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Posted By: Tim

First let me get this out of the way. I have never said in any of the above threads that hunting is a sport.

Jeff –

Hunting isn’t for everyone. A lot of people can never see themselves killing an animal no matter the situation, certainly not on purpose. I understand where those feelings come from.
Like I said in my above post, a lot goes into the hunt. You don’t just walk into the woods and five minutes later kill a deer and walk back out. You have to learn about the animal, know what signs to look for, and then you still have to be in the right place at the right time. And even if all of that happens and the deer is right in front of you well within range, the true hunter will not take the shot until the deer is in the right stance that he is sure to take it down a humanly as possible.

I can not explain in just a few words on this post what makes hunting exciting and worthwhile for some of us. It isn’t simply the taking of an animals life. Hunters don’t have some pent up aggression or need to simply kill something.

I will admit I don’t understand how people that eat meat have an issue with people that hunt and do it with respect to the animal and its habitat. What is the difference between me killing a deer and eating it, and someone who doesn’t hunt going to the grocery store and buying chicken? I assure you the deer led a much better life before becoming my dinner than the chicken did before it became yours. But somehow if the person in question didn’t actually do the killing, eating the meat then becomes OK? Or if it were farm raised and not grown in the wild it’s OK to kill it and eat it. If it were grown for human consumption than it’s different than if it occurred naturally in the wild?

I understand there are generally ill feelings towards taking an animals life for what people see as unnecessary reasons. But to those of us that hunt it isn’t what many that don’t perceive it to be.