The Pros And Cons Of Hunting

Hunting can be considered the practice of trapping or killing animals, or pursuing them with the intention of either trapping or killing them. Although this practice was a vital part of the survival of humans 100,000 years ago, it is now considered a violent form of recreation that a majority of hunters do not require for subsistence (National Research Council, 1995). This is because it has contributed heavily to the endangerment, extinction and extirpation of animal species globally. Less than 5% of the population which accounts to 13.7 million people in the United States hunts animals, yet hunting is allowed in numerous national forests, state parks, wildlife refuges and other public lands (U.S. Fish and Wildfire Service, 2012). Nearly 40%

Animals are also haunted in what is known as poaching or game because of their valuable body parts, such as tusks or just as a trophy. Exotic animals, such as rhinos, elephants, lions and tigers are mainly hunted and killed for the aim of providing hunters with an animal trophy. These exotic animals are subjected into “canned hunts” where hunters pay to kill them. These animals could be from the native land, or raised somewhere else and purchased from people who traffic unwanted animals from African animal parks, circuses and zoos. Canned hunts are considered lucrative businesses in the United States, with about 1,000 game preserves having 5,000 “exotic ranchers” in the North America region (CBS News, 2015). The country’s biggest private land owner, Ted Turner, permits hunters to make payments of thousands of dollars in order to kill deer, turkey, African antelopes, and bison on his land of about 2 million acres (Poole, 2007). Animals confined in ranches permitting canned hunting are usually used to human beings and are not able to escape from the confined place they are in. With no federal laws to regulate the practices of hunting animals, animals will continue to endure suffering and pain. Let us examine how animals endure suffering and

Natural predators assist in maintaining this delicate balance by killing on the weakest and sickest animals. However, hunters kill healthy animals who they can find to satisfy their different needs including killing animals as a form of game, trophy or the famous poaching of animals for tusks. The poaching of elephants and rhinos for tusks worldwide is believed to have increased the number of animals without tusks in Africa (Whitfield, 2003). In the last 40 years in Canada, hunting has resulted in bighorn horns of sheep to fall by 25% (Whitfield, 2003). In case hunting of animals, especially poaching continues globally, the number of animal species will decrease rapidly, resulting in extinction of specific species, such as the African rhinos and elephants. A report in Nature Magazine suggests that the decrease of animals may have an effect on the population’s genetics because the weakest animals will pass weak genes to their offspring causing an entire species to have defects. Therefore, it is better for hunters to let nature kill off the weak and sick animals for the preservation of the