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A healthy discussion! WTG.
I understand the occasional need to remove a dangerous animal, and sometimes relocation is just not an option. The rancher that asked me to shoot the mtn lion did so because he had prints up to his back door; many occasions. He is only capable with one arm/hand as his other can only be used as a rifle rest, he said that he had missed shots on the lion, yet it still came around. His children liked to play between the home and the stalls/areas for their horses, and he was really concerned that they would attack his kids. Not only that, but that if one lion wasn't deterred there might be more willing to try their chances around his home.
Boo: I suppose the physical demand/exercise part of it could be as much as other hunts. To me though, it's the hunt part of it that I was disagreeing with as being difficult. It would seem to me that once the dogs are on a good scent, it's as much as over for the cat. I've never done it though, so I'm sure there are aspects I'm not aware of.
To me the hunt is tracking, locating an area where the animal is and utilizing some tactic that gives the hunter a chance to get a shot. I'm not big on ambush tactic as a way to provide meat, although if I were dependent on hunting for food that would be quite different.
Again, not denigrating anyone's choice/style of hunting, just not sure all of it is "hunting" in my book. I do a fair amount of offshore fishing for tuna, dorado, and yellowtail in the summer, and you always know what kind of a Captain you're with when they stay on the little ones trying to up their counts vs. those that say "we're not here just to kill fish, we've got enough here, and we're leaving to go find fish that aren't juveniles." Sustainability in offshore fishing is a much bigger topic and is not nearly as simple as one state's dept of G&F managing their herds within known boundaries. *Not that game management is merely simple...
