This is amazing. A duck hunter attached a GoPro HD to his hunting dog and lets us see what it’s like to hunt from a dog’s perspective. We get to see the whole hunting process from a dog’s perspective: the quick reactions, the animal instincts, the ease of swimming, the grab and even the dizzying water shake. Looks fun, but a lot of work too.
[The Sugarcoat via Field and Stream]
Chin
Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 8:20 PMfascinating video… but always weird to see these archaic people who still shoot animals and put them through painfor ameal when pain free meat is available at a store. We may have advanced as a civilization in some ways, but definitely not in others…
Nort
Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 8:49 PMI’m sure all those animals eaten by other animals feel absolutely no pain when a grizzly bear or whatever wrecks its shit up.
Chin
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 1:48 AMI’d like to think we as humans are above other animals in that respect, don’t you? Doing things this way just because we find it an amusing pastime is something else altogether…
Simon Reidy
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 1:52 AMYes but a grizzly bear isn’t a sentient being that knows any better.
I’ll never understand people that find killing defenseless animals fun.
Nathan Young
Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 11:27 PMYeah, geez. SHUT THE EFF UP. Sick of “political correct” animal lovers. I think shooting a duck is likely to kill it pretty quick, and not nearly as horrible as, say, a crocodile slowly drowning a wildebeast or a python crushing it’s victim.
Mike Johnson
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 7:03 AMPain free meat available at stores?
And those chickens sitting in cages all day that must be like a spa/resort for them. I don’t see a problem with this as long as they are eating the ducks or culling them.
Nort
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 8:19 AMThe point Chin made was that the duck was being killed painfully for a meal. The point I was making was that animals kill other animals for meals as well and, as Nathan pointed out, I’m sure that gazelle or whatever would feel blinding panic as its being chased by a lion, and it’d most definitely feel said lion going to town on its haunches and neck. I think a bullet seems much less painless by comparison. No warning, no panic, just boom, dead. Unless you’re a terrible shot. If Chin had made the point that he found it objectionable that the duck was being killed just for sport, then fair enough. But he’s not. So, if you’re going to get your balls in a salad shooter over something, make sure you know what that something is first.
Bob
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 12:29 PMPain free meat? You’ve never been in an abattoir, obviously.
David Anderton
Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 11:34 PMgrizzly bears don’t kill for fun…
Isaac
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 3:29 AMthis is really cool :)
Scott
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 8:27 AMSome people don’t understand hunting and there’s typically no way to sway their opinion. However, most of them are simply sporadically vocal, and don’t really do anything more to help the species they think they’re defending.
Hunting isn’t about killing. To me, and many others, it’s about getting out in and connecting with nature. Watching a brilliant sunrise or sunset, hearing the leaves rustle, watching a squirrel collect its cache of nuts and acorns before winter, having close encounters with birds from the tiny Creeper to large eagles and pelicans – observing them as they go about their day oblivious of your presence… enjoying the sights and sounds from a host of animals and insects, in any given ecosystem, are some of the element I truly appreciate. Some of my best days in the field, I never fired a shot. If and when the time comes, any responsible hunter will not take a shot on an animal unless they are confident it will produce a quick and humane kill.
The animals are’t caged or contained. They’re not pumped full of garbage to make them larger or more productive. They have what is arguably the essence of organic meat, which I prefer to feed my family. The same goes for fishing many sustainable species of fish in many of our waters.
Also, most who complain about hunting typically don’t do much more than complain to to actually help anything or produce tangible results.
Hunting and fishing licenses and tags provide needed revenue for fish and game organizations. Hunters alone provide approximately $1.7 billion dollars each year for conservation (habitat, restoration, protection, etc). These funds have been used to purchase and protect much of the open spaces, in key breeding locations and migratory pathways, that exist today.
Like I said, there’s little chance of swaying opinions, but most people who bash hunting are uninformed. I’ve only touched on a couple things I appreciate about hunting. Also, if you agree with Chin, you might want to watch a 2008 documentary called Food, Inc. It might open your eyes a little about a lot of the food (meat) at your corner market.
Bashing hunting, while using the practices of large American corporations engaged in industrial food production, is alarming at best.
Scott
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 8:30 AMBTW, seeing parts of that duck hunt, from the dog’s perspective, was very interesting. A well trained dog, doing what it loves and doing it very well. Thank you for sharing this video with us Casey/Gizmodo.
Paul S
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 10:59 AMI wouldn’t say I was pro-hunting in general, but you make very good, persuasive points.
Chin
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 3:15 PMThanks for your mature response Scott… you make a lot of sense. Seeing that bird flailing around in the water did make a ripple go down my spine though. The line between hunting for food and hunting just for the fun of it is a blurry one at best.
I’m a worker on a farm here in New Zealand, and we try our best to make the animals as comfortable as possible before slaughter. They’re free ranging and are treated with kindness. I eat a lot of meat myself (a carnivore you might say) but I do try to make sure that the animals go through the least possible amount of pain.
but maybe you’re right…
To those of you who keep comparing us humans to other hunting animals, perhaps I shouldn’t bother responding because… well a grizzly bear wouldn’t be able to read this either… :)
anyw, very interesting video…
Nort
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 9:24 AMI think Scott’s a pretty cool guy.
Mike
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 11:13 AMI agree with scott. So long as what you’re shooting is a species that is sustainable in the area, and so long as you only take a shot when you’re confident of a quick and clean kill, then it’s ok.
Unfortunately, I have seen far too many ‘rednecks’ who go shooting just for the sake of shooting something. Doesn’t matter how difficult the shot is or what it is they’ve seen, they try to shoot it. All too often they just wound the animal, which then escapes to enjoy hours/days of pain before death. That’s my problem with hunting; too many idiots out there.
stroyer
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 11:50 AMWhat really amazes me, is how quickly the cliche of “save the animals” exploded in our faces. On second thought, this is the internet. I’m not surprised at all.
Congratulations, you’re as mediocre as the rest of the hivemind. Enjoy the video!
Chin
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 3:19 PMJust because you may consider it a cliche doesn’t mean it’s any less important. Much of the world considers 9/11 pretty damn cliche, but does that change what it was?
Ross
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 3:00 PMThere are people starving in Africa and yet we sit and discuss the rights of ducks…
If you wanna be passionate about saving something, make it HUMANS!
UNLESS, humans are just another animal?
THEREFORE, killing other animals should only be in our nature?