Ake, an old hunter once told me that you are able to call yourself a true hunter when you can look down the barrel of your rifle, your sights dead on, and say, "Why should I kill that (fill in the blank)? I've got food in the freezer." and you let it go.

It is not NECESSARY today to kill for food. To hunt correctly you do not rejoice in the death of the animal, but in being part of a natural cycle of life and death in which you are part of the predator/prey cycle.

And as two folks found out in Alaska very recently, just because you're human doesn't make you any less prey. The sorrow is that two bears had to die because of someone's failure to recognize "red in tooth and claw" really does exist.

The anthropomorphizing of wild creatures which has taken place in the last century or so is just as bad, in its own way, as the wanton slaughter that preceeded it. There's good reason why it's called the "balance of nature" and we need balance badly -- "which in our case we have not got."