Quote Originally Posted by Pembroke_Corgi
I think there's something weird about people who can find it enjoyable to watch something die and know that they killed it. I acidentally hit a bird with my car once and I cried my eyes out, I couldn't imagine actually aiming to kill something. That being said, I also don't eat meat. I have a big problem with certain animals being hunted- like bears and cougars, whose numbers are limited but they are not technically "endangered" so in most states it is legal to kill them. I know that many of them are picked off because livestock farmers have their own interests in mind, but wildlife also needs food and a place to live. We also wouldn't have such a huge overpopulation problem with deer if all their natural predators weren't hunted into near-extinction or driven away.
Exactly.

Hares used to be very common in Britain. Since medieval times they have been hunted for food, and more recently 'to keep down the population'. That's pretty much the same reason my myxomatosis was introduced, to keep down the population of wild rabbits and hares, and I think in a way that is a form of hunting. Now it's quite unusual to see a hare. And the myxomatosis virus kills hundreds of pet rabbits each year And also, since many rabbits and hares were killed, the amount of predatory birds, such as red kites, fell dramatically. Why do some people feel the need to interfere with nature?