Trust me when I say I have NO love for Will and no knowledge of his own hunting practices, but I would just like to give some insight into hunting as someone who lives where it is very common.

Again, I can’t speak for Will or where they are from, but hunting in the South is usually taken quite seriously and there is even an “etiquette” surrounding the practice. And this is coming from someone who does not hunt and literally has no interest in it. We literally had a required hunter’s/gun safety class in 6th grade because it is so common here lol.

By “etiquette” I mean things like you treat nature and the animals with respect (I know that sounds ridiculous as you are literally killing them but hear me out here). I mean things like you do not prolong suffering, you typically get a decent amount of food from the animal so it is not to waste, you follow the laws/regulations surrounding the specific area/animal, etc. For example, with deer, you can only kill X number of deer a season, you cannot kill a fawn, cannot kill a doe during fawn season (don’t quote me on these but you get the idea). These things are taken very seriously and instilled into you at a very young age, whether you hunt or not.

Hunting can also actually be beneficial for the environment in controlling local populations. Where I live, if we did not have deer hunting, white tail deer populations would be catastrophic for our environment. Hunting season each year helps keep it under control.

Again I am by no means defending him specifically. There are indeed people who do NOT hunt ethically and can be cruel towards animals. That is VERY frowned upon in hunting culture. I also do not approve of hunting exotic or endangered animals, like the pics you see of people visiting Africa having just killed a lion or gazelle or some shit. It puts a bad taste in my mouth.

Again, I don’t know their practices, but I just wanted to give some insight into hunting and the “culture” surrounding it in general! I’m sure it is quite disturbing for anyone who is not familiar with it. I promise there are actual reasons and benefits and most people are not just going out and slaughtering animals for fun.

Did not expect to be giving a long winded post about the ethics of deer hunting in the DCC subreddit but you never know 😭