There's no excuse for animal cruelty. Sorry, please excuse the abbreviated profanity in the headline. If you follow this link to Todd Wilkinson's powerful article in Mountain Journal, however, you'll likely be just as outraged. And that's especially so if you follow the links in the story to videos of snow machine riders in Wyoming (apparently) running down coyotes just for kicks. In the Equality State a snow machine is a legal method of take, at least for coyotes and other predators.
Hunters need to develop new language to differentiate ourselves from people who practice animal cruelty. We believe in ethical, fair chase hunting. The Boone and Crockett Club has a fair chase statement here, and that statement links to a longer essay. It's worth a read. And here's a link to stories about Jim Posewitz, Montana's dean of hunting ethics.
Those of us who believe in the hunter's essential duty to hunt ethically need to be clear: we oppose this sort of despicable behavior. I've written about this issue before: here, and here.
Hunters are an ever-decreasing minority in modern, urban America. But that non-hunting majority may ultimately decide the fate of hunters. If we're perceived to be just like those sadists on snow machines we won't be a minority for long.
We'll no longer exist.