I remember when I was very young and new to hunting the first few kills werevery emotional.Excitement, empathy towards the animal, happiness, sadness,pride, etc. As I got a little more fade in my camo andmany morekills under my beltI still find a successful hunt very emotional but more because of the happiness and excitement of it all it seems.And even though I have a great amount of respect for my prey the remorse/empathy(whatever we might label it) has been dulled a lot. Almost likeI have beendesensitized to the act of killing the animal because I no longer "humanize" them like Ithink Idid in my younger years.
I am very thankful for every animalI take but as I've grown as a hunter Ilook at it more simply, predator vs. prey.

I have to put my doberman down this week,I have been putting it off for a few days as I just can't bring myself to doit. He's almost 13 and has cancer and it's time. Now he's an animal but he's family so I know when I am goingto and leaving from the vetI will feel very remorseful, sad, sorry, depressed, just plain miserable. So yeah, he's just an animal but it's different, I don't knowif this makes sense but Ijust don'tview deer or game animals like that.