Trophy Hunting Good?!

[The Grand Nudger]

There might be more to it than our feelings, and if there isn't..it could certainly be improved by addition.  There are people who don't give a shit about their kids and their property, or who have neither, morality still has a use for them as well. Besides, alot of what we do out of interest for our children and our property probably falls in the immoral set - subjective or objective. Those two things are known to have a subversive effect on moral agency.

Where is this going?

[Martian Mermaid]

I'm posting this in question in light of this.

Philosophically, I can can think of few things I would rate as more depraved than trophy hunting. The thought of someone murdering a living creature so they can put its stuffed head up on a wall and brag about their crime makes me utterly sick. I regard such cretins as defective units, worthy of no human rights or lower animal rights. The linked article makes the case that the net result is good - at least in the case of elephants.

I'm too drunk to evaluate the article now. I'm sickened to think that the overall elephant population may be benefited by the disgusting, unethical slaughter of comparatively few individuals. But I'm a pragmatist. I'd like to know if there really is something to this argument - as much as it disgusts me.

I call myself a Secular Humanist but the act of the American people electing Donald Fucking Trump as President just makes me want to cry. I hate this man more than death itself. Maybe I'm wrong and our species isn't so great. Maybe we are depraved and disgusting and pathetic. Maybe we deserve to die and make way for evolution on this planet to come up with something more worthy. The election of Trump is definitely an argument in favor of that.

I am utterly disgusted.

Humans aren't great. In fact, we are the most damaging species on the face of the Earth. Never before has Earth dealt with such a destructive species. This is why I don't understand how people who actually think about it still think we are the most valuable species. We are a parasite, and trophy hunting is disgusting.

[Edwardo Piet]

If trophy hunting elephants is a way to help conserve the elephant species, then let the species die naturally.

I'm never impressed by an Appeal To Quantity when we're talking about the lives of individuals.

Anyways, I'm off to bed now. Goodnight everyone.

[vulcanlogician]

If trophy hunting elephants is a way to help conserve the elephant species, then let the species die naturally.

I'm never impressed by an Appeal To Quantity when we're talking about the lives of individuals.

Anyways, I'm off to bed now. Goodnight everyone.

Goodnight, Hammy!

In regards to your post, I don't think that the species IS dying naturally. The demand for ivory is what caused them to be targeted by poachers, thus leading to our current situation. I agree with you that the Appeal to Quantity fails, but for another reason than the one you give.

Elephants used to have very large tusks. But this is not quite as common anymore because of poaching. Through the imposition of artificial selection, we have made small tusks the favorable gene to the elephants: the elephants with small tusks were passed over by poachers and thus THEY were allowed to survive and produce offspring. In the end, if we allow limited hunting, it may help the species survive but the proud elephant will be a shadow of its former self.

I'm not opposed to trophy hunting, per se. I don't personally hunt, but the collecting of trophies may be a part of the human being's tribal psyche. But in this case, by allowing hunting of any kind, we are destroying yet another of nature's magnificent gifts.

(Sorry if I repeated anything that has already been said, long thread).