for me it's just one interest among many interests that I have gained over the years. the idea of hunting has only become a recent thing for me. I don't know what it was exactly but the idea of hunting my own 'food' was appealing. again, I think it's because i've never killed anything in my life that I'm asking these questions. it isn't necessarily about right or wrong either, but more about whether or not I have the stomach for it. I think I do, but I won't really know till I try.
Really? You've never killed anything before? You've never been fishing and kept a fish? You've never put out a mouse trap or poison? You've never swatted a fly? You've never squashed a bug or spider at all? You've never smacked a mosquito?
Even insects are animals. They are a part of nature and have just as much a right to live as a deer or rabbit or elk. But you kill them without a thought. Why? because they bother you, and no other reason. Do you eat the mosquito? I don't. Oh, but insects don't count. Why? They're still animals. Just because they're not large and furry they don't count? That's a bit hypocritical.
I admire that you're venturing out into a new sport, and a new way of thinking. Don't think that you've never taken a life. You have, I'm sure. One life is as important as the next.
I do hunt and I enjoy it. I kill deer and eat them, but I also kill gophers by the hundreds and do not eat them. I have to admit that when I put down a large ungulate I do feel a smidge of remorse. But I also do when I nail a gopher and it flops all over. I also do when I smack a trout in the head and I feel the life leave it. I still eat the trout, and it tastes great. But there is as smidge of remorse there. Last night I squashed 3 spiders in my yard. I felt a lot less remorse than when I kill a deer. But, logically there should be no reason for less remorse, just because it is an arachnid and not a mammal.
If you didn't kill and eat the deer, you'd be killing and eating a cow. Maybe not killing it in person, but you'd be paying for the meat, and so killing the cow vicariously. Just like if I pay a hitman to kill someone, I'm still resposible even though I didn't pull the trigger.
Life feeds on life. If we didn't feed on life [whether plant or animal] then we'd die. It is the way it is.
Go shoot a deer, and be thankful it gave its life to support yours, and be thankful things weren't the other way around.
Cheers