everyone realizing that we shouldn't make weapons and war because there are better things to spend the resources on.

But I think people who eat meat should know where it comes from instead of being wilfully ignorant about it.

-- Edited by Irilar on Saturday 7th of November 2009 02:05:17 PM