I think that what's important in hunting is the attitudes one brings to it. If you treat the woods as nothing more than your personal lumber factory or meat corral, or if you hunt for the same pleasure that psychopathic children get when torturing cats, then there's obviously something that's a bit deplorable about you. If you do it respectfully, as a way of fulfilling an ecological covenant that ensures the giving of one life for the eventual giving of yours, then let's track down some moose. In my own pompous language, I like to give the former type the name of "worldeater". Luckily, I've only hunted with two of them out of the dozens I've gone out with in the past decade or so. Attitudes vary from hunter to hunter, but most of the women & men that I've gone out with have a deep reverence & love for the land, in ways that city dwellers rarely understand. As long as they don't deeply believe in that Genesis 1:26 "dominion" bullshit (which is probably one of the main reasons why the current environmental crisis even exists), then hunters are usually pretty chill.
Miles Olson has a great book on the topic of compassionate hunting. For any of the animal rights folks who might have participated in this thread, I can guarantee that it provides a fresh perspective that's far more empathetic than the usual conservative ones.
Here's a GoodReads link:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18528306-the-compassionate-hunter-s-guidebook 