Hunting "When a man wantonly destroys one of the works of man, we call him a vandal. When he wantonly destroys one of the works of God, we call him a sportsman." —Joseph Wood Krutch   This is a very sensitive area for many, as the pull of the yearly hunt comes from many directions: the love of feeling all-powerful, the excitement and anticipation, the supposed benefit to nature, family and buddy togetherness, and probably least of all for most, the meat. But for too long the public has been fed blatant lies. Following are the facts, simple and obvious.   One of the arguments for hunting is that the natural predators are no longer around to do their job, so humans need to do it instead. It is true that the natural predators are for the most part no more. But are humans the answer? Keep in mind, the natural predator hunts because he must to survive, but they take only the least fit of the herds, the slow or genetically impaired. This leaves the healthier and stronger, which improves the gene pool for the next generation. Natural predation is a mutually beneficial arrangement for both prey and predator.1   When humans are the hunter, everything is turned upside down. No matter how alert, physically fit or genetically fit the animal may be, he cannot escape. In fact, rather than targeting the weak and sickly to help the herds, hunters go for the big, healthy and most fit, leaving the poorer ones to reproduce.2   While we are told hunting is needed to reduce deer populations, they continue to increase. In the early nineteen hundreds, there were only about 500,000 white-tailed deer in North America; now, with deer management programs in place, the population has escalated to over 15 million!3 Aren't the hunts supposed to bring the numbers down? That might be what we're told, but that is not what is happening. Actually, the government doesn't want to bring the numbers down. In fact, take a look at these quotes: We shall attempt to increase the number of deer until we experience high incidents of deer-car collisions, depredation of agricultural crops becomes intolerable and the effects on deer habitat results in deterioration. Terry Moore, regional wildlife manager for the New York Department of Environment Conservation (DEC).4 Ideally, if the desired number of antlered and antlerless deer are taken each year the herd will be comprised of the lowest number of males and the highest number of breeding females. As a result, a maximum fawn crop will be produced each summer. The Conservationist, an official publication of the DEC. 5   Naturally, the sex ratio is about 50/50, but with the hunting programs this becomes completely skewed. The hunt focuses on the males, changing the herd ratio to about 80 females to every 20 males. This messes up the natural laws, and the does produce more fawns the next spring. By the time the next hunt comes around, the herd has increased by as much as 15 percent. When left to itself, with the correct ratios, the herd will maintain itself at about the same number of animals per year. 6   Not only are the natural predators destroyed by virtually every means possible, and the gender ratios totally messed up, but the habitat is modified as well. Forests are cleared, exotic plants are imported, and all in an effort to grow the number of desired game animals. But at what cost? The unrecoverable expense of native species of plants and animals. 7 The Wildlife Division says it [clearing land] is necessary because a forest managed by nature cannot produce a fraction of the deer needed to support a half a million hunters. Detroit Free Press, January 27, 1975.   Who is footing the costs for these entertainments, erroneously dubbed "conservation" by hunting enthusiasts? Hunting supplies more than $12 billion a year, but very little of it is used for the conservation of wildlife. Hundreds of acres of public land, national forests, and even national wildlife refuges are used for hunting at the tax payer's expense. Although the vast majority of taxpayers are not hunters and may not even agree, they are the ones who really pay for this outrageous abuse of creatures and land. 8   Every year, millions of creatures such as elk, deer, bear, geese, ducks and quail are wounded by hunters and die slow deaths due to gangrene or starvation. This is because the greater majority of hunters do not know how to place a killing shot. It is estimated that only two or three out of ten actually know how to make their shot kill. Hundreds of eagles and other large birds are inadvertently killed through lead poisoning from bullets or lures. 9 Even the minutest traces of lead from where the bullet passed through the flesh is enough to kill an eagle.   Some choose to use bow and arrow to give the animals a "sporting" chance. Yet even at close range they completely miss nine out of ten times. When they do finally make a hit they rarely strike in a lethal area where the kill would be instantaneous. 10 One class A archer revealingly described his bow hunt as the brutal business it really is: The arrow went through the doe's neck.... We came to several pools of blood with the prints of her knees beside them where she had gone down to hang her head and bleed in the bright sun. We saw spots where she had stumbled. But still her life's blood ran, and still she went on. At last we found her...She was on her knees and hocks [dying]....Her head was down, her nose was in her blood. Somehow, the doe lurched up. Stumbling, bounding, crashing blindly into the brush... [where she] disappear[ed]. We fanned out and combed the hillside. We failed. I vowed never to hunt with a bow again. 11   This is not unusual, rather the unfortunate fate of 50 percent of animals hunted with bows. These must die slow, lingering deaths from gangrene, peritonitis, septic infections and starvation. But even for those who are found, the death is still slow, cruel and painful. Hunters are advised in game books to start their hunt early in the day so they have time to track the animal. They are also told to wait nearly an hour before even trying to track so that the animal will have hopefully spent most of its strength. The problem is, many hunters don't know how to track. When they do happen upon their unlucky victim, they are to embed more arrows in the flesh until the poor creature gasps its last anguishing breath. 12 What purpose does this barbaric ‘sport' accomplish? Does it control deer populations, lyme disease, cull the herds or save the animals from starvation? There are no recognized authorities on wildlife management who would dare to make these claims unless they were smoking opium. The answer is NO! Hunting is in existence strictly for recreation and trophies. The Bowbarians, Luke A. Dommer. 13   I won't go into trophy and canned hunting any more than to say that it is totally unethical and cruel, pushing already endangered species even closer to the brink of extinction—the point of no return. There are supposedly legal trophy hunts, but they are totally unconscionable. The animals are often baited off of land or parks specifically intended for their protection and preservation. Others are caged with no option or chance of escape. Nor are they usually killed out-right, because the hunters don't want to damage the trophy parts. They make non-lethal shots, which eventually causes the animal to die from blood loss and shock. 14   Hunting is totally unnecessary and brutal in whatever form or for whatever excuse. It's time we took our responsibility to God and His creatures seriously and treated all life in all forms with respect, love and dignity. All rights reserved Copyright © 2006 By J. Lee