[samhass]

There is no gentle way to dress out an elk or any large animal. Does anyone think the elk would prefer an axe over the chainsaw?

Originally Posted by LuvItHere

In November 2008, Rainey shot a male elk and directed them to take it "up the hill with a four-wheeler," then cut the legs "with a chainsaw for better positioning of the elk for photographs," Staton said.

The elk meat was cleaned and chopped but later spoiled inside an unplugged freezer. Game wardens dug up holes on the ranches where the bones — specifically ribcages and spinal columns — had been buried.

"Most Montana hunters find it totally egregious to waste the meat," Gibson said. "Most people in Montana eat what they kill."

Hunters can bring game meat to local processing plants in Montana that will clean, cut, and freeze it for a nominal fee, he said. The meat is then donated to local food banks for the hungry.

The name of this thread was obviously meant to shock us and it does. The whole lot of allegations sound repugnant. I'm an animal lover from a family of hunters, and I've hunted myself.

But in the clipping above, I don't see the difference between sawing off the legs for a picture, and sawing the legs off while field dressing the carcass or dressing it at the meat processing plant as described above.

It seems to me that the chainsaw and leg chopping was meant to inject some PETA-style "horror" into the allegations.