[warchild9]

It's simple: hunting, for someone in the suburbs, is recreational, and that's sick. I've spent months in the Applachians (as an example), and we killed for our suppers, out of necessity.
It's the killing, not the consumption of meat.
It's the killing.

[agrace]

OK, so you believe it's NOT acceptable for someone who has access to a supermarket to kill for consumption.

Now I will draw that parallel I hadn't drawn before.

On one hand we have someone who buys a license, goes out into the woods, kills a deer, has it skinned for gloves and a coat, and has it butchered to fill his family's freezer with venison.

On the other hand we have someone who buys a license, sets up shop as a butcher, kills a cow, has it skinned for various leather products, and butchers it to put beef into the freezers of various families.

What on earth is the difference?

[tcostell]

You seem to feel that it's OK to make a blanket statement that if it isn't of immediate necessity to your survival, then it's sick to hunt. If this is what you were getting at I'm afraid I have to disagree.

Hunting for me has never been about "proving my manhood" or relishing in the killing of some creature. In some ways it's more about being interconnected with the process of nature. In a way hunting has always been more of a humbling experience for me, and whether or not something is killed is incidental.

I view man's role as steward of the earth, and I think as a hunter I'm taking additional responsibility for that. I'm saying that I'm going play an active role in the chain of life. I won't rely solely on strangers at some Kansas factory to do my killing, I'll use my own hands and my own tools. I know you don't dispute that some of the animals are going to die, hunters or no. And you seem to hold only the motives of the hunters in contempt, but I don't think your blanket statement applies to me or the people like me, and you don't really leave room for that.

I moved to NJ a few weeks ago, and didn't participate in the Bear hunt but I will next year. Not because of some self congratulatory fantasy that you seem to think applies to all hunters, but because I enjoy the outdoors and it's part of my responsibility.

And if I get a Bear, then I'll use all of it that I can. I won't disrespect it by wasting it. That's what conservation means.

I'm sorry that your personal hunting experience had to be so negative. I hope you can get to a point where it's less of an issue for you and you can see it more the way I do. Not enjoying hunting was never supposed to mean that you weren't a "real Man" in spite of what you seem to have been told.