Angie Satterfield Argument
Essay Rough Draft
ENG 103
Is Hunting Needed in Today's Society?
Hunting is constantly under attack from many sources and is is not hard to
understand why the non-hunting public is thinking of us, the hunters, in a
negative light.
These people, the non-hunting public, do not think about hunting very much.
They are the next door neighbor, co-worker, and classmate. They are influenced
by the media, such as, newstories, telvision, movies, and the comments of
others.
Eighty-five percent of the public are non-hunters. I am wirting to the
non-hunters, not the anti-hunter. It is the non-hunter who will decide on the
issues at the polls when they vote.
The media has a great influence on the non-hunting public. A lot of this is
sublte and comes from friends and the media. Wen you see a newscast that shows
hunters congregating on a wildlife area like hungry wolves it leaves you with a
distinct impression. A movie that shows an animal being brutilized effects us.
It effects all of us. A movie like THE DEERHUNTER leaves you with the impression
that hunters are people with violent pasts and are unpredictable. The movie
STARMAN shows where the main character brings a dead deer back to life while it
is tied to a hunters trunk. It was an emotional scene and made the act of
hunting seem barbaric. These are some of the subtle ways the non-hunting public
picks up information about hunters.
Hunters and sportsman's dollars pay for a lot of wildlife management, land
acguisition and research. This money is obtain through the sales of licenses and
the taxes on guns, bows and ammunition. Non game animals also benefit from these
land preserves because they live in the same habitat as the hunted species. Over
8 billion dollars have been raised this way. Very little has come from sources
other than this.
Is hunting cruel? Life is a process of consuming. Deer eat plants. If they
are overpopulated they may eat the plants to death. If that is what it takes for
them to survive. A doe will run off its own fawn if there is not enough food for
both of them and let the baby starve or try to survive on its own. In the wild
animals overrun and immobilize their prey. Sometimes even eating them while they
are still alive. Do you remember the massive starvation of the sixties in
Arizona where thousands of deer die? How humane is that? Or drive through
Yellostone Park in the winter and see the elk starving. That is "natural"
population control.
The Pittman-Robertson Act is an excise tax used to fund various state and
federal wildlife management areas. Since 1923 6.5 billion dollars has been
raised by the sale of hunting licenses alone and this money is used for the
budgets of the state fish and wildlife agencies. Excise taxes on arms and
ammunition have raised 2.5 billion dollars since 1923 for wildlife restoration
projects and hunter education. Duck stamps have raised 406 million dollars for
the acquisition of wetlands for wildlife since 1934. On an average the
sportsman/hunters dollars provide 77percent of the annual income of the state
fish and wildlife agencies.
Hunting may not be all that pleasent for the non-hunter to understand but all
in all the hunter/sportsman has done more for wildlife and enviromental
conservation then any and all anti-hunting groups combined. If you are unsure
about hunting contact the department of natural resources or talk to an
experienced hunter and find out more about it.
cingels@venus.net