Trophy hunting, or what some call “trophy murder,” is a hot button issue. In a recent essay called “The Psychology and Thrill of Trophy Hunting: Is it Criminal?” I examined some of the reasons why people choose to go out and kill other animals for fun and pleasure, essentially engaging in gratuitous violence. I also wrote about this topic in an earlier essay called “Do Some People Simply Like to Kill Other Animals?” and concluded that some people do, indeed, get pleasure out of killing another animal when they really don’t have to do it.

There really is a killing smile: Pleasure smiles are greater when hunters pose with large dangerous corpses

When I wrote the essay asking whether some people simply like to kill other animals for fun, sport…