I found this post at Crooked Timber interesting.

The problem British progressives have with fox hunting apparently isn't the actual animal cruelty, it's that people are deriving pleasure from the animal cruelty. It's the sadism that makes it egregious enough to merit a prohibition, not the act itself.

I have little use for fox hunting, and in fact I agree with the poster -- it's pretty sadistic. But pleasure derived from sadism shouldn't be reason enough for a law.

You could perhaps make a case that government ought to police unnecessary cruelty to animals. But I get antsy when we start policing people's minds for off-limits pleasures.