I can't believe this is allowed...

Ro: maaan!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=216791

Has this just not been noticed by an admin yet, or is it actually allowed on boards? It's bad enough that they can discuss killing animals here, but to post pictures of the dead animals??? :rolleyes: Are you ****ing kidding?

Chalk

dead animals arent illegal.

Ro: maaan!

Neither is porn.

snappieT

Some aren't too bad, but others do come off quite graphic alright.

Chalk

still dont see your point.

there only animals

Ro: maaan!

What point? It's your point that lacks sense. Legality has nothing to do with it. It's wrong, offensive, senseless, brutal, and serves no purpose.

fade2black

You can show dead animals but you can't show a naked person. Explain that one please

nesf

Ro: maaan! wrote:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=216791

Has this just not been noticed by an admin yet, or is it actually allowed on boards? It's bad enough that they can discuss killing animals here, but to post pictures of the dead animals??? :rolleyes: Are you ****ing kidding?

Hunting is perfectly legal in this country, and is not restricted by age. Thus not equatable to porn. And there is a shooting board on here, so the admins obviously don't have a problem with people posting about the killing of animals on here.

If it bothers you so much, then don't read that board, and quit bitching about it.

Chalk

serves no purpose, how?

its a shooting board.
there are pictures of things people have shot.
if your offended by shooting dont look at the board.

if your offended by dead animals, ill guess your a vegetarian, and in that case, you should just stop.
ive never seen that thread before, i dont care about it one or the other, buts its one of the aspects of shooting, which as hunters they should be entitled to discuss,
and not have to stop because some animal rights activist wants them to.

senseless, brutal etc, your opinion, most people in ireland eat meat, and its their choice,
most people understand that animals are killed for meat,
so if this was a democracy i reckon theyed still win.
its not however and the mods of that forum allow it,
so be it.

pm a mod over there,
dont try to call in an admin to stop it.

joe.

It's a hunting forum. Nothing too sensational there I think.

secret_squirrel

Ro: maaan! wrote:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=216791

Has this just not been noticed by an admin yet, or is it actually allowed on boards? It's bad enough that they can discuss killing animals here, but to post pictures of the dead animals??? :rolleyes: Are you ****ing kidding?

Dont have a cow man!

flogen

Hunting animals has no appeal to me whatsoever, that's why I don't go there. I like animals and find the hunting of them for sport pretty stupid (among other things), but that's my opinion.
Until there's a law passed, however, it's perfectly legal to do what these pictures are depicting and as a citizen of this country it is your obligation to respect the rights of others. If you want to really do something you should petition the government to ban hunting, I promise you my support.
Until then, don't visit shooting and don't complain about something that is legal... in other words your opinion (and mine) doesn't matter.

Chalk

thats the beauty of living in a democratic country.
the wants of the many are given priority to the wants of the few.

Vexorg

Guys hang on a moment ... these are pictures of animals taken in a hunt, they are in a thread of Hunting Photos in the shooting forum.

If these picture were particularly graphic, there may be cause for concern. For instance there was a spate of cooking cats and dogs (alive) videos a couple of years ago. This was obscene.

Are they any different to the picture of a large salmon my dad caught while fly fishing?

So now that you have brought the thread to my attention, Yes the mods now know about it. Yes its allowed, I think you will find that the vast majority of people will not have a problem with hunting pictures, they may not like it, but get on with it.

If you want to discuss something you have strong feelings about please do so in a less hysterical style of writing, you are not appealing to anyone sense or morality when you make a statement that "porn is not illegal".

By all means start a discussion, but please do a little research about hunters and hunting, I think you will find that few are offensive, senseless, brutal and the large majority actually eat the animals they shoot. As it it being wrong that is a matter of opinion I think, I personally do not approve of hunting, for different reasons to you, but I know hunters who will shoot pests for farmers, better than some of the poisions farmers use.

