But the truth is, that if it is a legal means to hunt in that area, then it is considered hunting.
But where is it written that I have to consider it hunting? The freedom to form your own opinion is really one of the only true freedoms you have. Think I'll hang on to mine.
If I or anybody else in this thread were advocating making this illegal then some of the counter points would be valid. But we aren't. So they are not.
And yank whatever Websters dictionary description of hunting out you want (it was probably written by a geeky bookworm that never hunted anyway). Furthermore there are numerous meanings to the word. I can
hunt for a lost pen but I would hope we all understand that we are focusing on a specific use of the word here. I'd be willing to bet you, if asked, the vast majority of hunters in this country would not consider shooting a domesticated animal in a pen, hunting as the word applies to such endeavors.
To me the people who visit these places want a guaranteed outcome. And if you read the ads for them thats what most of them promise. And hell, I even understand the motivation of the people who run the places to try and make it a slam dunk easy kill. After all people who shell out thousands of dollars and go home empty handed often go home pissed and they typically don't come back. So it behooves the people who own these places to make sure horns go home in the back of every truck. But in real hunting there are no guaranteed outcomes. That's why they call it hunting. If the outcome were assured they would call it killing. Go down to the slaughter house and ask them what they are doing with the cows down there. See if anyone uses the word "hunting".
When you eliminate the posibility of failure, when you remove all the elements of chance, then how can you call it hunting with a straight face?
I once put a deer that had been hit by a car out of it's misery. It was busted all to hell and lying in the ditch unable to move but still alive. I took a pistol and shot it in the head. Was that a hunting trip? I guess by the rule espoused here that we can't say that
"ANYTHING" involving a weapon and an animal isn't hunting I will have to henceforth refer to that event as a
successful stalk hunt.
Lord have mercy.