A long time ago I killed a bird with a .22 at 150 yards then saw it's mate fly off. I feel so bad about that to this day I can no longer can stomach hunting defenseless animals.
Possibly robotic prey could be invented to test our battlefield skills. It would prepare our future soldiers for fighting robots in the next big war.
Whoa son, are you fixing to get a butt whompin.
Okay, I can empathize with you, I really can, even though I love to go deer hunting, beginning when I was very young.
When I was a teenager, I shot a 7-point buck who had a younger spike buck hanging out with him. Since spike bucks weren't legal in Texas that year, I had to sit in my stand and watch this younger buck sniff at and nudge his very-dead "Daddy" for almost an hour as he tried to make him get up and continue on their journey. By the time this melodrama was over and the younger buck finally gave up and went home, I was crying like a baby.
I didn't go hunting for a couple of years after that. Couldn't do it. But it finally waned and I went hunting again, bound and determined that it would never happen again.
Well, sure enough, I'm out hunting again and two deer walk out down the way.
I did what you should have done with those birds: I shot both of the damn things.
BS.