OK, I'm not really well enough ATM, so forgive any lazy grammar (spell checker should be OK though
) Although not a Hunter, I thought I'd try to give an idea of what could be part of the reason for killing, and part of the answer Robin was looking for. A huge generalisation, but:
There is a difference between those that kill and those that never have, but it's the reason for the killing that divides even those that have killed. I'll try and elaborate... only my opinion of course... means very little
I think (I can't know) that those that kill are wired slightly differently from those that don't. However, those that hunt are no different from those that watch Birds or catch Fish; it's still a natural hunting instinct. It's not just the act of killing another animal; it's the act of killing for your own selfish (you're not eating the animal to do it a favour
) reason where the different wiring comes in. I have killed more often than I'd like, but each time it was to euthanase an animal that was suffering. Each time that I killed I had empathy for the animal; I saw it as a living-thinking (loving?) being. I was aware that I was taking it's life, and removing it from it's friends (in a loose sense of the word). Like I said; it was a concious being... didn't look or think like a Human, probably much dumber than a Human, had no idea that I was stopping it's misery... I was just another predator.
The point of all that I just typed? Before killing, I thought carefully about what I was about to do, and there's little difference in how I would have thought, the suffering animal could have been a Bird, a Cat, a Human... it wouldn't be any different to me... all are alive and sentient, and my aim was to end their suffering.
OTOH, as a Hunter killing for "sport" or food; seeing the prey as another living-thinking animal isn't possible... or is it? It'd be a bit like a soldier in war thinking about his target's family... he'd hesitate, maybe miss?
So it's just how our brains work; those that see other animals as individuals, will never understand those that kill for "sport" (but might understand those that kill for food. Although "understanding" doesn't mean agreeing or being willing to do it themselves) or food. Those that kill for sport (assuming I'm correct) can't understand those that see more in most animals than they do. I know this, because as an Angler for over 40 years, I never understood those that saw cruelty in my "sport"... until one day I started to see Fish differently, and I wondered if the potential (I couldn't read the minds of Fish) suffering was justified. I mean, the Fish aren't robots, they're alive... again, maybe really dumb animals, but does that mean it doesn't matter what I (we) do to them? (Yes, if you think about it, there's an argument here about Animal Testing... I don't wish to share my opinion on that; maybe face to face in the Pub, but not anonymously in a forum
)
It's important to say that there's no right or wrong way to be, not everyone is a Vegetarian, and someone needs to be able to kill the food for those that perhaps couldn't imagine doing it themselves. So, as a species, there has to be "Killers"; as there is in the rest of the Animal Kingdom.
I've no idea if I've just typed a load of nonsense, and at this moment, I don't care either