So less of the statements and explain why its "It's wrong, offensive, senseless, brutal, and serves no purpose." Get a proper discussion going and put some arguements forward to change some minds.


Vex.

Mercury_Tilt

This post has been deleted.

Giblet

Hey I love maggots, I have a few in my kneecaps now.

muckwarrior

I can't understand how people get all worked up about shooting animals. I'm sure 99% of these people would have no probelm squating a fly. But if the animal happens to be furry or cute then all of a sudden it's wrong. Guess what, every little cute bunny rabbit or birdie you see in the wild is going to come to a gruesome bloody end. Fact! Being shot is probably one of the most humane deaths that a wild animal can have.

If the sight of dead animals sickens you then for Gods sake stay out of the hunting forum!

Ro: maaan!

I'd be in the 1% there. I've never killed anything on purpuse. Of course I've stepped on things by accident. But I can't remember ever doing it without wishing I hadn't. ("Yeah yeah... taking it too far, relax." Say what you like. I'm just replying to muckwarrior's comment.)

The only reason I mentioned porn was in response to Chalk's "dead animals aren't illegal" comment. I was only pointing out that porn isn't illegal and it's banned on boards. Thus rendering his comment irelevent. But as for what nesf said... Is it illegal for people under a certain age to look at porn? To buy it yea. But to look at it? To look at nipples? Doubt it. But the rule here is no nipples, even on a private forum that you need to say you're over 18 to view. I'm not saying that this has anything to do with dead animals. Just using it as an example of something that's not illegal but banned from boards.ie. I know when I have children I won't be sheilding them from breasts, but I wouldn't want them to see some of those pictures on that thread. The law really has nothing to do with this.

Ok, serves no purpose. I may have been a little vague there. Not the actual act of hunting, but showing each other pictures of the animals after you've killed them. Really, does it serve a purpose? Suppose it serves a purpose if there's someone who wants to see it. So the question here is (disrgarding the law) do the admins prefer boards viewers to be the kind of people who like to look at naked ladies, or the kind of people who like to look at dead animals?

Vexorg, about the fish, sadly it's exactly the same thing. But I've seen so many pictures of so many fish being held up by people with huge smiles on their faces that it doesn't seem like such a big deal to me anymore. I'm sure that if I'd seen more pictures like the ones on this thread when I was younger I wouldn't see that much wrong with it. [Luckely my parents gave me porn to occupy myself, so I never had to see anything like that when I was young. ] It's not really about what the majority have a problem with. As I just said I've come to accept seeing dead fish. I just wouldn't like to think that in another few years pictures of dead deer won't shock and discust people like me.

Just because shooting them is more humane than what ever it is the famer would have done doesn't make it right. Just makes me dislike the farmer tbh.

It's wrong because: It's killing. Do I have to explain that one any further?
It's offensive because: It offends me! Basically animals never do anything wrong.
Senseless: It's under the heading of sport. So killing for sport. Senseless killing.
Brutal: Killing...?
Serves no purpose: Again I was talking about the pictures there. They really don't. Even if the killing does.

*Sigh*

nesf

Found an animal rights forum or something.

I'm sure there are plenty of people on here who feel the same way and would just love to rant about it with you

Or if your leanings are towards veganism or the like. Found a forum for that and have a place to post about it

I'm actually a little suprised there isn't already a veggie or animal welfare board on here already.

DrIndy

whats the difference between eating something you shot and eating something from a supermarket shelf?

At least the wild animal had a chance of free life before being swiftly and humanely killed (most hunters are good hunters). Whereas slice of beef has been stressed out of his life carted packed into containers and then dragged into a slaughterhouse to be much less humanely dispatched.

Hunting is good, its a sport and as long as you eat what you kill and kill it humanely - its perfectly acceptable.

Davey Devil

I don't think posting pictures of dead animals for amusement is in any way humane. More bullets than brain cells in that forum.

Asok

I'm a level 6 vegan I wont eat anything that casts a shadow.

nesf

Asok wrote:

I'm a level 6 vegan I wont eat anything that casts a shadow.

