PeppermillRenoIf you feel sad for killing defenseless animals who did nothing to you why do you still do it?
the squirrels and chipmunks up here don't cause problems, the marmots fuck up a whole ton of stuff all over the mountain. We've had lifts be messed up for weeks because they chewed wires and dug holes under the lift shacks and terminals, last week I spent the better part of the day cleaning a motor room where they chewed the fuel line for the diesel and it shat all over the damn place. They break into the parked snowcats during the summer and destroy the interiors as well. We have permission from upper management to shoot them because they are such a pest and are all over the damn place so it would cost a ton of money to hire someone to get rid of them. The grouse I shoot for food because like others have said, I'd rather eat something that wasn't raised in a tiny cage and never saw the light of day. I only shoot them during the actual hunting season so they have time to make babies then raise them. Same goes for elk and deer, I'd say about 80% of the meat I eat is either from animals I have shot or my friends have shot, a decent sized mule deer will feed me for months. But to each their own, some people think shooting anything is despicable, I am not one of those people. There is a time and place for hunting and when done properly it is almost a necessary evil. I also support wolf hunting but that's a whole different debate, I've seen first hand how fucked up the ecosystem around here has become since the wolves have been reintroduced and the population needs thinning.
