Is hunting for sport a sin?

The bible says that humans were given dominion over all animals. In my opinion, this would include a responsibility to care for the animals. In my mind, it is a sin to kill any animals that you do not intend to eat. So the people who hunt for sport, just to get the head to to stuff the animal and do not intend to eat the meat or use the hide or pelt to make cloths are sinners.

 

no but if you do not eat the meat it is a shame

 

I think that many hunters who do it for sport still eat the meat. I don't see anything wrong with stuffing the head really, as long as the meat doesn't go to waste.

 

Actually anyone that hunts for sport is sinning whether they intend to at the animal or not because hey are getting Pleasure out of it for the sport of it as if they are playing some knd of baseball game or ssomething. Now if we were stuck someplace with nothing to eat and you are starving then by all means you can kill the animal . That's my take but then again my dad has hunted before and says I'm too sensitive .

He could be right lol

 

Assuming the eat the meat is consumed I don't have issues with it. That goes for all animals, just not big game like deer or elk. To kill the animal and leave the meat would be inexcusable. I know that some people will actually kill the animals and leave everything except for the backstraps. Which is disgusting imo.

Hunting is a blast, I have spent the last two weekends scouting. Last weekend was truly epic, called a bull elk in so close that we close hear him blowing the air out of his nostrils. Then the wind shifted. The next three hours consisted of crawling on our hands and knees for about 1,000 just to see him.

It was epic.

 

From White Hunter, Black Heart (Clint Eastwood movie of 1990)



That said, nothing wrong with killing animals for food or to prevent other food from being ruined. I don't think there are many hunters that don't either eat the meat from game animals or at the least donate it. For example, in the case of hunters who kill elephants, they end up feeding a village high quality protein for weeks.

 

He is right. If it weren't for deer hunters, the white tailed deer would be trapped or poisoned by farmers and highway departments. They are dangerous animals (on the highway) and they are destructive to crops. I'd rather see deer killed by a hunter than by a compact car (in which case they total the car, too) or by a poison.

Also, humans are hunters by nature (our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, love to hunt and eat game). We enjoy hunting because of that. Your well-fed housecat loves to hunt, even though he doesn't need it to survive. We are the same way.

 

My point was that is hunting strictly for the sport of it a sin, Is it a sin to kill an animals just to have it stuffed and not eat the meat at all.

 

It's never a sin to kill an animal unless its as a sacrifice to a pagan god.

 

So you think it's not a sin to go around killing lots of animals for the fun of it and then leaving their bodies to rot.

 

This is not what's happening. Most hunters harvest all the meat or fur. I don't see this as a modern problem.

 

or the asians or africans who kill apes for a part of their bodies that they sell on the black market? There's nothing in the bible about sport hunting We were given dominion over animals...we should if we kill them do it as humanely as possible under whatever circumstances.

But it occurs to me, is it a sin to fight dogs? And then torture and kill for enjoyment these same animals when they don't perform well?

 

Probably, but as I've said, that is a rare subset of hunters. I've never met anybody with that view, and I grew up in Alabama and Georgia, two major hunting states.

 

That's a strawman. I've never met anybody that did that. Have only heard about such in terms of elephant/rhino poachers (who are trying to get horn or ivory), and the old buffalo hunters of the 19th century. 20th century American hunters primarily keep the meat (except in the case of varmints, who are shot instead of poisoned).

 

IIRC, in the Jewish religious tradition, hunting for food (or not) is a sin. Kosher requires that animals be killed in a certain way. Hunting doesn't qualify.

 

Christians are not bound by Jewish dietary laws.

 

The buffalo hunters of the 19th century wiped out the buffalo herds across the plains of North America and probably did not cultivate most of the meat.

But this was not done for sport or out of love for killing. It was a deliberate policy to wipe out buffalo so that roving Indian tribes would not have a source of food and would be forced to stay on the reservations.

Was it a sin to kill off the buffalo?

It was the equivalent to an act of war so that would depend on what you think about wars of aggression to conquer land.

Original sin is that you benefited from this policy.

 

Just an aside. I agree with you. I also don't think hunting is a sin (except maybe killing an elephant )

 

let me tell you something.

People who think that hunting is cruel or unusual or bad for animals are crazy.

If they actually took the time to read about what real Trophy Sport Hunting involves they would change their mind.

A real trophy sport hunter goes out and literally finds and adopts a herd of deer with several good bucks. He'll study them over an entire year, sometimes years on and years on end the same herd, especially if he's on his own property. He will feed the herd, make sure his herd has water and access to minerals and salt licks. He'll keep the herd healthy and I know many sport hunters who literally go around collecting the deer crap from their property and sending it to labs to test for diseases and malnutrition needs so he can better attune his property to attract and maintain the healthiest herd of deer possible.

Why does he do this?

Because after a few years.. the little baby bucks that were born grow BIG and POWERFUL and with HUGE RACKS because they are healthy and there are alot of them and they go around beating each other up and get even stronger. A few die from Coyotes and such and that leaves literal beasts that grow huge racks.

So to get those really really big heads on the wall in the modern day requires literal herd management and conservation skills.

The average Trophy hunter knows more about wildlife and habitat conservation, and cares more about the environment than any other people I've ever met. You don't just go out and take the head of an old buck. You have to literally grow the (*)(*)(*)(*)er from a baby these days on private property.

 

The question was not if it's cruel or bad but if it's a sin.

I could also say that if it's a sport to propagate superstitions such as the afrodesiacal effects of a rhino's horn or the bones of a tiger then hunting for that kind of sport is wrong. But I'm not sure Christians would see it as a sin. After all, it does comply with the dominion tenets of that religion.

 

I guess my point was, how can someone so connected and caring of one of God's creations(a herd of animals) and is being a steward of that creation, be considered sinful for taking a portion of that herd for his own consumption and perhaps even visual pleasure?

God has approved of that very activity many times in the Earliest books of the Bible. It's no different than a shepherd culling a sheep from his flock. It can't be a sin.

However, it IS a sin to do the opposite, which is exploit God's creation to the point of destruction for monetary gain. That I can see being a Sin and believe God also spoke of such things in the Bible though it's just a vague memory nothing specific comes to mind.

 

In Christianity, I don't think it is a sin to 'exploit' nature for any purpose as long as that purpose is not part of a sin itself (for example, for greed as you point out). But I may be wrong.

I suspect it is perfectly sin-less for someone to say, "It is God's will that you hunt every animal in these 10,000 acres of woods and spill chemical waste on every square inch of it", as long as that person actually believes that his god is talking to him. If he does it for money, though, then it may be a sin. But only due to the sin of greed.

 

You know what that is a great theological question. I think I will put that to some of the local clergy and get their opinions. I'm curious what the Catholic position on this would be.

But I can't imagine any theologian defending mass slaughter of an entire species of God's creation. The only factor that would drive a human being to that would be either hunger, as in prehistoric man who much like a modern day hunter would have only the slightest beneficial effects on most animal populations except ones that presented a clear and present danger to his existence.. or greed in the modern day.

 

Wiping out a species isn't stewardship. Managing the population of a species (including hunting) is stewardship.

I'm pretty sure there is no Catholic position against hunting. A priest I know (who is extremely legalistic) had a tree stand in the rectory, for him to use on his day off. Another priest I know (not so legalistic) was into hunting for a while as well.

 

Those people give the animal to "something"... You just can't leave a dead animal out in the words man...

The only sin is you hunt for people....