Roger, I said it was not so very important in the scheme of things because it isn't. Just as being able to make music in public places isn't so very important, or many of the 'rights' that we cherish, when placed alongside war, genocide, induced famine and poverty and the abuse of children.
As for a celebration of needless killing, that's a trickier one. I won't rehash the 'needless' argument, but the celebration issue has to be addressed. An alternative view would be to see the death of a creature as little more than the disposal of a piece of garbage; a perfunctory act of no more significance than flushing the lavatory.
What would that say about our views of life and death? In my experience, those who hunt (with hounds or with guns) are more attuned to the complex relationships between species and the cycle of life and death than those who don't. As such, as I explained earlier, death is not 'celebrated', but it is acknowledged far more than by those who prefer to have it carried out anonymously - for those who prefer not to see the connection between living creatures and the stuff they buy in the shops.
That's why I have respect for vegans, because they do make that connection and take a stand accordingly. Those who protest at foxhunting and yet do nothing about the real and systematic cruelty that underpins so much of our comfortable lives are simply being woolly minded at best, and ignorant and socially-divisive at worst.
For most people who argue against hunting it does seem to boil down to a perception of 'toffs on horseback' and an idealised continuation of old class struggles (I wonder what they would have said to Engels, who loved hunting). If they really thought otherwise, every time they took a stroll down the canalside they'd be kicking every angler into the water.