Sport Hunting

I know several people have about beaten this horse to death, but I think it's about time that I put in my opinion on sport hunting and those who practice it. I grew up in a family of people who love to hunt deer. My whole life I've seen the carcass hanging in my grandparent's garage just waiting to be come venison burger or stew. You won't find any deer heads on my family's walls, but they definitely have no problem taking the life of an animal because they think it's fun.

I don't think they're bad people for this. I could never in a million years go hunting, but do I have the right to ask them to stop doing something that they thoroughly enjoy just because it repluses me? Maybe, maybe not. I know that if I tried to do so they would tell me to mind my own business. Luckily, my family is fully supportive of my dietary choices and many of them say they wish they had the strength and dedication to also stop eating meat. But they don't and perhaps that makes them ethical hypocrites.

Regardless, these people are my family. I see hunting as murder, but I don't ascribe them the title of murderer. Why? Is this just because they are close to me and I love them more than I love the animals that they kill? Admittedly, this is a double standard in my logic and it's something that I've been grappling with ever since I can remember. Perhaps the best answer is to simply admit that in being human we apply a sliding moral scale to those that we care about more so than those we have never met. This is is no way morally sound, but it seems nearly impossible to judge the actions of others in a completely objective way.

My question for this blog is: Do you feel that members of your family or close friends are less ethically in the wrong when they do something you deem to be immoral than people you have never met or do not have a relationship with?