Reply #30: Unless you talk about

[hyphenate]

"canned hunting." This is barbaric.

When an animal gets too old to be in a zoo, the animal, usually a lion, tiger, bear or other large gets shipped off to a game farm. Some game farms are okay, but the majority stink.

The animal is confined to a very small cage, and it is here that its life is usually ended, as a so-called "hunter" is allowed to shoot the animal for trophies.

This is a horrific ending to an already sad story, and the hidden part of the treatment of zoo animals.

As far as legal "hunting" is concerned, I know that there are concerns about the deer population, but it's our own fault. If men hadn't wiped out all the deer predators, the overpopulation could be contained.

I think a culling is a better way to keep the population down, but end the horrendous hunting that is going on. If someone wants to give the deer equal odds for survival, I suggest that ALL hunters go with bow and arrow (as some already do) in their quest to bag a buck, and leave the powerful rifles behind. There simply is no contest when an animal is brought down by a powerful weapon that leaves nothing to chance. A culling would be dispassionate, and would not be done "for pleasure" in killing the animals.

Better yet, catch and sterilize many does over the course of their lives, to keep that population to a manageable size. It works in some places already.

I know a lot of people hunt and enjoy the sport, but I find it the most distasteful. I found myself arguing with my uncle about it some years ago, and he confessed that he wouldn't be able to kill anymore--the last time he tried hunting, he stared into the deer's eyes and couldn't pull the trigger. I congratulated him on that insight. I know many of my cousins in Canada have come to that point, and I'm very happy to report that none of them has gone back to hunting deer.