Do animals feel pain? Yes, even fish I'm afraid. It's just harder to relate to a fish. That's what it means to have a nervous system. That one is hard to argue from a biological stand point.
Do I feel remorse for causing prolonged unnecessary pain to another living creature? Yes, and I think most good ethical hunters do. This is one of the curses that come with a "higher intelligence", empathy.
Do I feel remorse when taking an animals life? No. Life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on life feeds on life.
We are the animals the animals are us. They are alive same as us and we share that energy. This feeling of connectivity comes with spending time in the woods. I know guys that only enter the forest during hunting season. If they see a deer, it's always a target and their only concern is killing it. I spend every free moment I have in the woods. Most of the time I see animals in the forest, I am not there to harm them and have no intentions in doing so. I see the forest itself is an animal. I am just one of the many animals within it, and we are all parts of it. I see these animals live before I help them to die, so that I in turn may live. Seeing the bigger picture makes it easier to live, to kill, to know death awaits, and to eventually die. It is the way it is meant to be.
We tell crying children "that's just part of nature" when the lion kills the baby zebra. Yet we seldom say the same about hunters, using instead fear of over population, disease and famine to justify the killing. I always wondered why. I suppose all the blaze orange gore tex, heated enclosed tree stands, and wal-mart artillery/ ammo, makes for a very strange looking lion indeed. If we as a society we more a part of nature, would hunters be viewed in a different light?
