There has been some excellent discussion on this thread but I fear that there have been some phrases which have been misread or misconstrued.
GUEST 28 Sep 07.33 introduced the word FUN, seemingly having understood it to be synonymous with "pleasure". The noun "fun" seems to have been accepted by many subsequent posters in the sense of jocularity.

Grab 29 Sep 05.44 defined the attitude of country sportsmen as "taking pleasure in hunting - a job well done."

Dave (the ancient mariner)29 Sep 09.16 said "There is something infinately exciting about providing a meal of fresh caught fish and game. For those who cannot understand this type of life I feel pity."
Guest CharleyR 29 Sep 0408 pm said "I can see how people could take pleasure from doing this, but you don't need to feel pity for people who don't do it."
I can understand his remarks as there is a particular pleasure in killing a creature, preparing it, cooking and serving it at table. It is the same pleasure that a person would feel growing their own vegetables and eating them.

The pleasure these people feel is that of the craftsman - a job done with all the skill that they can manage. It gives no pleasure to any craftsman to see a poorly performed job. The craft of stalking your prey in an environment totally foreign to you but is the natural habitat of the prey. The craft of using your tool, be it rod or gun, to the best of your ability. The craft of despatching your quarry with as clean a kill as is possible. Man is a natural hunter, it is just that the skills of hunting, like so many other skills, have been lost by the majority of the town-dwelling population.

I can sympathise with The Shambles, who I don't think I have met but generally find worth listening to. He, having worked in an abattoir, has seen sights of which most of us would have nightmares. Let's face it, even the supermarkets have removed those lovely posters showing from which part of which animal the cuts of meat come! The public seems to have an aversion to likening their Sunday joint to cow, pig or sheep!

How many of the detractors of shooting will happily carry their rods and a ton of equipment to a river bank and then return to the water anything that they catch? Is this not much more cruel than killing something for the pot? There was coment on TV News a couple of weeks ago from some Angling Society member, complaining about some Eastern European chaps who were fishing "his" waters and taking home any fish that they caught! Is that not the point of fishing?

Colyn.