I still maintain there is only one true ethical principle in hunting or killing of wildlife (or any animal) and that is it must not contribute to the reduction of biodiversity because that’s when it impacts on fellow man’s ability to survive on earth. The rest are personal preferences (often very good ones) sexed-up as ethical principles.
To test this hypothesis – consider that if it’s man’s ethical duty to kill animals “humanely”, or in “fair chase”, (or in the case of animal rightists, not to kill animals) and therefore to see that all mankind conforms, then it is also man’s duty to ensure that animals kill animals humanely (or not at all) and to ensure that all animals conform. That’s obviously ludicrous. Then to argue that man is not part of the natural world or animal kingdom goes even further into ludicrous illogic.
That doesn’t mean that man has the excuse to behave like an animal towards fellow humans because, unlike animals, we have the power of logic. But man’s code of behaviour towards fellow man doesn’t extend to animals.
It’s becoming a crazy world when terminology like “euthanasia” which is the assisted (gentle) killing of humans and “murder” which is the illegal killing of humans is used in animal activist terminology dealing with animals…”
John Rance TGA Director
