I fail to see the problem with hunting. It helps keep the animal population in check so many of them don't end up starving in the winter. Starvation might be considered the natural order of things, whereas a bullet to the chest is pretty uncommon in nature. Then again, starving seems to be a lot crueler.
That's total bullshit. What do you think they did before our species evolved?
My guess would be that other predators kept their populations in check. Of course, there was still that life cycle where there'd be tons of predators, not much prey, so a bunch of predators died off, and the prey made a return. This would let the predators come back in force, and the cycle goes on. Unfortunately, humans kicked the shit out of predator populations, leaving man as the only viable predator in many regions. Hunting works. It keeps the populations in check, and people get food out of it.
Besides, it's not like sportsmen are going out and killing most of these animals just for hell of it. It might not just be for food, but I've yet to meet a hunter who lets game meat just go to waste.