ROFL!

Do you realise that the electricity thats powering your computer comes from powerstations that burn coal and oil, which come from the highly compressed remains of dinosaurs!

You hypocrite!!! You are abusing dead animals as we speak!!

And so on.

Asok

My computer runs on love!

Sparks

For the love of...

Right, for a start - Ro:mann you were banned from the shooting forum because of the nature of the comment you made. If you'd started this thread in there and kept it civil (instead of the "this thread gets me so hard" comment you did leave), you'd have been perfectly able to discuss this with people who know what the specifics of the topic are. Starting this thread in here is somewhat disingenous.

The simple fact is that humans are omnivores. We eat both animals and plants. And to eat an animal you must first kill it. Whether you eat it as a fish caught from the stream or a rabbit shot in the field or a MacDonalds Happy Meal, it still means an animal had to be killed.

Hunting is a very strictly regulated activity in Ireland. There is an entire body of law and a section of government that monitors it. Only humane methods may be used (though the practise of hunting with hounds is under considerable debate in terms of its level of humaneness at present). Strict licensing is enforced so that wildlife stocks can be preserved and the ecosystem we live in protected.

Posting a photo of an animal that was legally shot is not illegal. It falls under no obscenity law, and it's not shoved in your face (in fact in your case, Ro:mann, you can't see them anymore). You have to specifically seek them out. And believe me, you'll see far more gruesome photos of far more distressing things in the Nine O'Clock news most nights of the week.

And for the record, hunting photos aren't all photos of dead animals. They can be photos of the hunting party, they can be photos of the landscape taken by the hunter, they can be simple wildlife photos (hunters don't spend all their time in the countryside running about armed looking for something, anything, that they can shoot at, y'know). Also for the record, most hunters in Ireland belong to the NARGC, an organisation that does more for conservation than any other group in the entire country, including both animal rights groups and government groups. And this isn't done just by them handing over a few quid every year; each and every member of each and every local gun club contributes both money and their personal time in restocking and husbanding the wildlife that they may later hunt. In other words, they do far more than you've ever done for animals in this country.

And for the record, I've never hunted. I doubt I could bring myself to kill something unless it meant I'd starve otherwise. All I've ever shot are paper targets in Olympic Target Shooting. And I feel a rather nonlinear degree of distaste for trophy hunters (most, if not all, Irish hunters hunt for the pot). But that doesn't mean that I go about trashing people in a public forum they may not even be aware exists, without knowing all the facts of the situation.

nesf

Asok wrote:

My computer runs on love!

Yeah but...

Um...

Damn.

Touche.

flogen

Sparks wrote:

The simple fact is that humans are omnivores. We eat both animals and plants. And to eat an animal you must first kill it. Whether you eat it as a fish caught from the stream or a rabbit shot in the field or a MacDonalds Happy Meal, it still means an animal had to be killed.

I take issue with this comment.
Can you prove beyond reasonable doubt that there is any meat in a Happy Meal?

Beruthiel

Mercury_Tilt wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Mercie darling
I think of you all the time

WhiteWashMan

nesf wrote:

If it bothers you so much, then don't read that board, and quit bitching about it.

however, it is in bad taste according to some people.
this is not a 'muppet' issue, but a humanities issue, and as such, the arguement 'if you dont like, the dont look' cant apply.

i dont think you or anyone here has the right to belittle other peoples heartfelt opinions (and animal cruelty is a heartfelt issue, make no mistake).

nesf wrote:

And there is a shooting board on here, so the admins obviously don't have a problem with people posting about the killing of animals on here.

we have an archery forum, i have yet to see any dead thing on that.

we have a greyhound racing forum, i have yet to see hare coursing on that.

we have a horseracing forum, i have yet to see any fox hunting on that.

is it a shooting board, or a hunting forum, becuase i see a big difference.
ive never seen any deer shot in the olympics during the shooting...

nesf wrote:

Hunting is perfectly legal in this country, and is not restricted by age. Thus not equatable to porn.

you mean you can be registered to own a gun at any age in ireland?
more absurd laws.

