Reply #103: "cruelness" is not related to how easily he hit the target

[noamnety]

Cruelness has to do with the suffering of the animal, not with how evenly the man and rabbit were matched. Obviously it's not a fair match, not under any circumstances including hunting in the wild or trapping. No animal we kill for food is an even match, or intended to be - if it were, the animals would kill the humans half the time. Whether or not the animal was a pet is also not relevent in determining whether the death was cruel or not.

The amount of suffering was likely the same or even less than what you get from hunted or commercially butchered animals.
Animal cruelty has to do with deliberately and unnecessarily causing pain to an animal for fun - outside of the PETA/vegetarian groups, it has never meant killing an animal for food.

The only two issues I'd have is that the boy lied to a teacher, and it sounds like he may have fed one to his classmates without disclosing what kind of animal it was. People have a right to know what they are being fed, for health, allergy, and religious reasons.

Actually, thinking about it, the easier it was to hit the target, the less likely it was to be cruel. A sloppy hit that wounds but doesn't kill an animal is far worse.