Excerpted From:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ambassador-muhamed-sacirbey/is-sport-hunting-a-sin_b_5338891.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

“Hunting for Sport is a Sin”

In a search for some consistency in ritual and purpose, I consulted with an Islamic scholar on hunting. I directly asked whether hunting for sport is forbidden. His answer was an unequivocal “yes.” Taking of any animal life unless for food or protection is not sanctioned. Hunting has evolved along with man as manner of feeding one’s family or society. However, this is no longer part of human necessity, regardless of whether we view hunting as a more noble activity in the past. The more complex issue may be whether hunters who consume their prey are sanctioned in the killing. However, I would suggest that we should not evade the difficult question whether such hunt is motivated by the need for food or desire for some notion of sport. Taking of any life should not be a pleasure, and it particularly should not be taught as such to our children.

A similar view of hunting appears to have originated in Christianity, at least originally.

A young Belgian nobleman, Hubert, in the seventh century was enjoying roebuck hunting when the roebuck suddenly turned towards him. A light appeared from the horns in which the centre emerged into a cross. The hunter heard the voice of Christ speaking to him through the roebuck, ‘Hubert, why are you hunting me?’ After this phenomenon, the nobleman became a bishop and gave up hunting. The Church declared him a saint on the 3rd of November. In many parts of Europe this day is celebrated as St. Hubert Day which opens hunting season because Hubert, contrary to any logic, was accepted by hunters as their patron saint. The fact is that in early Christianity the believers were forbidden from hunting and keeping hunting dogs and falcons. Later on, these rules applied to only the priests.

This story was relayed by an animal rights activist from Serbia, Stevan Zivkov Andricin.

Canned Hunt: