Quotes on Hunting – What Philosophers, Researchers and Prominent Figures Say
Hunting is not a neutral subject. From ancient philosophers to modern scientists – time and again, brilliant minds have sharply criticized recreational hunting. This collection gathers voices across centuries that share one thing in common: They raise questions about ethics, empathy and humanity's relationship to life.
Hunting is always a form of war.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet (1749–1832)
Philosophy & Ethics
Among all ways of life, the hunting life is without doubt the most contrary to civilized society; the Noahic prohibition of blood seems originally to have been nothing other than the prohibition of the hunter's life.
— Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1724–1804)
Hunting is one of the surest means of killing people's feelings for their fellow creatures.
— François Voltaire, French writer and philosopher (1694–1778)
Hunting is not an occupation worthy of a thinking being. It is to be feared that people who practice it will become as inhumane toward humans as they are toward animals, or that the cruel custom of causing pain with indifference will blunt their compassion for their fellow human beings' misfortune.
— Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1740–1786)
The hunter stands even below the butcher.
— Frederick the Great (King of Prussia)
For animals, life on this world is hell, and their devils are humans. The outrageous wickedness with which the Christian rabble treats animals, killing them with laughter, mutilating or torturing them.
— Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788–1860)
Anyone who is cruel to animals cannot be a good person.
— Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher
The question is not whether they can think or speak – the question that must be asked is: Can they suffer?
— Jeremy Bentham, British philosopher (1748–1832) (New)
Among the madmen of this world, Erasmus of Rotterdam counted «those obsessed with hunting, for whom nothing surpasses animal baiting and who believe they experience incredible pleasure whenever they hear the repulsive sound of hunting horns and the howling of the pack. I am almost inclined to assume that they perceive dog excrement like the scent of cinnamon! … When they then taste a small piece of the game's flesh, they feel almost ennobled. While these people, through constant hunting and gluttony, essentially only achieve their own degeneration, they believe they are living a royal life.»
— Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch humanist, writer (1465–1536)
We do not have two hearts – one for animals and one for humans. In the exercise of violence against the former and the exercise of violence against the latter, there is no difference other than that of the victim.
— Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869), French poet and politician
Science & Biology
Ultimately, hunting serves only the pleasure and satisfaction of the hunters' bloodlust. Hunting is superfluous. If it is discontinued, populations regulate themselves.
— Ragnar Kinzelbach, biologist and zoologist
Hunting is merely a superfluous hobby that serves to satisfy the hunters' blood lust. We do not need hunting; it is ecologically irresponsible.
— Dr. Karl-Heinz Loske, biologist and scientist
That hunters keep the forest healthy is a sham. We have 110,000 hunters in Austria – they're not constantly shooting at sick animals. Hunting is an act of pleasure.
— Prof. Antal Festetics, wildlife biologist and behavioral researcher
The goal of hunters is to keep the number of their victims constantly high. The environment would optimally maintain itself with an internal regulatory mechanism, without humans shooting. I really see no other function for hunting than that it is a pleasure. Hunting serves only the hunters.
— Bruno Bassano (Gran Paradiso National Park, Italy)
The correct wildlife density could establish itself naturally if deer were not forced into the forest through excessive wariness, intensive hunting and wildlife feeding.
— Prof. Dr. Josef Reichholf (Zoological State Collection Munich)
I never found love for humans where there was no love for animals. Whoever truly respects life also respects life, because life was given to both of us by God.
— Prof. Konrad Lorenz, behavioral researcher, Nobel laureate (1903–1989)
In hunting circles, population segments infiltrate that always exist, namely the militant layer that takes pleasure in killing, which in war would not shoot game but humans.
— Otto König, Austrian behavioral researcher (1914–1992)
The typical consequential damages of hunting lust: Hunters would like to shoot many easily hit targets with colorful feathers as trophies. So pheasants were brought here from Asia, bred in large numbers in factory farms, with all the accompanying circumstances such as beak trimming – and then the tame animals are released, even though they are not native here. The unviable birds are now to be kept alive until they are shot. For this, all predators must die. And in the end it is said: Our hunters protect nature.
— DDr. Martin Balluch, Austrian book author and animal rights activist
Those people who feel joy in killing, who believe they gain prestige through a trophy made of flesh, have achieved neither moral nor intellectual maturity to recognize the primitiveness of their actions.
