Reply #: you have to admit [View All]

there is a link with dogfighting to the bad kind of hunter who just likes to shoot up the woods and take aim at anything that moves, then leave it to rot or later die from wounds. Responsible hunters know that plenty of these types are out there. They tend to be the young & the restless who express their manliness by blowing away every animal they come across. Once you learn to enjoy killing for no practical reason (eg. food, euthanizing, self-defense) then you cross a line that puts you in the same moral league as dogfighting supporters--killing as sport. I don't buy the line that hunters "love nature" so much. Being in nature shouldn't trigger the urge to kill.

It seems to me we have plenty of outlets in this culture for people to get their aggressions out. Kids play paintball and football. They can kill everything that moves on a computer screen. But things like dogfighting & wanton killing disguised as hunting continue to proliferate. Some people, probably the more literal types, just have to see real blood and real suffering. It's a primitive instinct, to keep the idea of mortality at bay. It goes something like, "this creature dies, and so I get an extra charge of life for awhile." It's exhilarating--good cruel fun.

No it's not quite as bad as watching torture of humans, public stonings or hangings but it's still the same instinct. I'm not so sure these blood sports couldn't make a comeback & hope you're right that they're dying out. Maybe if we had a better view of death in our culture, we wouldn't have to waste so much life for psychological fortitude.