Is hunting Cruel or Wildlife Management?

Question

I believe Hunting is not cruel in any way, but rather a wildlife management tool that keeps the animal populations from overpopulating.

For your information, when a populationg overpopulates, the area cannot sustain their numbers and they suffer from starvation that takes days to weeks or an epidemic of diseases that sweep through their numbers killing them all off at a rapid rate with a slow and painful death.

So tell me, what do you think? Is hunting cruel? Or is hunting a wildlife management tool?

Answer 1

Hunting for food or survival is fine. hunting for fun or joy or fur is stupid, barbaric, and evil.

Nature doesn't need to be regulated or "managed" by humans at all. they're only s******g it up worse. Nature has a finely tuned balance and can take care of itself.

wildlife "management" is just some fancy word they made up to justify killing things that they deem a "nuisance" or "pest"

Plus, wildlife management is made up by the same people who swear up and down that there's NO way we could be affecting the atmosphere even SLIGHTLY with over 5 billions cars and millions o smokestacks.

Answer 2

As long as you consume the animals that you hunt for then it is OK.  It also helps keep the animal population under control.  Ever since the wolf was all but went extinct here in the U.S. Normal game doesn't have very many predators any more other than man.

Answer 3

It all depends on the reasons, the word you used was "cruel" and you don't think it is, ehh, I could call it cruel, but I am not saying I am against it either. Sometimes deer go overpopulated, and must be lowered to prevent starvation and disease from malnutrition. Hunting for sport is different, if someone goes out and hunts something just for, example, its antlers, and leaves the rest behind, I for one don't agree with that. Basically, I guess you could say hunting is both cruel and a wildlife management tool. Sportsman don't go out and hunt for wildlife management, most of the time its for other reasons, and it is a sport, and what I have heard its pretty fun.

Answer 4

Very few people hunt to put meat on the table. The time spent in hunting, if spent putting in overtime can usually buy more meat than you get from what you kill yourself. People hunt because they enjoy it. A good hunter will not waste anything that can be used, though.

One reason for hunting is that humans have managed to upset the ecosystem that existed befor colonial times (U.S.). White-tailed deer, for example, have a much larger population than they had 300 years ago. There's not much we can do about that if we want to keep eating. Farms harbor more deer than large forests do. Re-introduction of large predatore is not usually an option. One thing we can do is to allow hunting to thin the population a little bit. Since most sport hunters are rather poor predators, controlled hunts are a better mechanism for keeping the deer herds healthy. Unfortunately, people who learned their wildlife conservation only from watching Bambi keep objecting and suggesting ineffective controls such as birth control hormone distribution.

Answer 5

I agree...hunting is wildlife management.  However, I do not agree with trophy hunting, canned hunting, or hunting of large carnivores/predators.  Killing them can cause other populations such as deer, etc. to explode.

Answer 6

It's both!! But the reality is ~ if you want to eat, something has to die!! Be it a cow, chicken, turkey, pig,fish,or deer! Damit I don't like to hunt, but I do like to eat!! How do I go about  getting  food, feeding a family(9), and everything else (medical,clothes,dental etc.)  without using natural resourses- hunting & gardening!!!Hey were open 4 suggestions!

Answer 7

Hunters provide the bulk of moneys needed for wild life conservation and habitat protection.  After all, if there were no habitat there would be no where to hunt, and if there were no wild life, there would be nothing to hunt.  It is certainly no more cruel than the practices used in modern animal husbandry and slaughter, a probably somewhat more humane.

Answer 8

Hunting for any reason other than for food or clothing is cruel, IMO.  Animals should not be killed just to hang them on walls.  We can make them in factories to do that without having to end a life.  So long as once they are killed every part of them is used, then I say hunting can be a wildlife management tool that is an unfortunate necesity since we've screwed up the predator/prey balance of nature so much.

Answer 9

I view hunting in line with wildlife management - provided it isn't for sport/trophy use, where they take the head/horns and ignore the rest of the animal.

While it would be ideal if we did not need to hunt certain populations (whitetail deer, for example), due to our own interference in the food web and the removal/reduction of nearly all top tier predators, we need to step in and take their place by culling overpopulated species.  

Without a predator/prey relationship, there are species that are degrading their habitat due to overpopulation, which in turn effects other animals that need that habitat to survive as well.

Case in point:  Bluff Point in Groton CT.  It's 1.5 mi^2 roughly, and at one point had over 300 deer occupying the park.  The 'ideal' deer population was about 25 animals.  If you went for a walk through the park, there was NO underbrush, no sapling trees, and other trees were missing bark - the deer were eating everything, which was impacting all other animals that shared the habitat - most notably birds that would nest in the underbrush.  

CT DEP stepped in and began culling the herd to save the park as a wildlife habitat.

Answer 10

Well, you must remember: if humans hadn't screwed up the natural ecosystems in the first place, destroying natural predators who actually were supposed to control the excess population, we wouldn't need your unnatural intervention. I understand the overpopulation process as well, thank you. One huge difference between a hunter and a natural non-human predator is that a wolf or a lion or another top-predator aim for the weak and sick in the population, therefore leaving healthy individuals to breed future generations. Hunters and poachers on the other hand, aim to get the biggest buck with the largest imperial rack. See a bit of a difference? Moreover, what is the sick adrenaline rush you get from seeing a majestic beast that has caused you no harm taking its last, struggling breaths? I fail to see the fun in such barbaric behavior. I believe that hunting is only justified in absolute dire circumstances or when necessary for survival.

Answer 11

hunting is Wildlife management, but also has other benefits.

the tags that states sell for hunting and fishing raise money for it's government.

also as a recreational fisherman myself, I know that hunting and fishing are activities that bring families and friends together.

as for everyone saying hunting is wasteful, there are only wasteful hunters.  My friend will give me some fresh meat whenever he goes hunting, and the price of wild game shows that many love the taste of it.

Answer 12

A good hunter will use any thing from the animal they can and help with the conservation in the local areas.  Hunting is necessary in many areas to manage populations. For example in southern Connecticut in places there is as many as twelve deer per acre.  These deer die slowly from starvation and disease while their populations continue to rise.  The only truly effective way to reduce these populations is to use hunting.

Answer 13

Hunting for food is okay.

Hunting for fun, however, is a cruel waste and a prime example of why humans have ruined wildlife cycles.

If we hadn't interfered by hunting for fun in the first place, and not messing up the balance of things, we wouldn't have to be worrying about things like overpopulation.

Besides, what sicko gets a jolt out of killing things?

- corky ~♥♥♥~

Answer 14

Hunting used to be necessary for the survival of man. It isn't the case any longer. Meat is not necessary for survival. I agree that management is necessary but there really is no reason for sport hunting unless your family depends on the meat to live.

It's why i became a vegetarian at 4 years old. Just as soon as I found out where meat comes from.

Answer 15

I think a bow and arrow is harder to hit with and is my preferred method. A rifle isn't very much composition with a super nice scope and good aim.   If we did not have managed hunts the animals would over populate and therefore the breed would get weaker over time.  Hunting is Honorable method of feeding yourself and you family and it is all natural green  fed animal.

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Johnny