Hunting As Religion

Eric K. Fritzell, Professor and Department Head, Department of Fisheries
and Wildlife, Oregon State University

"... When I hunt I am immersed mentally, physically and even spiritually
in an age-old predatory relationship among animals. I am participating in
a common ecological process -- just as a fox seeks her prey. I do not need
to kill to eat -- although I enjoy and appreciate eating game immensely. I
kill in order to have hunted. To me, hunting is a very intense personal
relationship between myself, the prey, and the environment in which the
chase occurs. When I take my annual pilgrimage to the North Dakota pothole
country, I take great pleasure in and spend the vast majority of my time
seeking just the right place to attempt to kill some ducks. In a sense, I
am hunting for an ecosystem in which to participate.  This participation,
to me, is a form of ecological worship.

As animals, we humans can't escape our participation in the ecological
functioning of the world. But modern living has removed us spiritually
from the relevant ecological processes -- eating a steak is a rather
passive activity, procuring venison is not.I can think of a few other
ecological functions in which the human animal could participate more
intimately -- gathering wild asparagus or defecating in the woods, for
example -- but none have the intensity of predation." ...

http://www.ool.com/wildlife-forever/symposium/fritzell.html