I couldn't have said it better myself

Now that's a fair fight!

Exactly. It's not exactly sporting to shoot an unsuspecting animal from 200 yds away using an assault rifle with a telephoto lens. Big heroes.

I don't care if it's a hunter or a poacher. Both are reprehensible to me. They lack any sort of human compassion. You must be a hunter.

@TheoryNumber3 I grew up hunting and I have hunted on and off over the years. Why is the idea so reprehensible to you? Humans have hunted throughout their evolution over millions of years. And we raise livestock for food also. I think it’s safe to say that without hunting none of us would exist, you included.

@WilliamFleming I am a conscious vegetarian and an animal lover and I don't tell anyone what to eat, but that bogus justification about eating what you kill is just a sad and weak excuse for someone who enjoys killing animals for "the rush". Whether or not you eat them afterwards is irrelevant to me. You could easily go to a grocery store and buy your dinner, but you enjoy killing your food. That's the part that i can't get past. That you enjoy killing animals.

Sorry. I don't buy your argument that we wouldn't exist without hunting. Some of the strongest, and most powerful animals on this planet are vegetarians. Gorillas! Elephants! Giraffes! Hippopotamuses! Horses! All vegetarians. Including the ones you eat... chickens, cows, pigs. They're vegetarians too.

@TheoryNumber3 Chickens eat insects. Does the life of a bug matter? Pigs are omnivores and will eat almost anything. Our closest animal cousins, chimpanzees, sometimes eat each other.

Actually you make a good point. There is enjoyment for me in going on a hunt, but the actual kill gives me no pleasure. I make no judgments though about others because hunting is in our blood and people will be people. I see that cats enjoy torturing mice. That must give you a lot of angst.

@altschmerz Ha, I go nowhere. That’s not me. I did kill a deer a couple of years ago on my own property.

Sport hunting is highly regulated and you can bet that it is not permitted to kill endangered animals.

@altschmerz As I said above, it is a deeply flawed article, attempting to link Van Zyl with criminal poachers. He was a professional guide, not a poacher.

Apparently a fair number of local people are eaten by crocodiles.

[dailymail.co.uk]

@altschmerz Well, it’s in our blood to hunt and it’s what some people want to do. It’s part of the human heritage. Those hunts are highly regulated. I saw it in Alaska. Sometimes there are too many moose, bears, etc. and it is permitted to take some of them. In many cases a lot of those animals would die anyway. Wildlife managers look at overall populations and try to make decisions that benefit the entire ecosystem.

Nature is not concerned with individual organisms, animal or human. If you are going to continuously bemoan the death of individuals you’ll live a life of sorrow. It is more realistic and happy to take an overall view of life and identify with the whole process or continuum. After all, our own bodies are fragile and temporary also.

@WilliamFleming It may be in your blood but it isn't in mine nor millions of other people's. And that is he problem I have with it. The mentality that says it's ok to take a life, any life, at one's whim and then to hang its head on the wall as a testament to one's "manhood" is just despicable.

@WilliamFleming, @altschmerz Yes! We've all seen the pictures of some jackass standing over a dead rhino, giraffe or elephant and grinning like he did something praiseworthy

I have no sympathy for anyone who goes out and intentionally brings down a magnificent animal for his or her own glorification. They call it a sport.... ok... these guys lost. It was a fair fight. They got what they had coming.