HUNTING...... IN DEFENCE OF ANIMALS
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| Photo by Derek Malou on Unsplash |
What comes
to your mind on hearing the term hunting?
One can easily say that it is the practice of pursuing, seeking, or killing
of wild animals for food and some other purposes.
In this modern era, we hear so many terms like
job hunting, house hunting, animal hunting, browser hunting, token hunting,
etc related to different fields. Oh, I
forget a very famous one, Big Bounty hunting…..related to cyber technology.
Well, no matter which field it is, the concept behind is the same i.e. to seek,
look, trap, chase, or stalking for something.
Hunting is
intolerable if we considered the non-human animals. No matter how we human
beings tried to justify it, the pain, the fear, they bear is unutterable. How
can we cite the death or loss of humanity due to animals as a legal certificate
for killing them?
According to
a survey only in the US, the numbers of paid
hunting license holders are more than 15.49 million in 2017.
In urban areas, the multi-species of all kind
are absent. Other than pet animals, we left other animals the life of misery
and pain in laboratories and forms. We are constantly trying to distance ourselves
from animals.
Multiple ways and types of
hunting
When it
comes to hunting, there is a range of animals. Not all animals are the target
of hunters. There are so many types of hunting. You may hear about antelope
hunting, bear hunting, birds shooting, wild boar hunting, and many more. You
can check the detail here.
There are stages like the shooter, trophy collectors, limiting cutter, and so many
others. But, here I am going to discuss some famous categories and ways. There
is a category known as “Big Bounty
Hunting” in which the victims are big animals like elephants, antelopes,
bears, lions, etc.
While
another one that includes birds, small animals, and mammals known as “Trophy Hunting”. It is a rapidly growing business in the world
of hunting as the demand increases.
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| Photo by Simone Jo Moore on Unsplash |
If we are
trying to consider the different ways of hunting, the famous one is “Canned Hunting”. It is also the most crucial
one. The animals are captivated in an area the hunters go there, pay the landowners
for hunting.
Hunting on Safaris is also a very famous and
expensive one. This might be continued for several days. The team consists of
experienced hunters and equipped with remote control weapons.
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| Photo by Damian Patkowski on Unsplash |
“Sport Hunting” also known as gaming, is also a well-known type in the hunting world. Hunters mostly use rifles, dogs, bows, and
arrows. Dogs are often used as they not only capture the prey but also kill
them.
No matter
which one of the above is used, they do it for fun or any other purpose; they kill
animals.
Harm to animals due to
hunting
Sometimes
hunters spend hours tracking the victim, but sometimes they failed to track
the animal. Most animals are not retrieved after shooting by hunters. It
happened mostly with bows hunter. According to an estimate, 28% to 50% of bows hunter failed to track the victim.
In 1988
report of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks indicated that of
2,370 hunters who hit an elk with an arrow, only 49% actually retrieved their prey.
But those
who manage to escape suffer a lot. They have to live with pain from injuries,
and it can take weeks to recover, or they may die due to this.
Hunting
interrupts migration and hibernation patterns and destroys the animal’s
families. The stress the animals suffer caused by fear, inescapable loud sounds,
and other commotion created by hunters. This also severely compromised their
normal feeding habits that make it hard for them to store fat for winter. So
hunters devastate an entire community.
Hunting a murderous
business
In ancient
times, hunting is done for food, to travel, to wear, or maybe for some other reasons.
But in this developed world, it’s become a business…..a murderous business. There are so many companies and organizations
working worldwide that delivered Trophies and other products made up of animal
parts.
According to
an analysis by IFAW, about 1.7 million animals are
killed worldwide for trophies between the years 2004 and 2014. About 200000 of
them are from threatened species.
Canned
Hunting is also becoming the fastest growing business after the applications of
hunting laws. People go to specific areas, pay money, and spend holidays there.
Hunting is not a sport/game
Hunting is
taken as a sport. But in games, both sides are equal, fully equipped, and both
know what will happen. But in this case, one side is fully known and equipped, while the other side does not even know what’s going to be happening. The target is
eating grass even a moment before death. Then, how can we say that it’s a game?
If this
happened in our world (Human’s World), it is considered a murder. But when it
comes to animals, why it is a game? It’s not a fair chase.
Conservation of Population
and Species Extinction
Hunters
claimed that hunting is necessary for the conservation
of the animal’s population. But here is a question arises. How can we say that
it’s a way to control the animal’s population when we boost up hunters targeted animals to increase their population for hunting?
On the other hand, by killing
only specific species and setting free the others, we unbalanced the ecosystem
and especially the food chain. I will try to explain it just by a simple
example that tiger eats deer, and deer eat grass. But if the tiger is extinct,
who will eat deer and how grass grows?
Hunting is a
major cause of species extinctions
in the past. Animals like Tasmanian tiger, the great auk, American crocodiles
are being hunted to death for game, meat, trophies, and body parts. Deer are
hunted for deer meat, tiger for skin, and elephants for tusks. No doubt, climate
changes, loss of habitat, pollution, and many other factors are also the major
reasons for species extinction but we cannot ignore the one which is totally in
our control.
Carnivores are natural
ecosystem manager
Natural predators are the actual ecosystem managers.
They maintain the balance in the ecosystem by killing the weakest and sickest
individuals. Hunters usually kill the healthiest, biggest, and strongest
animals. Healthy animals are needed to keep the population strong but they mess
up nature’s balance.
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| Photo by Jessica Weiller on Unsplash |
When an unusual natural process causes
overpopulation, automatically nature gets active and balanced it. Starvation,
intense weather conditions, and diseases can be tragic, but that’s the natural
way of selecting the strongest and the healthiest to survive. Just shoot an
animal because he/she might die due to starvation or because of intense weather
is destructive.
Animal’s hunting by animals
Some
traditional ways of hunting are still going on like hunting by dogs. Dogs
assist humans in hunting. They are trained for different tasks, and purposes.
They are commonly separated from their mothers when they are young. They may
suffer harsh conditions and cold weather. Sometimes they lost during hunting in
the wild where the chances of their survival are very little.
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| Photo by seth schulte on Unsplash |
They may get
injured during hunting if the prey resists or attack back in defense. When they
are no longer useful, they may kill, sold, and hanged.
Poaching and Anti-hunting Organizations
Illegal
hunters are called “poachers”.
Poaching includes killing endangered species, using illegal weapons, or use of
illegal methods such as baiting. More than 100 million
animals are killed by poachers only in the United States every year.
According to WWF,
Play your
role by joining an anti-hunting
organization or form an NGO if
you can. Help the organizations in spreading words about the injustice done
against animals. Voice your opinion against hunting on public forms. Speak up,
write, and encourage others to do the same.
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