In many modern hunting dog trials, no animal is actually hunted. A hunt is simulated and a pistol used only by a judge is shot into the air, but usually no animals are killed. Since the dogs are not judged on killing an animal, there’s no need for the prey animal to be killed. But hunting dog training videos often show grotesque actual hunts far away from field dog or gun dog trials.
Unnecessary Suffering
Hunting dog training videos focus on the things dogs do to assist a humans in the hunt. It is always the human that actually does the killing. In fact, the killing bite instinct has been bred out of a lot of breeds of dog, including the retriever breeds. Instead, depending on the breed of dog, the clever canines find the prey, flush it out into the open for the human to shoot and then bring back the killed prey.
Sadly, today’s sport hunters are not very good shots. They nick or maim their prey rather than kill them outright. This means that the dogs often wrestle and bring back agonized prey in hunting dog training videos. The trainer and camera person are often laughing about the feeble attempts for the prey to get away. A real animal lover – and someone who has to hunt for food – considers it a duty to minimize any suffering. Death for the prey is to be as quick as possible.
You also should never kill a prey animal just for the sake of shooting a hunting dog training video. Although there is an incredible outcry over the abuse of animals in television and movies, there needs to be just as much outrage over the suffering and death of prey animals in hunting dog training videos. If the dogs don’t need to kill animals as part of their training, then why bother killing them for dog hunting training videos?
What If?
Some proponents of dog hunting training videos showing actual deaths of animals claim that this merely is a picture of real life. But what about police dog training videos? Police dogs are trained to take down prisoners with their teeth. But the people used for practice are always in larger protective suits.
If you wanted to show real police dogs in real work, then why don’t they make videos with real prisoners without protective gear being taken down by dogs? It’s the same thing. If you don’t like real prisoners being used to train police dogs, then you shouldn’t use real animals to make a hunting dog training video.