I walk slowly, observantly, through the hardwoods stalking the white tailed deer I stumbled upon earlier in the hunt. I am focused to the left, on the other side of a patch of bramble, looking for the outline of a huge deer, straining my eyes more as I step closer and closer to the red vines. As I duck under a downed tree, the deer crashes out of the brush behind me on the opposite side and runs into a swamp. Just when you think you have the animal figured out, it surprises you. This is hunting, it is a tradition I love and need, and have been practicing since age 12.
Hunting has been present in this country, as well as the rest of the world, since the beginning of time. As time has changed and technologies have evolved, hunting has evolved also. It is still enjoyed by 7% of the U.S. population, but has been in threat of endangerment. Certain people and groups (known mostly as "animal-rights" groups) hate the concept of hunting.
[...] Pete Singer comes up very short in his attempts to degrade hunting as an unethical practice; in fact it is a wonderful thing. Hunting is often enjoyed as a family tradition or surrounded by friends. I cannot tell you the many times that I have looked forward to heading north to hunt with my father. It makes bonds that will last forever. Hunting is a great thing which can be passed on to children as they mature. Hunting teaches valuable life lessons such as responsibility as well as relieving stress and tension. [...]
[...] Market hunting was a large problem in which men would kill hundreds of animals in order to fill a quota to send to larger companies to sell as food or other products. Lack of bison is one result of market hunting. Before expansionism in the west, there was an estimated 60 million bison living in the wild. After years of market hunting through the modernizing of the west, less than 1,000 remained. (The Hunter's Handbook.) Game laws were made and buffalo parks and national bison ranges were founded to preserve the species. [...]
[...] This was especially important in the age of unrestricted hunting which was the 1800's. Theodore Roosevelt is the finest president thus far to take office as a friend of nature, wildlife, and hunting. Roosevelt was key in making Congress assign U.S. Marshall's to regularly patrol and enforce wildlife laws within Yellowstone. When in office in 1901, Roosevelt made Yellowstone the first National Park and wildlife sanctuary. Teddy never forgot about hunting and while President he strictly enforced the Lacey Act of 1900 which banned interstate shipment of wild game taken in violation of law in the state of origin. [...]
[...] Arguments against hunting often come to a common issue of killing an animal is wrong and is helping destroy the species. This is not true in any way, shape or form. All forms of hunting that are legal in the United States actually help nature because it can be used as a game management tool. But to simply pinpoint hunters as killers is true. Hunters kill. But so does every other American who lives in a home acres of wetland per year is urbanized (In Defense of Hunting). [...]
[...] The Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937, which is an 11% tax on the sales of firearms and ammunition, has totaled $ 2.7 billion over six decades. All $ 2.7 billion has gone to state agencies that do wildlife research, habitat acquisition, and manage the wildlife. And yet more funding comes from the Migratory bird hunting and conservation stamp, which must be purchased each year by anyone who wishes to hunt migratory birds. The stamp chips in $467 million which has acquired and preserved 4.2 million acres of public wildlife habitat. [...]
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