Gilgamesh

man, the next thing will be banning discussions on clothes in the fashion Forum, IT'S A HUNTING FORUM!!!!! principal of hunting is, you go somewhere, shoot an animal and takes pictures of it to demostrate the size of your c0ck!
well.... there is a bit more than that to it of course, but the idea of hunting is to kill something.
these discussions are all well and good, but if you don't like it, don't go there.
I don't go into the fashion forum, as I don't like it, no big deal, I don't feel a severe burning sensation in my eyes because of it, and I guess you wouldn't either if you didn't go into the hunting forum.

there is a difference between porn and Hunting... in porn the gun normally gets fired IN someone, and hunting the gun get's fired AT something ( with manymany exceptions, hehe)

Porn is not illegal to a certain extent, but the point where it becomes illegal on boards is as soon as it is written in the rules, Which Dev has in place.
So live with it.

Imposter

WhiteWashMan wrote:

however, it is in bad taste according to some people.
this is not a 'muppet' issue, but a humanities issue, and as such, the arguement 'if you dont like, the dont look' cant apply.

i dont think you or anyone here has the right to belittle other peoples heartfelt opinions (and animal cruelty is a heartfelt issue, make no mistake).

I have a problem with Work but I don't take offense to the forum!

is it a shooting board, or a hunting forum, becuase i see a big difference.
ive never seen any deer shot in the olympics during the shooting...

This is the only issue as I see it. If people don't like hunting then stay away from the forum but if people want to discuss it and it's not illegal then why not? People take offense to a lot of things but that's their problem and not the problem of those engaging in that activity.

Gilgamesh

sorry, was too tired to read through WWM's post,

thought there was actually a hunting forum.

no harm done, eh?

WhiteWashMan

good lad

anyway, like i said, i am neither for or against it, but youd best come up with a better arguement than, if you dont like it, dont look.

it has nothing to do with legality, after all, people under 18 here discuss porn, people discuss illegal substance, its a moral and ethic thing for some people.
hell, i have no problem with fox hunting, and i was shouted down just for saying that. i personally see no difference between fox hunting and deer hunting, but people do, and i think you should at least respect those views.
in the same way that anti hunting people should respect the right of people to shoot animals from 100 yards away for no other reason than they can...

WhiteWashMan

Gilgamesh wrote:

Porn is not illegal to a certain extent, but the point where it becomes illegal on boards is as soon as it is written in the rules, Which Dev has in place.
So live with it.

actually, its not that its not legal, more that it isnt tolerated...

Evil Phil

Maybe a disclaimer like NSFW and links to pictures instead of IMG tags. Seems like the best of both worlds to me and the NSFW model works very well.

Zaph0d

Ro: maaan! wrote:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=216791

Has this just not been noticed by an admin yet, or is it actually allowed on boards? It's bad enough that they can discuss killing animals here, but to post pictures of the dead animals??? :rolleyes: Are you ****ing kidding?

If you think that's bad, there's a shop near where I live that displays dead animals for public view. Some have been skinned, some decapitated and most dismembered. There's blood everywhere.

It's the children I feel sorry for.

Hobbes

fade2black wrote:

You can show dead animals but you can't show a naked person. Explain that one please

I believe in the US they allow you to hunt naked women with paintballs.. you might get away with that.

oscarBravo

WhiteWashMan wrote:

we have an archery forum, i have yet to see any dead thing on that.

It's illegal to kill anything with an arrow in Ireland.

pickarooney

oscarBravo wrote:

It's illegal to kill anything with an arrow in Ireland.

Except the bishop of somewhere-or-other through one of the windows in Trinity on a specific date.

Evil Phil

pickarooney wrote:

Except the bishop of somewhere-or-other through one of the windows in Trinity on a specific date.

