Ultimately, hunting serves only the pleasure and gratification of the hunters' bloodlust. Hunting is unnecessary. If it were stopped, populations would regulate themselves. Ragnar Kinzelbach, biologist and zoologist
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The heart is only one thing. The same wretchedness that leads to mistreating an animal is immediately evident in our relationships with other human beings. Any cruelty towards any creature contradicts human dignity. We cannot consider ourselves great lovers if we exclude any part of reality from our interests. Pope Francis
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Tell your children that we never hunted for pleasure, but only to satisfy our hunger. White people who hunt as a sport are murderers in our eyes. Native American wisdom
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Hunting is merely a superfluous hobby that serves to satisfy the hunters' bloodlust. We don't need hunting; from an ecological perspective, it is irresponsible. Dr. Karl-Heinz Loske, biologist and scientist
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Hunting is a disease, a perversion, and a danger, and should be recognized as such. Anyone who derives pleasure from hunting and killing helpless animals can only be mentally disturbed. Roger Moore, actor
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The disappearance of hunting is part of the humanization of man, the development towards a higher state, which continues to this day. Théodore Monod, zoologist
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The hunter is a murderer. He commits a sacrilege. He kills for pleasure. Victor Hugo, writer and politician
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Hunters fill me with nothing but disgust. When they shoot animals, it's like soldiers shooting children. Prof. Théodore Monod
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The idea that hunters keep the forest healthy is a joke. We have 110,000 hunters in Austria; they don't constantly shoot sick animals. Hunting is a pleasure activity. Prof. Antal Festetics, wildlife biologist and behavioral researcher
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I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say it's because it's such a beautiful animal. There you have it. I find my mother attractive, but I have photos of her. Ellen DeGeneres, American actress
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Anyone who is cruel to animals cannot be a good person. Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher
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Human beings are only ethical if they hold life, including that of animals, sacred. Albert Schweitzer,
Nobel Peace Prize 1952 (1875–1965)
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Hunting opens up a space for crime, even murder, and for sexual gratification, whenever and wherever hunting takes place. Paul Parin, honorary doctorate holder at the University of Klagenfurt and a hunter himself
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Hunting is unnecessary and immoral, regardless of whether someone views it as a sport, a leisure activity, or an industry. What many people understand by hunting today is more like brutal slaughter and has nothing to do with the ancient art of fair competition between humans and animals. Oleg Mikheyev, Russian politician in the Duma
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I don't mean to imply that most hunters are weak people, but in my experience, weak people often enough use hunting or playing with guns and knives to compensate for their flaws.
(Quote from the non-fiction book THE SOUL OF THE KILLER by FBI profiler John Douglas)
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The risk of being shot by a hunter is far greater than the risk of being attacked by a wolf. Lieschen Fox
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Hunters know as much about love for animals as an earthworm knows about 3D television. Helmut Rentsch
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Hunters belong to the lowest tier of thinking, ethically and morally educated society. (Unknown)
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Either someone is human or a hunter. The two are mutually exclusive, since their actions have lost all traces of humanity. Rolf Tingler
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It is beneath the dignity of being human if animals must die or suffer solely for our pleasure. (Unknown)
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Everything has its time. The time for hunting is over. Hubert Weinzirl, former chairman of the German Hunting Association (1935)
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Anyone who gets up in the morning and goes into the woods to kill is not normal. (Unknown)
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A nature lover is someone who feels inwardly connected to all living things in nature, who shares in the fate of creatures, who helps them as much as possible in their suffering and distress, and who avoids harming or destroying life whenever possible. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
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Now imagine a bullet flying by and destroying a divine blueprint. That was the reason I rejected the good stag. At that time, I was further removed from hunting than ever before, because even the best shot is the destruction of a divine blueprint. I had a complete conversion. I myself hunted for 54 years, but today I have to say that all the mystique with which hunters surround themselves—like placing a green twig between the teeth of the dead animal—is merely a disguise for murder. Prof. Richard Finke, former hunter
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One doesn't become an opponent of hunting out of boredom, but out of knowledge about this animal cruelty. Carl Sonnthal
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The much-vaunted ethical hunting practices serve to dumb down the public and conceal criminal acts. They cloak cruel hunting methods under the guise of a misguided sense of tradition. Rüsch (lawyer and hunter; “hypocrite in green loden”)
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Hunting is merely a cowardly euphemism for the particularly cowardly murder of a defenseless fellow creature. Hunting is a form of human mental illness. Theodor Heuss (1884-1963), 1st President of the Federal Republic of Germany
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Hunting is always a form of war. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet (1749–1832)
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The hunter loves nature like the rapist loves his victim. Karin Hutter
