| Why hunting is wrong |
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| Let me make it clear from the start. The number killed is irrelevant. What species are killed (whether endangered or not) is irrelevant. In which season a bird is killed is irrelevant. Whether the bird is killed on legal or illegal grounds is irrelevant. Whether hunting is legal or illegal is irrelevant. Hunting is killing and unnecessary killing is always immoral and wrong. All animals suffer individually, and birds are no exception. Birds, like other animals, are sentient animals, capable of feeling pleasure, pain, suffering, and are also capable of several emotions like friendship and family ties. All animals have the right to be free from unnecessary abuse, suffering or killing. Several excuses are presented to justify hunting in Malta. The first is the excuse that hunting is a tradition. Well, traditions change with changing values. Slavery was once an accepted trade, but it was abolished because it was cruel, even though it generated jobs and riches to the white upper class. There is no reason why hunting should not be abolished as well, for exactly the same reason. Another excuse is that hunting is practiced throughout the world. Just because something is practiced everywhere does not make it right. The same people who come up with this feeble excuse never have the courage to openly say that they are in favour of the introduction of abortion simply because it is practiced throughout the whole world, this being "Catholic" Malta, where we are "Catholic" enough not to introduce abortion but apparently not Christian enough to abolish unnecessary cruelty such as hunting. If abortion is right or wrong, it must be so for other reasons rather than simply because everyone is doing it. The same applies to hunting. Another hunting excuse is that it is a "hobby", and that it's none of anyone's business what hobby one takes up. Well, what if I had the hobby of doing damage to property? Would that be ok? Of course not. Damaging property is a destructive activity, and calling it a hobby does not change this a little. And what's more destructive than killing, irrespective of whether it's called a hobby or not? I expect some hunter to reply "but damaging property is illegal...hunting is not". Well, if all it takes for hunting to stop is for it to become illegal, hunters should find no problem at all. The urge to hunt would stop the moment that hunting becomes illegal. An activity is made illegal because it is wrong, and not the other way round. Another excuse, which really deserves no attention, but which I will mention just so that I don't miss anything, is that it's better to hunt than to take drugs. Well, then I suppose whoever justifies hunting by saying this, would not object if I were to steal his car, provided that I tell him that it's better than burning his house! Two wrongs never make a right. What's the problem with not taking drugs and not hunting, anyway? Are we so weak that if we are stopped from doing some destructive activity we like, we start taking drugs? And this from people who would usually consider themselves tough guys? The last excuse, and the most feeble one, is that non-human animals were created by God for us to do as we please with them. I personally feel very uncomfortable about the thought of a just, kind and loving God who creates a creature capable of feeling and several emotions, and then allows another species to do with this creature whatever it likes. I would rather like to believe that if there is a God, this God is a God of love who cares for all creatures. And before someone says...but people kill other animals for food....well, first of all, one can always go vegetarian and kill no animal. And secondly, even if one does not go vegetarian, there is a difference between killing for food and killing just for the fun of it. Unnecessary killing is always unethical, immoral and wrong. |