Alex, the following is kind of directed at your argument of poachers v hunters, hunters having to stick together etc.
Let me start by acknowledging I don’t know anything about the hunting laws where most of you guys are from. Where I am from, if you’re on land you’re legally allowed to hunt on, public or private, any dog is fair game. If a dog is not on it’s owners property or not under the control of it’s owner, it is, for the purposes of hunting or trapping, feral. As far as I am aware, there are no laws here precluding young feral animals from being killed. So in Dave’s original post, there would be wide scope here for that to have been an entirely legal activity. The xbowman who fired at the puppy could have been engaged in entirely legal hunting.
My little peanut brain tells me that to try and effectively legislate 100% ethical conduct in an activity as varied and subjective as hunting would result in some very restrictive legislation.
So, keeping those things in mind, I would suggest that it is entirely up to those of us who call ourselves (ethical) hunters to condemn activities that may in fact be legal, but we find to be unethical. Remembering that if we find it unethical, surely so do the majority of the folks who are not hunters. If we don’t regulate our own ethical conduct, the fallout will be that non-hunting majority further restricting our freedom to hunt with legislation attempting to regulate our ethics for us.
In short, if you’re fighting for your life, the enemy of your enemy may very well be your friend. But if you’re fighting for what’s right, that is simply not enough.
All in my humble opinion.