Technically Trinity is British soil (afaik) so it doesn't count as 'In Ireland'. This may be an urban myth though.

Peace

So you'll edit out words like sh.i.t and cu.nt which are heard in the school playgrounds but you'll aloow pictures of a dear with its brains blow out and blood splatters...

And please don't start the argument about you eat meat and burn electricity your a hypocrit... they are killing these animals for pleasure. And yes, i also disagree with sport fishing. Eat what you take.

Boards should be about whats acceptable on a society level, not whats acceptable to the Admin's of the site.

If this is allowed then should Michael Jackson jokes should be really banned from the humour board? Should dead baby jokes should be banned from the humour board?

Links to Mature Content or Rotten websites

That quote is taken from the humour board charter... so why no rotten content allowed there and rotten content on the shooting board.

Also, what happens when someone wants to start posting the result of a human being shot? Maybe just a little brain will be allowed?... maybe we could quantify how large the bullet hole could be and make an approximation in grams of how much external mass or brain matter we could allow... be it animal or human?

I'm all for the NSFW practice, but once its across the board... not just on certain subjects. You open the door to rotten content on the shooting forumn, you open it everywhere - Humanities/Humour/Art/Film

DrIndy

Evil Phil wrote:

Technically Trinity is British soil (afaik) so it doesn't count as 'In Ireland'. This may be an urban myth though.

Now now now.......

Some influential people tried to lobby that when the Free State was created, that Trinity should remain a british enclave.

This was just smoke and mirrors though........

I'm sure someone was shot with an arrow a while ago. Trinity is somewhat built as a fortress with a high railing for defensive purposes due to unrest over the past ages. They even had their own militia for a while. The Junior Dean was killed with a sword after intervening during a debate of the Philosophical society. The society was subsequently banned from trinity for over 100 years.....

stevenmu

Peace wrote:

Boards should be about whats acceptable on a society level, not whats acceptable to the Admin's of the site.

Many people do find hunting and fishing acceptable, and taking photos is a part of those sports. I would see banning them as giving in to a noisy minority, not a true reflection of how wider society feels.

muckwarrior

Peace wrote:

Eat what you take.

How do you know they don't?

Peace wrote:

Boards should be about whats acceptable on a society level,

Exactly. Hunting is acceptable on a society level.

Peace wrote:

If this is allowed then should Michael Jackson jokes should be really banned from the humour board?

I think the difference is that whether or not you find those jokes offensive, they definately are in bad taste. Hunting pictures however, while offensive to some, are not distasteful in the relevant context, i.e. a shooting forum.

Peace wrote:

Also, what happens when someone wants to start posting the result of a human being shot?

Your just being rediculous now.

Gurgle

Peace wrote:

Also, what happens when someone wants to start posting the result of a human being shot? Maybe just a little brain will be allowed

Or a link to a video where a human has his head hacked off by terrorists ?

This stuff is legal and is not age restricted, whether its hunting or international news.

If it offends you, don't look at it.

Sparks

WhiteWashMan wrote:

however, it is in bad taste according to some people.

An awful lot of things are in bad taste (or worse, are mortal sins) according to some people. Doesn't make them immoral, unethical or distasteful, except to those people. And if you don't like it, you are under no obligation to look.

this is not a 'muppet' issue, but a humanities issue, and as such, the arguement 'if you dont like, the dont look' cant apply.

On what basis is it a humanities issue? Are you saying hunting is illegal? Because it isn't. Are you saying it's immoral or unethical? Because if so, you need to be a complete vegan and decry your entire ancestry right back to the precambrian era for having the lack of ethics to have hunted and killed their food.

i dont think you or anyone here has the right to belittle other peoples heartfelt opinions (and animal cruelty is a heartfelt issue, make no mistake).

Noone belittled anyone, except for Ro:mann. As I said, had he been civil and made his point on the forum, it would have been answered civilly. Instead he came in, said that the thread aroused him sexually and was banned for being offensive. Irony, no?

