Sport Hunting or Illegal Hunting - Essay Example

HUNTING Back in the Stone Age when Man lived in caves, hunting was a necessity. He had to hunt for his food and kill to protect himself. But today, when Man finds his own chicken, lamb and bacon in the nearby supermarket and is barely threatened by any wild animal, sport hunting or illegal hunting is the only excuse left for killing animals in the present times. But, no excuse is good enough to support the fact that Man continues killing animals either for recreation purposes or for trade. Wildlife conservationists have always stood up against hunting of animals, in fact IUCN has drawn up a Red List which contains names of endangered and threatened animals. Nature lovers and wild life activists continuously try to spread awareness that hunting an animal is not only unethical but may also interfere with the food chain. When the existence of a particular species is threatened the world faces a misbalance too. Though laws in all most all countries exist, which forbids killing of endangered species, yet a group of people ignore the severity of the problem and continue hunting. In Nagaland, a tribal place in India, villagers hunt the Great Hornbill just to pluck their feathers to make dresses or headgears. The hunting has become so severe that only a few hundred Great Hornbills exist today. Some people illegally hunt endangered species like one-horned rhinoceros or African elephants to use their horns and teeth for trade purposes. It is evident that not everyone is aware of the fact that animals have precious lives too and need to be protected. We cannot eliminate an entire species for our own selfish purposes. More National parks and Reserves should be set up to protect wildlife and animals from external threat and forest officers should be employed to look after the animals in these areas and protect them from poachers. Laws covering animal protection must include severe punishments for the law-breakers and such people should not be pardoned at all. Since it is us who have destroyed the natural habitats of most wildlife animals, we should be responsible for their rehabilitation and protection. The national parks and bioreserves should also employ veterinarians to ensure immediate medical attention for animals in times of need. But, more importantly mass education should be conducted in every country to educate the people about the need of animal protection and unethical hunting. In some countries killing certain animals for sport is supported and there are seasons called hunting seasons which allows hunters to hunt animals like antlered bucks, antlerless bucks, minks, foxes, turkeys and small game animals like rabbits, raccoons or squirrels. In fact, sometimes hunting is termed as “ethical hunting” which is a mockery of the word “ethics” itself; because I do not think anyone with the right ethics would ever indulge in hunting. Wildlife biologists agree that overpopulation of deer poses a problem, but they reject the idea that foxes, turkey and game animals must be included in the hunting list too. Hunting parks issue licenses and allow one license holder only a certain number of kills per year. Parks do their own duty by printing manuals that train hunters in recognizing animals and issue rules about using hunting weapons. However, even after such precautions some hunters fail to recognize animals from a distance and may kill a species that should not hunted. In other cases, hunters do not kill their game entirely and leave it badly injured or crippled. In such cases the injured animals suffers a long and utterly painful death. According to a PETA report “A member of the Maine Bow Hunters Alliance estimates that fifty percent of animals who are shot with crossbows are wounded but not killed. A study of 80- radio collared white-tailed deer, found that, out of 22 deer that had been shot with traditional archery equipment, 11 were wounded but not recovered.” Thus, a high percentage of animals are only wounded. “Study of deer hunting reveal that a deer shot correctly dies after one or two shots but a wounded deer suffers for more than 15 minutes before dying “(Nature, 2007). Personally, such brutal acts deserve severe punishment and permanent cancellation of licenses. Another brutal method of killing utilized by hunters is the use of ferocious hounds or hunting dogs. According to the Burns Committee Report (2000), the use of dogs for hunting purposes compromises the welfare of the animals and most scientists agree that the hunted animals suffer more during the final stages of hunting.” Game animals are not only flushed by hunters with the help of these dogs, but the animals are cruelly chased by the ferocious canines and then ripped apart. Dog-hunting should be banned too because the animals not only face a painful death but also face the constant fear of being chased by a savage beast and moreover, the animals that survive the deathly bite of the dog are left seriously injured, such that without medical attention they are bound to die. Killing is a crime yet hunters take pride in their killing and boast about their hunting expeditions, the number of kills an the dangers involved, not even sparing a single minute to think about the innocent animal who was targeted and killed mercilessly just for “sport.” In fact some hunters kill more than they are supposed and are not even punished for it, owing to the slack on the part of the hunting park authority. Mostly, hunters target the biggest or the most beautiful animals to take home as their “prized possession” but what they fail to understand is the fact once the animal is dead, its size or beauty does not matter and there is no pride in killing a beautiful creation. The animal would look best when left to live in its own habitat, yet, people kill what they appreciate and take pride in it too. It is a pity that hunters do not understand that killing docile and powerless animals like deer, rabbit or turkey with a gun is nothing to boast and in fact it exposes the savageness of the hunter. Such hunters kill just for pleasure which is terribly wrong, for a person who seeks pleasure through killing is nothing less than a murderer. However, to eradicate hunting from its roots we need to educate the young generation and instill in them the need for animal protection. Since, hunting is legal in many places today, I suggest that till it is banned, licenses are issued and the respective authority keep a keen vigil on the kills per hunter. The authority should also ensure that the hunters recover each animal they shoot and not leave them to bleed till death. We must remember that, God gave only mankind the capability to think and decide what is right or wrong. Only humans are powerful enough to provide protection to all species, help them in times of need and maintain the ecological balance. We must protect everything that we were made responsible for. WORKS CITED Gunn. A.,” Environmental ethics and trophy hunting.” Ethics and the Environment 2001 : 68- 95. Print. Godfrey-Smith, William.. "The Value of Wilderness." Environmental Ethics 1979, vol1: 309-319. Print. Shadow, Simon. "How Hunting with Respect for Life Works." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks, n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. .  "Hunting." PETA.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. . Read More