I cannot speak for society, only myself. I am a hunter, but only hunt for food. If sport hunters donate the meat to others, I have no problem with that. Many here donate to homeless shelters and other charities. I cannot wrap my mind around killing just for the sport of it, which may seem strange to some, as I do enjoy hunting.
My thoughts on it stem from a book I read as a teen called When The Legends Die. In the old ways, it was considered acceptable to take an animal's life for your needs, provided you used all of it that you could and you gave thanks for it giving its life for you.
I believe the laws on that vary from state to state. A few years back, LA state confiscated 100s of pounds of donated venision meat from an shelter. They took it and purposely wasted it by pouring chlorine bleach over it. They could have gave it to an animal shelter instead if people could not have it.
In my social circle around the Northern Rivers (NSW, Australia), no. It's considered cruel irrespective of the kind of prey, mainly because good snipers are rare; the animal suffers a lot before it dies. We would say there are kinder ways to deal with feral species, like inoculating them with STD's that cause sterility.
Most city and suburban dwellers (80% of Australia's population) feel the same - although a fair proportion would probably say that shooting feral animals is, regrettably, necessary in order to save the native flora and fauna from serious environmental damage and/or extinction.
Out in the remoter rural areas, the social values are very different. There, hunting is accepted and common. Feral boars, sows and piglets are hunted with rifles and trained pig-dogs. Others hunt kangaroos for meat, leather and fur. Some prefer ducks - with official limits on species and times of year. The hunters are part of the pro-gun lobby, always wanting more relaxed rules and far more powerful guns.
We may be talking about two different things... and that may be on me for not using the right terminology. I'm thinking of people who only hunt for sport or to get a trophy, versus those who do so for meat and other uses.
Kangaroo hunting is actually a thing? Have you eaten kangaroo meat?
For the sport is accepted by some but that would be a minority that care nothing about the animal or need nor will use the meat. But they are out there to put a trophy on the wall. I disagree with that approach entirely.
Bozette 