My FIRST Column...Yall are the FIRST to ever read it
Hunting is a sport that is unjustly coming under fire for being a cruel and vulgar pastime that should be prevented and eventually outlawed in all 50 states. Organizations such as the American Humane Society, Animal Protection Institute and PETA are actively trying to abolish hunting and deeming it as a brutal hobby that damages game animal well being, population and health, when in reality, hunting does just the opposite. Although these groups think they have valid points, most of them are hasty presumptions used to formulate a deceptive argument. Despite its bad reputation, hunting is actually a necessary part of game animal conservation and health on many different levels.
Although most arguments against hunting are extreme and unsympathetic, some anti-hunting organizations believe that it is acceptable in some cases. Although these groups are the least threatening to hunting, they still play a role in putting this enjoyable pastime to an end. Anti-hunting activist Mark Rowlands states that “…hunting is permissible only when it is necessary for the preservation of the life or health of the human hunters. For the vast majority of hunters, this is not the case” (Morally Permissible). In actuality, many people use the animals that they harvest as their primary food source and without it would suffer from critical health problems. Meats from animals are a great source of Zinc and Calcium, two vitamins that are beneficial to everyone’s diet and health and are difficult to find in any other food source. Animal products also add essential fats to a diet and help develop the brain and nervous systems (Tudge). Although these meats can be purchased from stores, they are usually processed in factories and packaged without your supervision. When you hunt, you get to process and package your own meat products so that they retain all of their nutritional value and cleanliness, two major details that are usually ignored by large meat processing companies. With these benefits, it is easy to see how hunting can be considered necessary for anyone’s health and well being.
Wildlife conservation has always been an area that has gained much criticism from anti-hunting organizations because they don‘t take time to understand how or why hunters want to help with game animal population. To people who are against hunting it seems as if hunters only support conservation because they want more animals to shoot and more land to hunt on, although this is not the case at all. Hunters love to hunt and want their enjoyable pastime to be around for as long as it can. By helping the game animals that they hunt, they are assuring they will be able to share this enjoyable hobby with their family for many more generations. A lifelong hunter and conservationist says it very well in Hal Herring’s essay, “Hunting Makes Significant Contributions to Wildlife Protection”
“People who don’t hunt should recognize that the motive of the hunters we work with is not simply to increase the numbers of animals for hunting, or to even have more places to hunt. It is a much bigger view of the land and the wildlife. I think of [late Sierra Club leader] David Brower. He loved to climb mountains, but didn’t want to preserve the mountains just so he’d have a nice place to climb.”
Hunters want to conserve wildlife because they love the wildlife and want to keep it around for many generations, not to be selfish.
The main argument against hunting is that it is cruel and unusual punishment for animals. Most activist against hunting say that by shooting the animals and wounding them, they die a slow and painful death at the hands of heartless hunters. Although this is a semi-valid point, the groups making these statements are just misinformed and led astray by the exterior image of hunting. In reality, no hunter wants to wound any animal and will search relentlessly until they can find the deer, bird, or small animal and end its pain. Likewise, no genuine hunter would kill or wound and animal and just leave it as dead. Most hunters are ethical and will make sure the animal dies as quickly and painlessly as possible. In addition, hunters practice shooting their weapons persistently so that they will make a clean, precise shot. Some hunters will even use specially trained dogs, search teams or even helicopters to try to find a wounded animal. Most people who say hunters enjoy killing animals just to watch them suffer are unfamiliar with hunting and hunters alike. Although some game animals do get wounded and die from a hunting related death, in most cases the hunter is not to blame. After practicing shooting, searching hours or even days for the animal and doing all they can to end the game animals pain, the hunter has used every resource they can to try to make the animals death as humane as possible. The many organizations that detest hunting have probably never even met or listened to a hunter, much less witnessed the sport of hunting. Sadly, these hasty generalizations are threatening the sport of hunting and could eventually end this enjoyable, fun, and family oriented activity forever.
Most extreme anti-hunting groups are critical of all types of hunting, while some are against only “canned hunts.” Canned hunts are described as hunting ranches that keep their game animals in a small enclosures with no way to escape from a hunter. Although some canned hunt operations leave their animals in tiny enclosures, this is simply not true for the vast majority of high fence hunting ranches that are being pushed into the canned hunting category. The humane society explains that the animals on hunting ranches are “hand raised” or “bottle fed” and states that there is no possible way for the animal to escape (Canned Hunts, 2009). Although ranches like these do exist, they are extremely rare and are becoming more and more frowned upon by the hunting community. In reality, most hunting ranches span across more than 100,000 acres or more and give deer plenty of room to run, feed, and reproduce on their own. Also, the animals on hunting ranches are never bottle fed and not bred in captivity. With the large size and minimal interaction with the animals, these so called “canned hunting ranches” are so natural that its just the same as an animals actual habitat. For example, a common whitetail deer doesn’t stray far from its original location. They usually stay in a small, familiar area unless harsh weather forces them to relocate (Deer Habitat). 100,000 acres is plenty of room for vast numbers deer to live happily and naturally, with plenty of places to escape from hunters. These ranches also use strict management programs to ensure that the buck to doe ratio is perfect so that good, trophy animals will be reproduced with the least amount of human interaction. Although rare cases of canned hunts are looked down on by the hunting community, such as 10 acre pens with game animals from zoos, the vast majority of high fenced ranches are both ethical and fair to the animals and are unfortunately being threatened by stereotypic judgments.
If activist groups got their way and outlawed hunting there would be numerous harmful events to follow. First, the animal population would spike very quickly because there would be no way to managing populations. Since the Ice Age people have been killing animals for food and if that fact suddenly changed, the animal population would begin to increase. Food for the game animals would be in short supply, and many would start dying of starvation or overcrowding. A second result of ending hunting would be an elevated number of illegal hunters or poachers. Most hunters are passionate about hunting and will always feel the need to provide food for themselves or their families. Even if hunting was illegal, many hunters would continue to hunt “under the radar,” which would result in increased criminal activity and trespassing and would decrease the overall safety of rural communities.
For years hunting has been a hobby, sport and family tradition for many people both young and old. It serves as an added health benefit and a conservation tool while maintaining humane and ethical means of killing an animal. Sadly, misinformed groups such as PETA and The Humane Society are threatening to end this American pastime forever. These groups tend to fear and dislike the unknown, therefore the only way to save hunting is to inform both extreme animal rights activist and ordinary individuals of the joys and benefits of the great outdoors. Every time someone new experiences the cool morning air and the thrill of the hunt, they gain a better realization of life and all that it has to offer. Every new individual that is introduced to hunting becomes key part of its future and stability and plays a vital role in making sure that it is here for years to come.
