I hunt about 182 days a year and almost never leave the city of Dalls, TX
to do so.  I usually allow about 1 hour per expedition and have a 75%
success rate.  Those animals that my hawk doesn't catch will be killed by
other predators (wild hawks, coyotes and bobcats are common in Dallas
as are feral dogs and cats)or starve when their fields are cleared for
yet another office building or housing tract.  No wild animals ever die
of old age.

In the country, many more animals are starved by the habitat destruction
caused by agricultural activity (such as plowing) than by hunters.  Rice
prodution is considered by many deep ecologist to be the most
enviromentally destructive industry on earth!

Compared to how predators kill their prey, guns are kind and the death in
a slaughter house is a luxury.

It is interesting that the most famous vegetarians of the 20th century
include Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Pol Pot.  Perhaps if they had
hunted they would have had more respect for human life having experenced
death first hand.

BTW, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the U.S.
has more licenced deer hunters than the entire world has solders!  With
this many armed snipers (the prefered method of deer hunting) why do we
need a military for defense?

Ray Audette
Official Nutritionist of "The Ted Nugent Show"