>[big snip]

> I do see torturing animals as wrong. Killing them for food, that's OK. Killing them for sport is just being cruel for personal enjoyment. Battery conditions are cruel.
>
> The bottom line is, killing for food is natural. We may be able to survive without eating meat, but you can survive without a lot of things. We are able to live without eating meat, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's morally better to do so. We haven't evolved beyond other animals. We're still like them. We strive for survival. We may be able to have morals, and you may consider it morally bad to eat meat, but I don't.
>
> I'm not trying to persuade any vegetarians to eat meat. If you don't want to, that's fine. I respect that. I just want other people to respect my wishes to eat meat.
>
> Matthew

This reminds me of a story I read some time ago.

Many years ago, I believe it was in the 1950's, a family was travelling through one of our national parks (it may have been Yellowstone, but I honestly don't remember) and saw a mountain lion eating a deer that it had killed.

Well, they were pretty appalled at this and raised a big fuss about it. Eventually, the park gave in and brought in hunters to rid the park of all predators.

You can imagine what happened. The deer population, unchecked by their natural predators, swelled so much that the land could not suppoprt them. The deer began to die of starvation. After all was said and done, there were far less deer in the park than there had been before the predators were killed.

I make the personal choice to only hunt what I am going to eat, but there is a very real need for the sport of hunting. Without hunters, wildlife populations would reach the point that the land would not be able to support them and they would starve to death.

Hunters are often portrayed as murderers who only want the heads of animals to mount on their walls, yet throughout American history hunters have been one of the most active groups in wildlife preservation and conservation. There is also a large organization here in Texas (and maybe in other states too) called Hunters for the Hungry. It's an organization that hunters can donate their kills to and the meat is used to feed people at homeless shelters, YMCA's, etc...I have donated many a deer to them over the past several years.

Kel"mmmmmmmm.....venison"ly