The Ethics of Hunting.

A sport or a killing spree?

Hunting is as old as life itself.  It is an integral part of daily life on our little green planet.  Spiders hunt, sharks hunt, lions hunt - all for sustenance.
There was a time when man, too, had to hunt to stay alive and procreate. 

But that was a long time ago.  We are now the apex predator, comfortably ensconced at the very top of the food chain.  We can now let the others do the killing for us, and ignore the fact that for every morsel of meat or fish on our plate, something had to die somewhere.  Ever visited an abattoir?  Don't be fooled - there is no such thing as 'humane killing'.  Killing is killing and death is death, but it is the only way to get the bacon on the table.

With that said and done, the question remains:  Why is it that there are still millions of keen hunters out there, raring to go?  Why do they spend fortunes on rifles, bows, reels and tons of other equipment and then hike to snow covered mountain tops and bug-infested bush under sometimes extremely averse conditions?  Just for the sake of killing something?

I don't think so.  In my humble opinion they are (most of them, anyway) the true lovers of nature and the wild outdoors.  What ends up on the plate or in the trophy room is a bonus - the best part is the hunting, not the killing.  The expensive equipment serves as justification for extended sojourns to where the air is clean and the water clear.  Even the silence out there is clean and clear.

For the record:  I am not a hunter.  Yes, I have killed, but for different reasons.  Never liked it, but I'm a realist.

The single most important word I can link to hunting is sustainability. 

Hunt in such a way that your children and grandchildren can, in the distant future, enjoy the same privilege.