[Porsche-O-Phile]

I'm solidly with milt & co. here. Hunting is one of the most abhorrent activities I can think of. Go spend some time hiking/camping and observing animals in the wild. They're beautiful in a way that people can never be.

How many people actually NEED to hunt to put food on their tables? Seriously - especially here in contemporary modern American society where there's at least one or two 60,000+ square foot grocery stores in every single town in America. Are there seriously people that are so poor that they can't find SOMETHING fit for human consumption in the local grocery store and literally have to go out and blow some animal's brains out, skin it and gut it in order to survive?

If there are, that percentage is EXTREMELY small. Anyone here on the Internet (access to which costs money) hanging out on a Porsche board by default does not fall into this category.

Rodents and other "problem" animals that people are concerned about carrying disease and so-forth can be gotten rid of by a number of non-lethal means, not the least of which is simply not leaving food around (ya slob!) Lots of ultrasonic devices and other things around these days that are quite effective. Or simply having pets helps (cats, dogs = deterrent for little critters to come around - they know better).

Therefore a rational person can only conclude that on some level, everyone who hunts (except for dirt-poor, subsistence-level individuals that might exist in the back woods of Appalachia or wherever) does so by CHOICE, not necessity.

The choice to take a living, breathing, healthy, sentient and self-aware animal which is simply living out its life and go blasting holes in it, then watching it trash around in agony as the life ebbs out of its body is simply disgusting. It's unnecessary and I can see no justification for it. It's a haven for the type of people that used to get their thrills from ripping the wings off of butterflies and lighting caterpillars and ants on fire with magnifying glasses as children. It's a pathology and a rationalization of violence glorification.

And don't give me this crap about "it keeps the animal populations in check". Nature does that just fine.

Don't give me the crap about "those animals would die from predation anyway". Wrong - predators deliberately target the sick/lame/old animals, not the healthy ones in their prime.

Don't give me the crap about "hunting makes a boy a man". Wrong. Hunting makes a boy a disturbed boy. I'm sure we all know plenty of individuals who are grown up, adult, rational and mature human beings who never had the "need" to get there by killing some animal just for "fun".

As I said above, abhorrent.