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.

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