@"But don't let the existence of a case like that convince you that now hamburgers twice a week are fine, or that frivolous consumption of any kind is justifiable."

Again, i'm much more ok with hunting. Though hunting for sport is pretty disgusting, if you are enjoying hunting as a side effect of it needing to be done (for environmental reasons) AND you are choosing to eat the meat rather than let it go to waste; i think you are doing a pretty good job of respecting that animal, and considering the environmental impact.

@"But wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone is completely different to reintroduction to a populous state. I don't think it would work where I live" - you might be entirely right. I like the example of Chernobyl, where recovering wildlife - in the radioactive exclusion zone - prove the humans are more toxic than radiation... But if there is space (and the US is a huge country with large areas of low population density... And if there are deer then there must be some space... You could facilitate some 'national park' style areas. That is a choice of land use, and not something i would claim as a ethical issue. (Though some land use degrades the environment, so obviously you can take issue there.)

There is no way i would be so hardline against the deer population control you describe as conteasted with industrial cattle farming, or battery chicken farming.

Though i don't eat meat, i should also be more forgiving of Irish grass-fed cattle farming compared to American corn-fed cattle farming (because cows can't digest corn, and need to have digestive enzymes added - possible through a window cut in their side... And grass-fed out in the open farming likely involves far less suffering on the whole) but to be on the safe side (and out of pure laziness) i don't investigate the detail of who suffers the most; which farming oractices are the nicest? That sounds like a lot of work for me (the alternative of assuming that 'organic'/'free-range' are ethical solutions ignores the reality, i think... Advertising labels are typically lies. And again, i'm too lazy to go out investigate which labels are 'better' morally...)