It was always a fact of life for me. There was nothing gross or bad about--I remember thinking it was cool more than anything. Besides which I always caught from the gratitude displayed by my mom and the excitement from my dad that it was a good thing. I grew up in a hunting family--every season there would be deer hanging on a chain between two trees in my grandpa's yard. Later I started going hunting with my dad and was able to watch him gut an animal. Still didn't care cause I had grown up to expect that. This is our food. Death is the final part of life and the human is the ultimate predator. Anybody who says otherwise is just out of touch with realility. Thats how I was raised.

I remember helping my dad process deer [& one bear] before I was in grade school. It never bothered me, I was always fascinated.

On a related topic, never forget to indulge your kids' interest in firearms. 'Curiosity killed the cat' isn't quite true, it is more like 'UNSATED curiosity killed the cat.' My father was a police officer and avid hunter [he's now retired and still a hunter] -- in a house with five children, his revolver was always on top of the refrigerator, loaded. His rifle was in the bedroom closet, unloaded. No one ever played with either of them, because all we had to do was ask, and we could look at them, touch them, and even shoot them at the range -- as long as he was there to supervise. It's the parents who hide guns in drawers, under beds, and elsewhere that cause problems like accidental shootings and 6 year olds bringing guns to school. Duh, Hollywood glorifies guns and violence, what kid isn't going to play with a new toy he never knew was there?

$0.02