I think what I was looking for where some facts, not feelings.

Thanks Skeeter I'll use that as a last resort.

Ask them why they don't...

Tell them you like a low-fat meat that has been fed the absolute most natural untampered with/non-manmade ingredients. And you also want to be sure it was butchered & prepared to your high standards.

Tell them you're going to kill something this weekend. Then ask them if they would rather you stay in town...

I'm usually always carrying a pistol on me, so if I'm confronted, I ask them "why are you so anxious to pi$$ off a guy with a gun?" or "Might watch yourself, lest I open season on morons"-that said, I've never been stopped, I tend to wear it on my sleeve that I'm a hunter, but I also blatantly bear that I'll whoop what ever @$$ that needs whoopin.

I hunt animals because they won't give me a tag for crack addicts.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I'm not too far from DC, so that one tickled my funnybone pretty hard.

My reply when they get on my nerve's goes like this....
I put my stone clod crazy face,look them hard in the eye and calmly tell them...if you dont shut up,I swear by all thats Holy,
I'll shoot one with spots on it just for you.
That shuts up most of them

If they aren't Vegans (you said they were intelligent, so that probably rules that out), the line is "the man that eats meat can't sneer at the butcher".