You may have noticed I mention "true" hunters. There are, unfortunately, people who call themselves hunters that do not have any respect for animals or the law that were designed to protect animals from over-hunting. These people do not deserve to be called "hunters" and make "true" hunters angry when animals are killed illegally, only for sport, or the meat of animals killed is wasted. But just as you and I would not like to be judged by the colour of our skin or our country of origin, hunters should not be judged as cruel and evil because of a minority of bad eggs.

There is a relationship between the meat from wild animals, thought to be cruelly harvested, and the meat purchased from a supermarket. The meat is the same, except that some of the meat purchased in a store, in my opinion, is harvested in much crueler conditions. The meat found in supermarket coolers is from animals raised and fattened specifically for that purpose. Sometimes the animal was raised in a small space where exercise was at a premium. The more an animal weighs at slaughter the more the big meat companies get for it.

The killing - oh sorry - slaughter of calves for veal is much more cruel than killing a mature moose, deer or elk that has lived its life in the wild. But just as I asked you not to generalize when talking of hunters, I will not generalize on the way people raise animals for slaughter. Not all animal workers are cruel and not all animals are treated badly - there are, after all, government rules that must be followed.

Hunters too have rules that they must follow. These rules and regulations are very strict and are designed to prevent cruelty, preserve animal populations and prevent waste.

Just because a hunter owns a gun and a hunting permit doesn't mean he is going to shoot anything. You have to be able to find the animals first, then get a shot, and if you are skilled and lucky enough you may actually harvest your dinners for the rest of the year.

Moose, deer, elk and other game animals are not stupid. They have learned to avoid human contact and do so very well. In my opinion they have more than an equal chance to live when faced with a noisy, blundering human in the woods. Farm animals, on the other hand, have no life beyond the slaughterhouse and no way to avoid death.

Don't misunderstand. I eat meat purchased from a supermarket. I also eat wild meat. I believe we do what we must to survive: if that means raising cattle for slaughter or hunting wild game then that is fine with me.

My object was only to point out the facts some people seem to miss, or don't understand, when they call hunting "cruel."

So people should think a little bit about their next hamburger and realize it's just the same as wild meat... only it doesn't taste as good!