Iggy makes a point. We have to look at both sides of every story or we lose our credibility. I feel a real kinship with everyone who supports AAS because we care enough to fight for those too helpless to defend themselves. But we have to maintain balance and perspective.

So I appreciate Iggy's point. Just like the hunting issue. The idea of killing an animal myself makes my skin crawl, particularly the idea of doing it in the name of sport! "Sport"! How sick is that! But life is such that every creature survives by feeding on the flesh of others. Worms are eaten by birds who are eaten by cats who are eaten by dogs… Things must die for food. It makes me wince but that's life. My dispute is only with suffering. I abhor factory farming because the animals' entire lives are spent in suffering. But hunting? I have to admit that a clean shot to the brain of an animal who has lived free to the last moment of its life is the ideal. And that brings up my only rebuttal point to Iggy.

We have to hope that the man who shot those pets is a damned good shot. When I was living on a kibbutz in Israel, their method of animal population control was for a bunch of the young kibbutzniks to drive around for a day and shoot any cats and dogs they saw. One young yahoo was a poor shot and I won't subject you to the details of his accomplishments. It's only a good death if it is guaranteed to be instantaneous.