ultimate proof of whether or not extreme martial arts can really stack up to brute force, we need to get some masters to face off against polar/grizzly hybrids and ligers...
although for other game that isn't quite so aggressive, it might be considered cruel because it should be a slower death on average (and more painful) whereas a specialized weapon, when properly utilized, should provide fairly instant death (and thus be painless)
but to be sure the animal feels no pain, we need to make sure we use weapons that are guaranteed to bring it down in under a second, weapons such as RPGs and miniguns should be utilized from now on to ensure as close to instand death as possible - none of this nonsense where you might miss the vital organs and have to chase the wounded animal down to finish it off