The evidence of the passage you quote seems to be that they hunted them because they were dangerous:
They only became aware of their existence indeed when they attacked the Eldar by stealth at night. If the Petty-Dwarves were as 'non-civilised' as Tolkien seems to suggest, then they might well have looked basically like cones of hair/fur: long beards and long hair combining together and practically reaching the ground. If something like that started attacking your campsite, you'd certainly hunt it afterwards!
I think there are a few arguments against skinning or eating. For the former, I feel like the first time an elven hunter found
hands under all that fur - or clothes! Do we have any reason to think the Petty-Dwarves didn't wear clothes? It seems somewhat foolhardy when you live underground - the jig would have been up. For the latter, while Finns may well eat bear, and I know my mother has eaten crocodile, carnivore meat is
generally less eaten. (For one thing, it's a lot easier to get parasites from something that has eaten multiple other animals.) Even assuming the elves did eat carnivores, how common is it to eat cave-dwelling animals? I'm guessing not very.
It's very interesting that Tolkien (/Pengolodh -
Quendi and Eldar contains the statement that ' All that has here been said concerning the Elvish names and their origins, and concerning the views of the older loremasters, is derived directly or indirectly from Pengolodh.') uses the word 'animals' rather than 'monsters'. The Silm contains this interesting quote:
Quote:
But as the third age of the captivity of Melkor drew on, the Dwarves became troubled, and they spoke to King Thingol, saying that the Valar had not rooted out utterly the evils of the North, and now the remnant, having long multiplied in the dark, were coming forth once more and roaming far and wide. 'There are fell beasts,' they said, 'in the land east of the mountains, and your ancient kindred that dwell there are flying from the plains to the hills.'
And ere long the evil creatures came even to Beleriand, over passes in the mountains, or up from the south through the dark forests. Wolves there were, or creatures that walked in wolf-shapes, and other fell beings of shadow; and among them were the Orcs, who afterwards wrought ruin in Beleriand: but they were yet few and wary, and did but smell out the ways of the land, awaiting the return of their lord. Whence they came, or what they were, the Elves knew not then, thinking them perhaps to be Avari who had become evil and savage in the wild; in which they guessed all too near, it is said.
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At the time the elves encountered the Petty-Dwarves, then, they had never seen Orcs, or any creatures of the Enemy. As far as they knew, the only Incarnates were themselves, the Avari, and the Valar and Maiar (and maybe the Ents). The notion of a thinking being that didn't look pretty much like then was completely outside their experience, which is why it took them so long to catch on.
But they'd still surely have noticed the clothes, right?
hS