ORIGINAL: Pglasgow

F.G.

That pretty much sums it up.But it may not occur to you that many hunters, who love hunting, don't take any pleasure from the dying moments of the game they kill. I happen to be one of them. It doesn't keep me fromhunting, or taking game, its just Iam aware that the life of the animal is lost and I respect that. When I kill wildlife, especially fish, the larger and _older_ it is, the greater the feeling of the loss of life. Which is why i generally release large fish and keep smaller ones, and probably also why I thin small trees to give the bigger older ones room to grow bigger and older, when I cut wood. Not saying its right, but there are people who may harvest4 whitetails a year who woulddecline the _free_ opportunity to kill the dominant bull of continually declining elephant herd. I know I would declineand it seems uckayak would also.

My niece, probably about your age, hasharvested6 elk and 4 deer so far. She still cries when she takes one. Then wipes off the tears and commences gutting it. She can, by the way,cook some mighty fine buck steaks also. So there are some hunters, (who knows how many there are of them), who love and support hunting and gun ownership, andwho don't take pleasure from seeing their prey die. In much the same way, there are soldiers who take no pleasure in seeing the life leave their enemy.Whether soldier or hunter, I happen to think they are the majority, though I could well be wrong about that. In any case, they are a necessary part of the reasons why you are able to hunt and own firearms. Its one thing to oppose PETA, it wholly another alienate fellow hunters whose traditions in hunting differ from yours.