I think the sheer size of a whitetail deer changes my feelings for them. I can't explain that.
I'm like some others......I don't kill bugs in the house, sometimes. I don't kill squirrels, birds, etc.... Nothing against those who do.
I've always associated myself with this quote.....
The kill is the satisfying, indeed essential, conclusion to a successful hunt. But, I take no pleasure in the act itself. One does not hunt in order to kill, but kills in order to have hunted. Then why do I hunt? I hunt for the same reason my well-fed cat hunts...because I must, because it is in the blood, because I am the descendent of a thousand generations of hunters. I hunt because I am a hunter. - Finn Aagard