Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of one or more animals, usually as part of a religious ritual or to appease or maintain favour with a deity. Animal sacrifices were common throughout Europe and the Ancient Near East until the spread of Christianity in Late Antiquity, and continue in some cultures or religions today. Human sacrifice, where it existed, was always much rarer.
Sacrifice of a pig in ancient Greece (tondo from an Attic red-figure cup, 510–500 BCE, by the Epidromos Painter, collections of the Louvre)
One of the altars at the Monte d'Accoddi in Sardinia, where animal sacrifice may have occurred.
A bull is led to the altar of Athena, whose image is at right. Vase, c. 545 BCE.
Sacrifice of a lamb on a Pitsa Panel, Corinth, 540–530 BCE
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to exploit the animal's body for meat and useful animal products, for recreation/taxidermy, although it may also be done for non-exploitative reasons such as removing predators dangerous to humans or domestic animals, to eliminate pests and nuisance animals that damage crops/livestock/poultry or spread diseases, for trade/tourism, or for ecological conservation against overpopulation and invasive species.
Bowhunter with a compound bow using a call
Hunter carrying a reindeer in Greenland
Saharan rock art with prehistoric archers
Inuit hunting walrus, 1999