Many people have become so physically, mentally, and spiritually removed from Nature, they fail to see Her as She is. They live in cities where Nature, if She even exists there, is a tree struggling to survive on a streetside. They get their ideas about Nature from Disney.
They don't see the Raven who plucks the young, struggling nestlings of other birds from the nest and eats them alive. This, too, is Nature, and this, too, has the dark beauty of the Hunter.
They don't see the Coyote pack that darts in to eat the just-born young of antelope. This, too, is Nature, and this, too, is part of the Cycle where life feeds on life and none escape this Cycle.
They don't see the Mountain Lion that tears out the throat of the deer, for he, too, must eat. This, too, is Nature, and the wail of the Mountain Lion is the song by which Nature's will is sung.
They don't see the Wolf pack that surrounds the elk too slow to keep up with the herd. For this, too, is Nature and the beauty of that which it is not for us to understand, but to accept.
This is how I look at hunting:
On Eating and Drinking
Kahlil Gibran
Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light.
But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother's milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.
And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.
When you kill a beast say to him in your heart,
"By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.
For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.
Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven."
And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart,
"Your seeds shall live in my body,
And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,
And your fragrance shall be my breath,
And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons."
And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyards for the winepress, say in your heart,
"I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress,
And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels."
And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup;
And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress.