Environmental Writing

9/21/20 Issue of the Week-Hunting

By AmandaREO

I don't know what it is like to be shot. I can imagine it being excruciatingly painful, but I haven't an idea other than that. Yet, more than 100 million animals have to experience it each year, and they're the ones who don't have access to such advanced medicine. Some even have to live with the stress, pain, and wounds afterward if they aren't killed.

Murders happen in our Earth day after day, on purpose. Think about it. If someone walked into your home with a weapon, I know you'd be utterly terrified. To you, this is violence, cruel and scary, that you would never want to happen to anyone else. Do you know what the predators call it? Hunting, a sport that is a fun "game" where one creature shoots another creature, and the latter dies or is severely wounded. Somehow we have labeled this killing acceptable, natural, and beneficial. Read on to know how strongly I feel and how I desiderate for you to agree that this is undeniably wrong.

The Pain

Most animals endure the torture of a bullet for more than fifteen minutes before dying, and a British study proved that eleven percent of all deer had to be shot at least twice before actually dying.

Many hunters use crossbows or other traditional hunting equipment, which doesn't reduce suffering. Fifty percent of animals shot with crossbows are injured but remain alive. That means the survivors live the rest of their lives in pain because of wounds, and eventually they die because of not being able to take care of themselves. Of course, if these animals have offspring, the parent animals aren't able to take care of their babies so the babies die as well.

Even when an animal isn't actually killed or shot, the sound of gunshot causes tremendous stress, which changes animals' routines and makes it hard for them to store the food and energy they need to survive the winter. Also, gunshot noise and stress can cause parent animals to run from their homes, which leave the babies alone. The stress also disrupts hibernation and migration patterns. If animals don't hibernate when they need to, and don't migrate when they need to, it causes all sorts of problems resulting in the death of animals and eventually the species.

The Unfairness

Hunting is unfair. It doesn't allow animals a fair chance at survival, which is followed by many other problems:

Most hunting is done on private lands, which is called canned hunting (unlike free-range hunting on public land). People pay money to hunt animals on private land, where laws protecting species from hunting aren't enforced, and hunters are guaranteed an easy kill. The Humane Society of the United States has estimated that there are over 1,000 canned hunt operations in at least twenty-eight U.S. states.

In addition, exotic animals are overbred to supply the canned hunting grounds, which leads to more animal suffering. People ship exotic animals from breeders, animal dealers, disreputable game parks and even zoos to their canned hunting grounds. Breeding exotic animals like this causes a surplus. The extra animals are given to circuses, exhibitors, game ranches, or individuals, where the animals are most likely treated terribly. That also gives the animal abusers financial vindication.

Native animals are also used in canned hunts. That isn't any better, because once animals are taken away from their natural habitat, it leaves a hole in the ecosystem. Animals used in canned hunts are kept in enclosed areas that prevent any chance of survival for the animals. Sometimes these animals are even trained to be canned hunt victims by taking away their natural fear of human beings.

No federal law has banned canned hunts, and thirty-one states haven't outlawed it. The Endangered Species Act doesn't forbid private ownership of endangered animals, and (may) allow endangered exotic animals to be hunted. As for the Animal Welfare Act, it doesn't even have control over game preserves (places where hunting is banned), hunting preserves (places where people can hunt for a fee), and canned hunts!

The Truth

Some claim that hunting is beneficial because it controls the species' population and therefore contributes to conservation efforts. That is a lie. Nature thrives without human interference; humans have caused mass extinction and habitat loss. Nature keeps populations intact by predators hunting the weakest or sickest individuals, and starvation and natural diseases do the same.

Hunters' "conservation effort" is this: hunting for the most robust animal or trophy hunting. Trophy hunters take the biggest, strongest, and healthiest animals as the "trophy" for their display. But these same animals are needed in the species to keep their offspring strong. The hunters, by hunting the strongest, are weakening the offspring, which may not be able to take care of themselves. Forty-five states allow trophy hunting contests. 1,200 species are hunted by trophy hunters and about 70,000 animals are killed worldwide each year!

According to Roberto Knell, an evolutionary ecologist and author, animals that trophy hunters hunt have the most high-quality genes that species need to be able to adapt to changing environments. "They also father a high proportion of the offspring. But if they're killed before they can spread their 'good genes' around, this reduces the overall fitness and resilience of that population," he says. So, in the global warming crisis, how will species survive without the leader, or the strongest animals?

Moreover, "trophy hunting isn't stopping poaching, especially in countries that have a poor record of protecting their wildlife." (National Geographic). And the money made from trophy hunting isn't actually giving that much to the villagers, which in some cases is meant to support communities. A total of 2,020 tusks in 2015 were exported from the six African countries that have savannah elephants because the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora allowed it!

Effects

Although all types of hunting have horrific effects, I will focus on poaching's effects specifically in this paragraph. Poaching is an illegal form of hunting, where animals like elephants, rhinos, tigers, sea turtles, gorillas, and lemurs are kidnapped or killed for their body parts. These animals are brilliant in so many ways, yet a poacher's weapon can take them down in minutes. Poaching is the biggest threat to these animals, and other species too.

Poachers tend to poach at night, and instead of guns they use helicopters, night vision equipment, tranquilizers, and silencers to kill or hurt the animals. Most poaching is done by experienced and well-organized crime networks. Poachers get paid a huge amount of money by selling these animals, about $150,000 for one rhino horn.

Elephants are poached for their tusks, leaving elephants tuskless or dead. About 30,000 elephants are poached each year! Tigers are poached for medicine, rugs, and remedies, poaching being the biggest threat facing tigers. Gorillas are poached for food and medicine. Lemurs are poached for pets and food, and what's more, precious tropical trees are cut down in order to get to them! Rhinos are poached for their horns because the horns are used as a symbol of wealth. Many people in Asia also poach Rhinos because they believe their tusks can cure cancer. That isn't true.

There are only 300 Sumatran rhinos and only 67 Javan Rhinos in the world! Do you realize how few that is? Poaching, which supplies both legal and illegal markets, could effortlessly make these vulnerable species go extinct. We need all the animals for a healthy planet!

Conclusion

Animals have honest-to-goodness families, communities, and love of each other. Hunting kills that. Literally. It disrupts the community, just like the murders that happen in our human communities.

Although a long time ago hunting was beneficial, an important source of food, it has turned into an unnecessary, cruel, non beneficial, and utterly wrong "game". In sports, they generally end up with one team being dubbed the "winner" and the other the "loser"--not one team the "winner" and the other, an unwilling participant, dead or seriously injured on purpose. Also, there is usually a referee who rules if a play is "fair" or not. Obviously, the hunter with the fatal weapon against the animal with no protection is NOT FAIR. Who gave us the right to determine whether an animal species lives or dies? Humans need to learn that we don't get to make the rules for other creatures' lives. The disastrous effects are overwhelming. We can't play God, or all our selfish behaviour will lead to our own destruction. This needs to stop, now.