Heartfelt opinions expressed civilly and with an open mind are welcome in the shooting forum. Muppetry is not.

we have an archery forum, i have yet to see any dead thing on that.

Hunting with bows is illegal in Ireland. And despite urban legend, you can't shoot people with bows from the walls of TCD.

we have a greyhound racing forum, i have yet to see hare coursing on that.

That would be because it's a racing forum.

we have a horseracing forum, i have yet to see any fox hunting on that.

That would be because it's a racing forum.

is it a shooting board, or a hunting forum, becuase i see a big difference.

It's both. Read the Charter:

This forum is for the discussion of sports shooting related subjects, including techniques, equipment and events, in all disciplines; as well as for discussion of shooting as it pertains to hunting in Ireland. Discussion of current events is also within the scope of the forum, though the scope for such discussion is restricted to the shooting-related aspects of those events only.

ive never seen any deer shot in the olympics during the shooting...

That's because you've only ever seen the olympic games in the past thirty years. At the founding of the modern games right up until comparatively recently, live animals were shot during the games (clay pigeon, for example, wasn't always shot with inanimate pigeons).

you mean you can be registered to own a gun at any age in ireland?
more absurd laws.

No, not any age. You have to be over 16. Same as for a pilot's licence. That is due to be reduced soon for training licences for olympic air rifles to bring us in line with the rest of the EU and the rest of the world (thus allowing us more of a competitive chance in the olympics), but even then it won't be a licence to own the firearm but merely to shoot it (a parent or guardian will have to have a licence to own it and be present during training/competition).
The laws governing firearms are certainly in need of a small amount of work; but the basic structure is quite sound. What's needed is merely fine-tuning to take into account changes in technology since the law was drafted in '25 and to reduce garda workload over licence renewals.

If it makes you feel any more reassured, that well-known tree-hugging peacenik liberal hippy, Minister McDowell, has stated in the Dail that the current laws on firearms are overly stringent for target shooters and need relaxing as we are of no threat to anyone or anything.

Ro: maaan!

Sparks, "civil"? You think the sentence "This thread gets me so hard" is less civil than shooting an animal? Do you?

As for the hunters doing more for animals than I've ever done... Well I think that if everyone on earth did as much and as little for animals as I did, they'd be quite happy with that.

Anyway I'm really not complaining about hunting at all here. All I have a problem with is the pictures. (Obviously I have a problem with hunting too, but I've accepted that I won't really be able to stop that.) It's just the pictures. They're completely unnecessary. As someone pointed out boards.ie has it's own rules about what's acceptable here and what's not. Certain types of jokes, content etc. All I'm really saying is that while it may be legal, it's unbelievable that this is accepted above other things that are no more offensive. I still don't understand what people get out of looking at these pictures.

The argument that you actually have to seek them out to see them doesn't really help much. It's the same for jokes in humour, but they're still banned.

And the "if you don't want to see them don't look" argument. I usually agree with that. When people were complaining about threads like "What are you listening to right now" I was telling people to just not open them if they don't want to read them. Except in that case the most used phrase in the whole thread was "it's not hurting anyone". Can't really say that here. Can you?

Sparks

Peace wrote:

And please don't start the argument about you eat meat and burn electricity your a hypocrit... they are killing these animals for pleasure.

Actually, they shoot them for meat. Ever eaten venison or rabbit Peace? Partridge? Pheasant? None of those animals are farmed like cattle are (with the exception of an experimental deer farm in the North). They're hunted. And when the National Parks find their deer populations have grown to unsustainable levels and need to carry out a cull, as is the case in Kerry and the Phoenix Park at the moment, the cull is usually carried out by hunters. And when the DSPCA finds an animal in an inaccessible location that's been badly injured, they shoot it with a rifle (and guess where they train so that they can do so as quickly and humanely as possible?)