— Saper, neurologist / neurosurgeon
Hunting is unnecessary and immoral, regardless of whether someone sees it as sport, recreational entertainment or industry. What many people today understand as hunting is more brutal slaughter and has nothing to do with the old art of fair competition between man and animal.
— Oleg Mikheyev, Russian politician in the Duma
Literature, Art & Culture
The hunter is a murderer. He commits sacrilege. He kills for pleasure.
— Victor Hugo, writer and politician
Hunting – that is when the unspeakable pursue the inedible.
— Oscar Wilde, English writer (1854–1900)
And the time will come when people like me will regard animal killers with the same eyes as they now regard human killers.
— Leonardo da Vinci, painter and universal genius (1452–1519)
When man wants to kill the tiger, they call it sport. When the tiger wants to kill man, they call it bestiality.
— George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (1856–1950)
Those who torment animals are soulless, and God's good spirit is lacking in them. No matter how noble they may appear, one should never trust them.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German poet)
Dangerous it is to wake the lion, destructive is the tiger's fang, yet the most terrible of all terrors is man in his delusion.
— Friedrich Schiller, German writer
Entire ages of love will be necessary to repay animals for their services and merits to us.
— Christian Morgenstern, poet (1871–1914)
The time will come when the mere pleasure of killing will die out in man. As long as it exists, man has no claim to call himself civilized – he is simply a barbarian.
— Axel Munthe, Swedish writer (1857–1949)
Politics & History
Hunting is merely a cowardly euphemism for particularly cowardly murder of defenseless fellow creatures. Hunting is a subsidiary form of human mental illness.
— Theodor Heuss (1884–1963), 1st Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany
State hunts: organized mass murder of animals for the greater honor of protocol.
— Frederick, King of Denmark
I shoot neither at animals nor at people. [...] I have too much war behind me.
— Helmut Schmidt, former Chancellor
I could never shoot at animals, they would have to commit suicide.
— Hans-Dietrich Genscher, former Foreign Minister (FDP)
I think it's right to warn the hares and pheasants with horn signals at the beginning of a hunt.
— Gustav Heinemann, former Federal President (SPD)
Where one hunter lives, ten shepherds can live, a hundred farmers and a thousand gardeners. Cruelty to animals cannot coexist with true education or true scholarship. It is one of the most characteristic vices of a base and ignoble people.
— Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist (1769–1859)
Hunting – an ancient, ancient institution; originally vital for people who lived as hunters and gatherers; today often a questionable hobby of high society without ecological foundation. Dangerous and cruel hunting methods and breeding for hunting purposes should be banned immediately.
— Dr. Madeleine Petrovic, former deputy federal spokesperson of the Greens (Austria)
Celebrities & Society
'Sport hunting' is a disease, a perversion and a danger and should be recognized as such. Anyone who takes pleasure in hunting and killing helpless animals can only be mentally disturbed.
— Roger Moore, actor
I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you have it. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photos of her.
— Ellen DeGeneres, American actress
Hunters are people whom no one can talk out of believing that there is no greater pleasure for a roe deer than to be hit by a bullet.
— Brigitte Bardot, actress
In a letter to Prince William: 'I was outraged when I learned that you hunt and kill animals for fun and pleasure. And that you deliberately thrust a spear into a tiny deer in Africa.' She further asks the prince whether the action was 'some kind of proof of masculinity.' 'But hey, we all make mistakes, and we can all change. Hopefully you'll find other interesting things to do with your free time instead of killing animals. Call me if you need suggestions.'
— Pink, singer
How could we allow this sick trophy hunting, this false image of the great white hunter, for so long? And how quickly could we end it!
— Dr. Jane Goodall, behavioral researcher and UN peace ambassador
Exotic hunting trophies are an anachronism and expression of a completely outdated culture. Given the massive species extinction, we should draw a clear line. It's time to make peace with nature.
— Ranga Yogeshwar, science journalist and book author
Killing wildlife is not a hobby! Trophy hunting must finally be abolished and made punishable.
— Ruth Moschner, presenter and writer
Every day, rangers risk their lives to protect endangered animals. And we allow a few privileged people to shoot these animals for money for their bloody private pleasure. This is unbearable.
— Sky du Mont, actor, voice actor and writer
Let's imagine a world where nature only exists in air-conditioned museums and animals only hang decapitated on living room walls. The killing of beauty and future must stop.
