Don't think this question is as straightforward as all that; lumping hunting, poaching and whaling songs together certainly doesn't help.
Wilde had hunting summed up for me "the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable" (he might have added "supported by the unthinking and unfeeling").
Killing and torturing for pleasure has always appeared obscene to me, and arguing that it is carried out for the preservation of nature is self-justifying bullshit.
The mindlessness of this 'pastime' is, imo, adequately represented by the songs, which I find to be as mindnumbing as the 'sport' itself.
I would include such 'pleasures' as badger-baiting, dog-fighting and coursing. As a teenage apprentice I was taken to a coursing at Waterloo in Liverpool where I had the 'pleasure' of witnessing what was referred to as 'a string' - a live hare being slowly torn apart by two dogs. One of the 'sportsmen' took pity on the animal and attempted to kick it to death; failing, he lost interest and left it writhing in agony on the ground - all good attitude-forming stuff.
Whaling, as dealt with in the songs, was a reflection of the trade in the 19th century, a far cry from today's factory farming, and more a stark picture of life at sea than a glorification of the trade.
Poaching! what's poaching doing on the list?
Our poaching songs came from a time when men went out at enormous risk to themselves in order to protect their families from starvation. The 'poaching wars' which gave rise to the songs were a direct result of the Enclosures, the wholesale seizure of common land by the wealthy. The same people who stole that land sat on the magistrates benches and shipped these 'criminals' to the other side of the world for the heinous crime of feeding their children.
Singers should be free to sing whatever they wish, but personally I can't understand how somebody can make a song work unless they connect with that song emotionally or intellectualy
Jim Carroll