MC >>>Now I can shoot a deer and feel a primary sense of joy and excitment instead of guilt. Sure if it is a poor shot and it suffers, I feel bad. But the feeling of a clean shot and quick kill of a deer is definitely one of the top 5 joys in my life.
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TEG >>And that you feel that way doesn't bother you? If you were living in frontier times and killing that deer meant your family would eat for a week instead of going hungry, I can understand the feeling. But in the modern world, how can killing an innocent creature give you joy?
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MC >It's easy to paint deer as innocent little creatures, but they are a pest here. People die from car accidents with deer, and even if they don't die they can become injured and have their vehicles damaged. Deer eat farmer's crops, and destroy property. They're not something that you have to trek into the wilderness to see.
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I live in the suburbs less than 2 miles outside Philadelphia and have deer wander through my property often. I know they're a nuisance, but I'm not in the habit of killing the nuisances in my life (and if I were, I suppose I'd be serving life by now <g>).

More seriously, do you only shoot animals that are a problem?


>We also eat the deer we kill. We don't shoot for the joy of killing and let them lay to rot, as often hunters are depicted.
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I assumed as much from things you've said before. But that's not the same as hunting because it's your only source of meat.

Tamar