— Katja Riemann, actress, singer and writer
I also have stuffed animals in the lab and library. They died naturally or I collected them after they were injured by people who enjoy killing. I don't understand why someone would deliberately kill animals to display them. We're living through the greatest mass extinction since humans have been on Earth – therefore and in general, joy in the living is the most beautiful and fulfilling joy. For that you only need binoculars.
— Mark Benecke, forensic biologist, writer and politician
Spirituality & Humanity
Man is ethical only when life, including that of animals, is sacred to him.
— Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize 1952 (1875–1965)
A nature lover is that person who knows themselves to be inwardly connected with everything that lives in nature, participates in the fate of creatures, helps them as much as they can out of suffering and distress, and avoids as much as possible harming or destroying life.
— Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965)
There is only one heart. The same wretchedness that leads to mistreating an animal immediately shows itself also in relationships with other people. Any cruelty toward any creature contradicts human dignity.
— Pope Francis
Tell your children that we never hunted for pleasure, but only to satisfy our hunger. White people who hunt as sport are murderers in our eyes.
— Native American wisdom
The disappearance of hunting is part of the humanization of man, the development toward a higher state that continues to this day.
— Théodore Monod, zoologist
Hunters only fill me with disgust. When they shoot animals, it's as if soldiers were shooting at children.
— Prof. Théodore Monod
Ex-Hunters & Insiders
Now imagine a bullet comes flying and destroys a divine blueprint. That was the reason for me to reject the good stag. At that time I was already further than ever from hunting shooting, because even the best shot is the destruction of a divine blueprint. I went from Saul to Paul. I myself hunted for 54 years, but today I must say that all the magic that hunters surround themselves with – like still jamming a green twig between the dead animal's teeth – is only a camouflage of murder.
— Prof. Richard Finke, ex-hunter
No, we hunt because it gives us pleasure, and what we call wildlife management is pure self-interest, occasionally food envy. We don't want to catch the hawk because we feel sorry for the poor pheasants, because we wish them eternal life. We only want to get at hawk, weasel, fox and company because we want to shoot and bag their prey shares ourselves.
— Bruno Hespeler, specialist journalist including for the magazine 'JÄGER', professional hunter
The much-praised hunting ethics serves to deceive the public and cover up criminal acts. It cloaks animal-tormenting hunting methods with misunderstood tradition maintenance.
— Rüsch (lawyer and hunter; "hypocrite in green loden")
Hunting opens up a space for crimes including murder and for sexual gratification, whenever and wherever hunting takes place.
— Paul Parin, honorary doctor of the University of Klagenfurt and hunter himself
For in the fact that we kill the natural entity of wildlife and experience an exorbitant effect of gratification in doing so, it is empirically demonstrated that we experience something very special within ourselves. The hunter always experiences the emotional climax of his hunt, the kick, when he fires the deadly shot.
— Prof. Dr. Gerd Rohmann, Annual Conference 2004 of the Forum "Living Hunting Culture"(New – Self-statement from the hunting scene)
Popular Wisdom & Zeitgeist
One does not become an opponent of hunting out of boredom, but from knowledge about this animal cruelty.
— Carl Sonnthal
If hunting is culture, cannibalism is gastronomy.
— Carl Sonnthal
Hunting is war waged by armed cowards against defenseless animals.
— Dr. Carl Müller
The hunter loves nature like a rapist loves his victim.
— Karin Hutter
I don't want to suggest that most hunters are weak people, but in my experience, weak people often enough use the opportunity to compensate for their defect by hunting or playing around with weapons and knives.
— John Douglas, FBI profiler (from the non-fiction book The Soul of the Killer)
The danger of being shot by a hunter is far greater than being attacked by a wolf.
— Lieschen Fox
Hunters have as much understanding of love for animals as an earthworm has of 3D television.
— Helmut Rentsch
Everything has its time. The time for hunting has expired.
— Hubert Weinzirl, former federation chairman (1935)
It is beneath the dignity of being "human" when animals must die or suffer merely for our pleasure.
— Unknown
Anyone who gets up in the morning and goes into the forest to kill is not normal.
— Unknown
When humans kill for fun, that is unnatural and pathological! Such people belong with a therapist.
— Unknown
Dear politicians, let this be written in your record: Many hunters have already been shot by their own hunting dogs.
— Wolfgang Reus, German journalist and satirist
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