I am a hunter. It is my way of life. It is my "religion". It is how I keep my sanity in this world. I mostly hunt big game (deer, elk, wild hogs, and turkey) with bow and arrow, but also hunt birds with a shotgun. The protein provided goes toward keeping my family fed with free-ranging non-hormone injected lean meat. As a matter of fact when we run out of venison, and have to resort to buying hamburger, my kids think it tastes "funny".
More after fold....
I have also had some of the best experiences of my life while out hunting, especially when my son is with me. Contrary to what animal rights activists may say in order to garner your donations, hurting animals is the farthest thing from my mind when hunting. My goal is a quick clean kill, as it is for everyone I know who hunts. You will find no more remorseful or concerned person than a hunter who has wounded and not recovered an animal. Anyone who does not go to extreme effort to recover game, or who prolongs suffering is ridiculed, and ostracized in the hunting community. The difference between real hunters and the anti-hunting fraternity is that hunters understand and acknowledge that ALL animals die, and ALL animals will suffer in the act of living. To have no feelings is to be already dead. Life is merely transference of energy between resources, and to understand that is to understand hunting. I choose to participate in and take responsibility for life rather than sitting on the sidelines as a bystander.
So when I hear Cheney referred too as a "hunter" it irks me no-end. Cheney is not a "hunter". He is a shooter, and what we in the hunting community call an unethical slob. His past exploits at a "hunting" lodge to kill 70 pen raised pheasants disgusts me. No one I hunt with would ever consider doing what Cheney has done, and claim it as hunting. We would be embarrassed to shoot what is no more than sitting ducks, and I agree with many on this board that there is something wrong with any individual who would participate in such a practice.
I guess my purpose in writing this is merely to point out that Cheney is by no means a hunter, and is not considered such by those of us who are hunters. To describe him as such is an insult to me and my way of life.