Tim Guan
@Tim_Guan30
Is it normal for a lion to hunt and kill its prey? A wolf will do the same just as ferociously and without thought. But when a human being does it (not as barbarically,) things go loose and everyone starts complaining about the environment and animal welfare. Let me tell you something: hunting for sport is good, and here’s why.
Hunting for sport is perhaps the greatest thing to ever happen to nature. As humans, we are able to control many aspects of nature, but we should also respect and conserve its beauty for future generations to admire. This directly translates to hunting as an act of conservation. Not only to balance out the animal populations, but to save nature from itself with human intervention.
In one circumstance, invasive species are known to damage the environment even greater than humans do on an industrial scale.
The cost of controlling animal populations that go unchecked has “cost the government $138 billion annually,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For example, the snakehead fish populations in 2004 caused an uproar in irreversible environmental damage across the U.S. As they had no natural predators, they bred uncontrollably and left American rivers virtually lifeless of any biodiversity.
It was only until after costly government action that brought the snakehead populations to acceptable levels in part of lengthening fishing and hunting season.
For animal welfare activists who claim hunting is a “barbaric act” and unnatural, in truth it really isn’t. Nature is a merciless and relentless force, which shows no indifference to the cute and cuddly animals or the vicious and violent ones. Lions do not have their serrated canine teeth for chewing grass, do they? Humans are animals too, and we hunt for the same reasons as lions do.
Even animals hunt for sport just as humans do. It is a phenomenon known as “surplus killing” to which predators will slaughter swathes of prey not for food, but for pure enjoyment. It is possible that animals may be genocidal killing machines? Yes, but is it normal for humans to do the same? No, hunting requires a license, and some states outlaw it outright.
Hunting for survival and sport makes sense. Humans themselves are a product of nature, which has given us the God-given right to do as we please, but to also respect it at the same time. Without maintaining nature in a respectful and reasonable way, the consequences of leaving animals unchecked with their destructive ways will outright destroy the environment itself, which is why hunting is the most logical thing to do.
