I'm not sure I like kat's portrait of the "American Hunter" but forgeting ecolological reasons for a moment, is it any worse killing an animal yourself for food than taking something ready prepared from the butchers or supermarket. One could even argue that some of the wild life has enjoyed a better standard of life than some of our farm animals have had to endure...

I do eat meat and I don't think that I would be capble of doing the deed mylelf but I have friends who go out with a gun and maybe take a rabbit or a couple of pidgeons for food and I can't see any wrong in that or any reason why they should not be allowed to do this.

I tend to be a little cynical over ecological grounds and often feel they are given as an excuse to justify some form of blood lust and, living in the UK, fox hunting is, to me, a prime example. Having said that, the fox poulation does seem to get out of hand at times and I have witnessed what a fox can do when it manages to get into a hen-house... I don't know what the answer is but the more I think about it, I feel we are best off just letting nature take its course and those of us with domestic animals taking more care.

Staying with foxes, one tale I hear frequently is the fox taking a lamb. Has anybody here witnessed this because I can not imagine a fox taking on a healthy lamb and mother?

Jon

(wandering even further off subject)