Having once been a serious hunter and having given it up for reasons of self preservation and not for moralistic PETA or FOE type reasons I'll say this.
   In New York state the animals hunted as part of the seasonal harvest are not endangered or in danger of being endangered. Limits of what may be taken are clearly posted in a syllabus given out with each hunting license. And generally seasons are clearly defined as to not interfere with mating and birthing seasons. (This is not true with some fish).
   In New York as in probably all states that are or were predominately agricultural in an effort to protect livestock we have done away with the predators who would usually limit the game animal populations. As a result we have significant over populations of squirrels, rabbits, white tail deer, migratory birds and now, wild turkeys. And while the animal populations grow the food supply doesn't. As farms give way to housing development and urban sprawl more animals are competing for the available food supply.
   Shooting these animals supplies food for many people in rural parts of NY. Some folks way out in the shrubs live on game most of the year and rarely buy a burger except at McDonalds.
Philosophy aside, we can hunt these animals in a managed manner that allows the herds to sustain in numbers equal to the environment.
Or we can not hunt them and allow starvatiion and illness to do the job. We have interfered with nature by making an environment acceptable for domestication to the point where we have to interfer even further to balance once again the natural system we have screwed up.
Given the size of the deer population in New York if you asked most people if they wanted Bambi to starve in the snow at least half of them would say "No, pass the currant jam please."

Don Meixner