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Where one hunter lives, ten shepherds can live, a hundred farmers, and a thousand gardeners. Cruelty to animals cannot exist in a person of true education or true learning. It is one of the most characteristic vices of a base and ignoble people. Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist (1769-1859)
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Hunting is one of the surest ways to kill people's feelings for their fellow creatures. François Voltaire, French writer and philosopher (1694–1778)
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Of all ways of life, the hunting life is undoubtedly the most contrary to a civilized constitution; the Noachian prohibition against bloodshed seems to have originally been nothing other than a prohibition against the hunter's life. Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1724–1804)
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When man wants to kill a tiger, it's called sport. When a tiger wants to kill a man, it's called bestiality. George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (1856-1950)
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Among the madmen of this world, Erasmus of Rotterdam counted "those hunting fanatics, for whom nothing surpasses the thrill of chasing animals and who believe they derive incredible pleasure from the revolting sound of hunting horns and the barking of the pack. I am almost tempted to think they find dog excrement like the scent of cinnamon! ... When they then taste a piece of the game's flesh, they feel almost ennobled. While these people, through constant hunting and overeating, essentially only achieve their own degeneration, they nevertheless believe they lead a royal life." Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch humanist, writer (1465-1536)
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Hunting is not an occupation worthy of a thinking being. It is to be feared that those who practice it will become as inhuman to other people as they are to animals, or that the cruel custom of inflicting pain with indifference will dull their compassion for the misfortune of their fellow human beings. Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1740-86)
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For animals, life on this earth is hell, and their devils are humans. The outrageous cruelty with which the Christian rabble treats animals, killing, maiming, or torturing them with laughter. Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788-1860)
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When people kill for fun, it's unnatural and pathological! Such people need therapy. (Unknown)
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The hunters' goal is to keep the number of their victims consistently high. The environment would maintain itself optimally with an internal regulatory mechanism, without human intervention. I truly see no other function for hunting than that it is a pleasure. Hunting serves only the hunters. Bruno Bassano (Gran Paradiso National Park, Italy)
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The hunter is still below the butcher. Frederick the Great (King of Prussia)
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He who tortures animals is soulless, and God's good spirit is absent from him. No matter how noble he may appear, he should never be trusted. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German poet)
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Hunting is when the unspeakable pursue the unpalatable. Oscar Wilde (English writer)
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The ideal deer population density could establish itself naturally if the roe deer were not driven into the forest by excessive shyness, heavy hunting, and supplemental feeding. Prof. Dr. Josef Reichholf (Zoological State Collection Munich)
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In a letter to Prince William: “I was outraged to learn that you hunt and kill animals for sport. And that you deliberately speared a tiny deer in Africa.” She goes on to ask the Prince if the action was “some kind of demonstration of masculinity.” “But hey, we all make mistakes, and we can all change. Hopefully you’ll find other interesting things to do instead of killing animals to pass the time. Give me a call if you need suggestions.” Pink (singer)
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And the time will come when people like me will look upon animal killers with the same eyes they now look upon human killers. Leonardo da Vinci (painter and polymath)
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I don't shoot at animals or people. […] I've been through too much war. Helmut Schmidt (former Chancellor of Germany)
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I could never shoot animals; they would have to commit suicide. Hans-Dietrich Genscher (former German Foreign Minister, FDP)
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I think it's right to warn hares and pheasants with horn signals at the start of a hunt. Gustav Heinemann (former Federal President, SPD)
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It is dangerous to awaken the lion, the tiger's tooth is deadly, but the most terrible of terrors is man in his delusion. Friedrich Schiller (German writer)
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State hunts: organized mass slaughter of animals for the greater glory of protocol. Frederick (King of Denmark)
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Hunters are people who can't be convinced that for a roebuck there is no greater pleasure than being hit by a bullet. Brigitte Bardot (actress)
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No, we hunt because it gives us pleasure, and what we call game management is pure self-interest, occasionally driven by envy. We don't want to catch the goshawk because we feel sorry for the poor pheasants, because we wish them eternal life. We only want to get our hands on goshawks, weasels, foxes, and the like because we want to kill and cull their share of the prey ourselves. Bruno Hespeler (journalist, including for the magazine "JÄGER," professional hunter)
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Those who derive pleasure from killing, who believe they gain prestige through a trophy of flesh, have attained neither the moral nor the intellectual maturity to recognize the primitiveness of their actions. Saper, neurologist/neurosurgeon
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Hunting is war waged by armed cowards against defenseless animals. Dr. Carl Müller
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If hunting is culture, then cannibalism is gastronomy. Carl Sonnthal
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We do not have two hearts—one for animals and one for humans. In the use of violence against the former and the use of violence against the latter, there is no difference other than that of the victim.
(Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869), French poet and politician)