Opinion #7--Hunting Animals Is Not A Sport

I've often mentioned how vexed I am by not-so-distant reports of shotguns  destroying my morning reverie on my "coffee deck" from October to March.  I'll make this short: people who find pleasure or satisfaction from killing other living beings for sport have, at the very least, a screw loose.  At worst, they are violent, self-centered and sadistic.  How can it possibly be enjoyable to violently deprive another being of life? 

I understand that our factory-farm food chain is hopelessly compromised.  We should be very afraid of how the animals we eat are treated and cared for, how they lived and how they died, before they end up on our dinner plates. The conditions under which the animals we eat "live" are, in most cases, abhorrent.   So, on the surface, hunting and killing one's own meat makes nutritional and spiritual sense:  At least game taken in the wild have had a chance to HAVE a life before it was forfeit for the benefit of someone higher up on the food chain. 

But there is a great deal of difference between hunting for food and killing for sport; consuming the animal you slaughtered for the fun of it does not magically legitimize the murderous game.  Living beings are not targets, and should not be treated as such.  Taking a life--any life--is serious and solemn business, and should be done with great care and reverence.  Excuse me if I don't believe that every **pop-pop** I hear in the morning is representative of a sincere and respectful taking of a life in order to put food on a table that would otherwise have little or none. 

Hunting.  Can't get my head around it, and am not a fan.  Period.