Sport Hunting Research Paper

Should sport hunt be considered a sport?

Sport hunting is pursuing game for trophy or prize, not for the collection of food or other products. McCarthy, writing in In the Defense of Animals, states that more than 200 million animals are killed every year due to sport hunting. I strongly believe sport hunting shouldn’t be considered a sport because sport hunting creates suffering, causes species to become extinct, is unnecessary for trophy hunters, and hunting is very dangerous.

During hunting, animals, after being shot, suffer too much. For example, E.L. Bradshaw

and P. Bateson, who wrote in Welfare Implications of Culling Red Deer, states that 11 percent of deer who’d been killed by hunters died only after being shot two or more times. After the deer is wounded, another hunter shoots the deer, which is very cruel and painful. Also, Bradshaw and Bateson state that some wounded deer suffered for more than 15 minutes before dying. This shows that hunting creates too much suffering. Instead of dying a quick death, animals will have a gradual and painful death when the hunter severely cripples the animal but fails to kill it. Some hunting groups promote shooting animals in the face or the gut, which is a horrifically painful way to die. Therefore, hunting causes animals to die slowly and painfully.
Also, some animals are hunted so much they become extinct. For instance, according to the Mother Nature Network, the Tasmanian Tiger, Passenger pigeon, and the Great Auk was hunted to extinction. This proves that hunting harms the environment too much because hunting is causing extinction. Even though 20% of the population Hunting shouldn’t be promoted because many animal species will become extinct if they maintain the rate in which animals are being hunted. Furthermore, Douglas Main, the main writer for the LiveScience website, says that rhinos, elephants, and even lions are on the verge of extinction due to poaching. Thus, hunting shouldn’t be considered a sport because it causes too much animals to die, which can result in extinction or endangerment.
Furthermore, sport hunting isn’t even necessary for trophy hunters.

Trophy hunters hunt because they want to earn trophies, like a deer antler. Sometimes, humans hunt to survive, which is fine. However, trophy hunters don’t kill animals to get food or to survive. In Where The Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls, “‘Well, if you can keep the coons out of those big sycamores, you might make a little money,’” (Rawls 91). Because Billy’s family is not very rich and the family lives in the wilderness, Billy is hunting with his coonhounds for survival. That is not trophy hunting because the family needs money to survive. Many trophy hunters don’t use any part of the animal’s body to help themselves and they don’t need the trophies to be put on the wall in their room. Hunting isn’t even necessary for some trophy hunters.

Finally, hunting can lead to accidents during the outing. Specifically, according to Interstate Sportsman, it is estimated that about 700 people die from hunting wounds nationwide in a year Additionally, most average hunters only hunt one of two days in a year. This is why hunting is too dangerous to be held as a sport. When the hunter is looking for game, the hunter might see another hunter, think it’s an animal, and shoot it. Because of all of these accidents, hunting should not be considered a

sport.
However, sport hunting can benefit the environment. Many hunters say hunting helps the environment because hunters hunt overpopulated species and control animal populations. Hunters are right to argue that, but they are exaggerating when they claim that hunting controls animal populations. In particular, In the Defense of Animals states that hunting causes overpopulation of deer, the hunters’ preferred victim species are hunted too much, destroys animal families, and leads to ecological disruption as well as skewed population dynamics. Since hunters want heads with antlers as trophies, more male deer will die instead of female deer, which completely ruins the male to female ratio. Also, some coats of animals are more valuable, so the more valuable animals will have less population.
Sport hunting, not only harms the environment, isn’t necessary for trophy hunters, makes the animals go through inhumane suffering, and causes species of animals to go extinct. This proves that hunting should only be done when hunting is for survival. Hunting changes the population more than it helps the population because some hunters have preferred targets. Some animals suffer inhumanely and are left to die. Hunting has caused more than ten species to be hunted to extinction, and caused hundreds of species to be endangered. Trophy hunters only gather trophies to display, which is not even necessary, and leave the useful corpse to rot. These are the reasons why I believe sport hunting shouldn’t be considered a sport.