patoloco said:
I don't get why people feels good at killing animals. How would you like to be pursued in the woods by someone holding a gun? Why don't you make it fair and try to kill the deer with your hands?
If you accept being the prey, I will finally understand "sport" hunting.
I kill deer for meat. Plain and simple. Calling me a "sport hunter" is a definate stretch. In fact, I view it more as going to the grocery store, with a gun. I don't hunt bucks (I save those for the folks who give a rat's rump about horns) and I only shoot doe that come in without fawns. I will harvest a spike, since they are quite simply, smaller, less formidable bucks that most folks won't waste an antler tag on, but if they do mate, will produce smaller deer like themselves.
Also, I'm not all into this wearing camo, buying lots of gear, tracking down deer and shooting it. I sit in a blind with a magazine or a book and a bottle of water. I wait for a deer to come to my feeder. If it is big enough, without fawns etc. I bring my scope up on it. When viewed through my scope, deer cease looking like deer, they look like a freezer full of meat I can feed my family with. And, that, my friend is what deer are to me. They are a food source. They are abundant in West Texas. They are a renewable resource and since we are a one income family, the free meat comes in extremely handy.
So, spare me the "you need to be hunted for sport to know what it feels like" crapola. Deer are not smart. They have amazing instincts, but they are cattle, plain and simple. If I don't kill them, they'll starve to death because we haven't had rain in 3 months here and there is no grass for them to eat. How would I like to be pursued in the woods by someone holding a gun? No problem, I have guns too, and I can shoot pretty **** well. Besides, that is a strawman. It doesn't matter how I'd feel about it because again, it's not me being hunted and I am a higher order mammal. It's the food chain. Oh, and since this is an aquarium site, just what do YOUR fish eat? Thanks for playing.