Most of us outgrew that by about 16. I could care less about killing anything anymore. I like hunting but I am just about over the killing.

Killing is the worst part of hunting and trapping. Just a necessary evil!
It isn’t fun.

Truth
Best Book I've ever read that Talks about this:


Really Great Read

.. “ if you don’t like killing.. why do it?”

“..because I have a gift”

Hen house syndrome/ effect is another term I've heard when it comes to these things. The effect of having a predatory animal in a small area around a lot of panicking prey species. Sends them into some kinda psychosis where they need to kill everything

What do you feel right after killing?




Recoil.

Wanton waste

IMO, coyotes will definitely kill for fun.

Sounds like it's more common up north. Was it Frank's book above that mentions them slashing caribou open and leaving them? Kind of in a frenzy. But the Indians did it too. Leave em all froze up in the river. They usually rotted but there if they needed them over winter. One tribe gets wiped out by starvation and they learn quick to make sure the y got food next time.
Very early post. Sitting here waiting for the lightning to end to replace 2 transformers....$$$

The chicken people refer to it as "prey drive'. When it comes to mass killing of chickens and not eating them, worst offenders are neighbor's dogs, weasels and mink. When feeding young, an old mamma coon and kits will kill a bunch too, but will at least eat part of them. Everybody likes chicken.

I do not live with wolves but know a few people that do. Some say wolves do this for fun, others have told me they believe it’s practice driven by instinct. I agree with the instinct.

It gets confusing for the public when we say animals don’t experience emotion or other human feelings, but then assign things like “fun” and “evil” “lust” to wolves when describing behavior. To me, no critter possesses these things. It’s simply instinct.

One would be a bit nutz to think they don’t have feelings. Happy, sad, angry…just like people. Black bears are generally docile animals but you’ll find the odd jerk out there…lol

Years ago, in northern MN a guy raised sheep near where I used to hunt deer. One night wolves killed or crippled 17 of his sheep. There's no way they can eat that many. They just enjoy killing.

X2

It's a predator get prey instinct thing, especially if in a group. Kinda like a gang mentality thing even when they know they're not going to eat it all

Knew a couple of German Shepard's that went thru a small sounder of domestic Pigs once. Pretty gruesome!

Ghost and the Darkness.

I think I just found one of them "bit nutz" your talking about.lol

Saying any critter has feelings just like people is nutz IMO.

Hummm. Some people on this site don’t trap, hunt or, maybe even ever leave the city. However I’m going to guess even they’ve had a dog before. I’ve seen angry dogs, happy ones and sad ones. The live wolves I’ve seen were at a distance and on the move, but I’ve seen some ticked off and happy coyotes having fun before. Spend some time with these predators, and they’ll educate you…..lol.
Guessing you’re one of the few that are stuck on the 30th floor of an apartment block?

Predators are “ opportunists” , they kill what they can, when they can, their downfall is they will usual return to the kill site. About the only exceptions I can think of to that would be a predator following a migrating herd , or a predator scared off a kill by a human or larger predator.

Nah, not me. I missed a wolf with my bow at 4 yards once, hit the only twig in the way. Had a pack circle and howl at our camp all night once when my buddy snared an alpha female. He clamed they could smell her and were trying to get her to join back up with them.

I live on the river here in Nebraska and have a cabin in NW Ontario. Had hunting dogs all my life and countless other critters, mice to mules. I've seen the behavior your talking about. While I will say domestic animals act different than wild, I still believe it is all instinctual. When a wolf sees lots of prey, his adrenalin kicks in instinctually and he cant help but kill, he's not doing it for fun like humans do. Some say this is all part of the plan and makes the pack better at hunting (practice). I've also seen the kind of bears your talking about. I threw a hand full of gravel at a bears but once, he was licking grease out of a cooker some sports left on their porch. I was expecting him to run like a deer, as they usually do. This bear just turned and looked at me, uh oh....... Just because all animals don't act the same does not mean they are thinking like humans.

Maybe you watched a little too much Disney growing up? Unusual, to say the least, for a trapper to think wild animals have the same emotions as humans.