And for the record, hunting is far sounder ecologically speaking than some more "acceptable" forms of gathering meat like animal husbandry (we've now managed to breed cattle that can't give birth naturally without dying because we want larger haunches on our cattle and larger calfs that take less time to get to marketable weight; battery chickens are infamous for the cruel conditions they're raised in and the diseases that can be spread through those conditions; and pigs in a natural habitat are now so rare that they make television series following farms that try to raise them that way) or fishing (ever eaten cod? You may be among the last humans to do so thanks to overfishing, and that's not the only species we've fished from enormous populations to near-extinction in a human lifetime).

And yes, i also disagree with sport fishing. Eat what you take.

What part of "most, if not all, Irish hunters hunt for the pot" confused you?

Boards should be about whats acceptable on a society level, not whats acceptable to the Admin's of the site.

And hunting is considered, and has been considered, acceptable on a social level for our entire history.

That quote is taken from the humour board charter... so why no rotten content allowed there and rotten content on the shooting board.

Different charters. Did you read the charter for the shooting board at all?

Also, what happens when someone wants to start posting the result of a human being shot?

I believe you're thinking of the Politics forum during the Iraq invasion now, yes?
Because oddly enough, you're not allowed hunt people in Ireland...

And can we restate something for the record please?
hunting photos aren't all photos of dead animals. They can be photos of the hunting party, they can be photos of the landscape taken by the hunter, they can be simple wildlife photos (hunters don't spend all their time in the countryside running about armed looking for something, anything, that they can shoot at, y'know).

muckwarrior

Ro: maaan! wrote:

I still don't understand what people get out of looking at these pictures.

Exactly. You just don't understand it. That doesn't make it offensive/distasteful/wrong! I don't understand homosexuals but I don't go around canvasing for pictures of them to be banned! I just stay away from the homo forum or whatever its called.

Ro: maaan!

Well that's easy enough to explain. You know the way you think of women? Well that's the way gay men think of men. What can you equate looking at dead animals to?

Sparks

Ro: maaan! wrote:

Sparks, "civil"? You think the sentence "This thread gets me so hard" is less civil than shooting an animal? Do you?

Yes.
Was I not clear on that?

As for the hunters doing more for animals than I've ever done... Well I think that if everyone on earth did as much and as little for animals as I did, they'd be quite happy with that.

I doubt it. You're sitting there, probably wearing leather shoes, I'd guess you've eaten a fair bit of chicken, fish, ham, pork, mutton, lamb, steak and other meats during your life, in a society whose economic basis was agrigarian for deceades - offhand, I'd say your mere existance was harmful to animals.

Anyway I'm really not complaining about hunting at all here. All I have a problem with is the pictures.

So you've no problem with the activity so long as you don't have to look at it?
Guess what.
I've got a cunning plan to alleviate your suffering.

All I'm really saying is that while it may be legal, it's unbelievable that this is accepted above other things that are no more offensive.

But obviously it's not offensive to the majority, or butcher shops would have blacked-out windows and would sell all their meat in anonymous looking opaque packaging, wouldn't they?

I still don't understand what people get out of looking at these pictures.

Neither do I. Doesn't mean that they don't get something out of it. I don't see what people get out of watching Eastenders either, but so long as I'm not strapped down in front of the tv like something from the Clockwork Orange and forced to watch it, I don't care.

The argument that you actually have to seek them out to see them doesn't really help much. It's the same for jokes in humour, but they're still banned.

That's not a valid argument. People looking for jokes go to Humour. They may not be looking for smutty jokes or gallows humour, but they can still encounter them. You don't encounter the hunting photos unless you actively go to the Shooting forum and seek them out. Or was there some sort of error in the Boards code that popped them up on your screen the moment you entered the shooting forum?

Except in that case the most used phrase in the whole thread was "it's not hurting anyone". Can't really say that here. Can you?

Yes, I can. Unless, of course, last night when I wasn't looking, we extended human rights to deer and rabbits.