Why am I sad when they go after predators?

[faendryl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061220/ap_on_sc/wolf_management
Hunt deer, and I'm not crazy about it, but it doesn't deeply bother me. Kill a wolf and I weep.

Comments

[stolen_tea]

Perhaps we (and here I mean, at least, the two of us) eat herbivores but we are carnivores? And I expect humans have a natural empathy for other apex predators, as long as they're not in direct conflict with us...

[apintrix]

Simple really; you've been socialized to abhor killing wolves (because of the environmental movement to protect them), and accustomed to the idea of killing deer (because of its prominence in eg movies, social acceptibility, and lack of objection from environmental lobby due to it being an acceptible substitute for lifecycles given the absense of its natural predator the wolf, for which see above.)

[apintrix]

Also, deer are stupid, and wolves are dogs.

[silverwingkat]

I highly doubt that deer are sentient creatures...Killing wolves however, is murder.