Hunting Belongs in History's Dustbin
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - PETA
February 17, 2006
By Kathy Guillermo
As long as Dick Cheney is apologizing to lawyer Harry Whittington for peppering him with shot in a hunting accident, perhaps the vice president should take a few minutes to say he’s sorry for what he’s done to all those birds he’s blasted out of the skies over the years. Mr. Whittington could tell him what the birds must have felt.
Whether or not the Vice President sees the light about this cruel sport, his mishap has at least put the issue of hunting in the spotlight. No matter who holds the gun, hunting is a relic of a bygone era that has no appropriate place in today’s world.
Fewer than five percent of the public hunts and that number has steadily declined over the past decade. Last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released statistics indicating that hunting-license sales have dropped 10 percent in the last two decades. The number of hunters between the ages of 18 and 24 has dropped by more than a third in the last 10 years. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals could ignore hunting and it would eventually sputter and die out all by itself, but that small percentage of people who thinks it’s fun to slaughter still kill a great many animals.
They cause a lot of other problems too. Dozens of people are injured or killed in hunting accidents every year. Mr. Whittington is currently the most visible, but there are many others, including innocent people who weren’t even hunting. In some areas of the country, simply standing in your own back yard in a white hat can be dangerous during deer hunting season.
The old argument that sport hunting is necessary to keep some animal species from overpopulating and starving to death is one of the worst deceptions perpetrated by hunters. The wildlife agencies spreading this nonsense have become advocates for hunting. Their goal is to see that there are plenty of animals for hunters to shoot and to this end they clear brush and plant food to attract game animals and trap predators who would naturally control the numbers of species. In just one of many examples, duck hunters in Louisiana persuaded the state wildlife agency to spend $100,000 a year on "reduced predator impact." In the language most of us speak every day, this means trapping foxes and raccoons so that more duck eggs will hatch, giving hunters more birds to kill. The Ohio Division of Wildlife teamed up with a hunter-organized society to push for clear-cutting–also known as decimating large tracts of trees–in Wayne National Forest to "produce habitat needed by ruffed grouse" so hunters could kill them.
Texas is home to many hunting ranches where animals, including exotics not native to this country, are bred specifically to become live shooting targets. This has nothing at all to do with conservation. It’s killing for fun. Do Americans in 2006 really need to shoot animals just for jollies?
Even if you think that’s okay, you may wish to consider the link between hunting and violent crime.
Many of the students involved in school shootings in recent years were hunters. Eighteen-year-old David Ludwig, who allegedly shot and killed his 14-year-old girlfriend’s parents in Lititz, Pa., last year was an avid deer hunter. Photos on Ludwig’s blog showed his grinning face as he disemboweled the bloody deer he had just shot.
Many more of us would rather watch wildlife than shoot it–five times more, according to the Fish and Wildlife survey. That’s the way of the future.
Kathy Guillermo is a senior writer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; HelpingWildlife.com.
As long as Dick Cheney is apologizing to lawyer Harry Whittington for peppering him with shot in a hunting accident, perhaps the vice president should take a few minutes to say he’s sorry for what he’s done to all those birds he’s blasted out of the skies over the years. Mr. Whittington could tell him what the birds must have felt.
Whether or not the Vice President sees the light about this cruel sport, his mishap has at least put the issue of hunting in the spotlight. No matter who holds the gun, hunting is a relic of a bygone era that has no appropriate place in today’s world.
Fewer than five percent of the public hunts and that number has steadily declined over the past decade. Last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released statistics indicating that hunting-license sales have dropped 10 percent in the last two decades. The number of hunters between the ages of 18 and 24 has dropped by more than a third in the last 10 years. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals could ignore hunting and it would eventually sputter and die out all by itself, but that small percentage of people who thinks it’s fun to slaughter still kill a great many animals.
They cause a lot of other problems too. Dozens of people are injured or killed in hunting accidents every year. Mr. Whittington is currently the most visible, but there are many others, including innocent people who weren’t even hunting. In some areas of the country, simply standing in your own back yard in a white hat can be dangerous during deer hunting season.
The old argument that sport hunting is necessary to keep some animal species from overpopulating and starving to death is one of the worst deceptions perpetrated by hunters. The wildlife agencies spreading this nonsense have become advocates for hunting. Their goal is to see that there are plenty of animals for hunters to shoot and to this end they clear brush and plant food to attract game animals and trap predators who would naturally control the numbers of species. In just one of many examples, duck hunters in Louisiana persuaded the state wildlife agency to spend $100,000 a year on "reduced predator impact." In the language most of us speak every day, this means trapping foxes and raccoons so that more duck eggs will hatch, giving hunters more birds to kill. The Ohio Division of Wildlife teamed up with a hunter-organized society to push for clear-cutting–also known as decimating large tracts of trees–in Wayne National Forest to "produce habitat needed by ruffed grouse" so hunters could kill them.
Texas is home to many hunting ranches where animals, including exotics not native to this country, are bred specifically to become live shooting targets. This has nothing at all to do with conservation. It’s killing for fun. Do Americans in 2006 really need to shoot animals just for jollies?
Even if you think that’s okay, you may wish to consider the link between hunting and violent crime.
Many of the students involved in school shootings in recent years were hunters. Eighteen-year-old David Ludwig, who allegedly shot and killed his 14-year-old girlfriend’s parents in Lititz, Pa., last year was an avid deer hunter. Photos on Ludwig’s blog showed his grinning face as he disemboweled the bloody deer he had just shot.
Many more of us would rather watch wildlife than shoot it–five times more, according to the Fish and Wildlife survey. That’s the way of the future.
Kathy Guillermo is a senior writer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; HelpingWildlife.com.
Print
Email
