The Benefits of Hunting

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"Run Bambi! Run!" Those three words have echoed inside children's minds for generations. Many wept at the cruelty with which the hunters needlessly slaughtered young Bambi's mother and many more vowed never to kill a living animal. Walt Disney was a master at evoking anti-hunting feelings. He portrayed the animals in his movies and cartoons as gentle, innocent creatures, which caused no trouble and asked for no trouble. However, were his animals really innocent? Are animals, in general, really innocent and are hunters all the cruel, heartless murderers that so many make them out to be? The answer to all of those questions is an emphatic no. Animals, specifically white-tailed deer, are harmful to the environment, to themselves, and to humans. They destroy the environment, give each other diseases, and injure, sometimes killing, people in car accidents. It is for this reason that the hunting of animals must be recognized as the only viable way to control increasing animal populations and avoid the negative effects of over-population.

Animals can totally obliviate an ecosystem by becoming so large in number that they destroy all the vegetation of the area. When a population becomes so large that an ecosystem can no longer support them, diseases and mass starvation come upon the population. This forces some of the population to seek another suitable habitat. This is when it becomes dangerous to people. An animal crossing a highway can cause a motorist to swerve off the road to his or her death, or a hungry animal searching for food may work up enough courage to attack an unaware hiker or camper. This is why hunting is essential for controlling animal populations. It is a safe, humane way to regulate populations and keep them at a level that an ecosystem can support. Many may argue that alternatives, such as sterilization of the animals or transporting them to other areas, are better than hunting. However, these control techniques are very expensive and not always successful. It is not necessary for one to agree with hunting, but only necessary for them to see that it is the only way to inexpensively and successfully control animal populations.

The recent proliferation of white-tailed deer coupled with their ability to exist in close proximity to humans has created new challenges, opportunities, and problems for deer managers (Roseberry ,1991). Left to itself, an animal population will multiply exponentially; meaning that if there were two deer one year, there would be four the next and sixteen the year after that.

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