Arguing with a hunter about hunting is a lot like wrestling in the mud with a pig. After a while you realize, he just likes it.
Ever been through Amarillo? Don't pity the deer that spends its whole life running free doing what God created it to do. Pity the cow that spends its life on a 10’ high pile of cow manure up to its knees. BTW, I love a good steak.
Man is not the dominant predator, he’s just plain dominant. A dominance that bares with it an awesome responsibility to not only take care of our environment but all the other creatures that God created within it. That includes those that fill a need, such as food, clothing, companionship, sport, etc. but also those that don’t. If we don’t we’ll lose them forever.
Nature can control its own, but the results are sometimes less than desired and sometimes so seemingly cruel and inhumane as to melt even the hardest heart . When populations exceed the natural carrying capacity of the land, disease and starvation take over. The alternative is a much more civilized approach. Manage the populations of both predator and prey to a healthy optimal maximum. Sometimes this means transplanting animals to establish new populations and many times it means reducing the population to maintain the optimal. We could use tax money to hire paid professionals to just go in and thin the herd, or we could sell licenses and let individuals do it. We can take that revenue and use to provide research and habitat to benefit not only that species but all animals living within that ecosystem.
As for trying to figure out how a deer feels, you can’t. We have reason, emotion, regret and a host of other wonderful gifts that God gave to man that animals don’t have. When we try to equate people with animals, the world stops making sense. Animals don’t have rights. People have responsibility.
