Badatta2d - You selectively read my post, and left out the key phrase;
"calling it hunting". If you want to shoot farm animals more power to you. I've got some steers to sell and if you want to shoot them with a .300 Win Mag I couldn't care less, just don't call it hunting.
VBM - I just bought two coonskin caps this past October. I purchased them as souvenirs for my five-year-old daughter and two-year-old son while on my return trip from Wyoming where I was on a real hunt. As far as wolf reintroduction goes I agree it is a terrible thing and that it is being driven by an agenda quite different than the one that is being sold to the general public. I would also agree that groups like PETA and ALF do pose a threat to our sport. Where I disagree is with the premise that we as hunters should support any legal method or premise of killing an animal and being satisfied with it being labeled as hunting. I believe that if we are to convince the non-hunting public that groups like PETA, HSUS, and ALF are wrong about hunting then
we must first have our house in order. How can we talk about conservation, balancing herds with habitat, experiencing nature by participation, and all of the other arguments we use to support why hunting has a place in today's world when we are shooting bull elk wearing ear tags inside fenced enclosures as small as a few hundred acres?
I say these things about hunting preserves not being unfamiliar with them. One of the most successful trophy whitetail operations in the country is within an hours drive of my home, and I am well aquatinted with its owner. This preserve has been featured on The Outdoor Channel on several different shows, and in hunting videos made by several celebrity hunters. The preserve consists of a hundred acres of breeding pens and a three hundred acre hunting area. The owner of the preserve has told me that at any given time there are over 50 bucks that would score 150” or better available in the “hunting” area. How much hunting skill and woodsmanship is required to tag a trophy buck on this preserve? The really funny thing is that when this place is shown on the previously mentioned hunting shows and videos the size of the property and the number of bucks it contains are never mentioned. Could it be that the celebrity hunters know how laughable it is to call hunting? Makes for great video though, and as long as they don’t let the secret out of the bag they can feed their ego by posing with the huge buck they just harvested.<img src=icon_smile_blackeye.gif border=0 align=middle>
"If you can't change your circumstances then you need to change your perspective."