Animal Hunting

Historical Background: Hunting as a Sport

Hunting had a symbolic importance in European society out of proportion to its economic
importance because it was closely linked to the culture of monarchy. In most of Europe including
England and France, hunting was a privilege restricted to the nobility.

Hunting adapted readily to gunpowder weapons, though crossbows and longbows, and even
swords or knives, remained common weapons even into the seventeenth century. Though early
modern royalty continued to keep falcons as they had in the Middle Ages, the most prominent
form of sport hunting in the early modern era was coursing with hounds.

Certain creatures were especially prized for their ability to create an exciting chase. The three
animals most frequently prized for their coursing were red deer, fallow deer, and hares. For the
latter, the sport was primarily to watch the chasing hounds in action. Hares were fast and nimble
and so made for an exciting spectacle. The hunter did not shoot the animal, but instead allowed
the dogs to tear the animal to pieces once it had been caught. Deer, on the other hand, could be
flushed out using hounds, but the object was for the hunter to shoot them. Red deer stags were
the most prized target because they combined a noble bearing with an exciting chase.

The royal or noble hunt was, in part, a performancea demonstration of mastery over nature as
a justification for monarchical authority. Sometimes, the hunt would be a small affair, with the
king or nobleman and a few intimates; other times it would be a large public occasion with
hundreds of participants and spectators. The hunt encouraged ritual gestures that reinforced the
sense that it was an expression of royal majesty. For example, when James I of England (ruled
16031625) successfully shot a red deer in an aristocratic hunting party, he would personally slit
the throat of the dying animal to begin dressing it; he then would insist that all of the members of
the shooting party smear the blood of the animal on their faces. Since the king shed the animal's
blood, this gesture brought royal favor to the participants. Though hunting was primarily a
masculine activity, women also participated as spectators and hunters. Elizabeth I of England
(ruled 15581603), for example, hunted avidly.

Present

Game hunting today is still a strong pastime and a necessity of life for indigenous peoples living
in remote areas. The decrease and disappearance of many large predators because of habitat
loss and inbreeding has made hunting a necessity for controlling the population size of certain
prolific species, such as deer and geese. However, overhunting and poaching , the illegal
slaughter and sale of rare animals, can lead to further extinctions.
Humans rely on trained animals and specialized tools and weapons to hunt. Hunting with trained
dogs is called coursing. Sporting breeds of dog have been bred for size, temperament, and
intelligence, to aid the human hunter. For example, the harrier is always used in rabbit hunting,
the fox hound in fox hunting, the pointer and retriever in wild foul hunting, and the Rhodesian
ridgeback in lion hunting. Falconry is a term describing the use of falcons, hawks, or eagles as
trained hunters. Falconry originated several thousand years ago in China and has since been
adopted by other cultures. Wild raptors are caught as chicks and trained to fly on command after
being released from the falconer's wrist. They will attack and kill prey, and then abandon the
corpse to the falconer. Although an uncommon practice, southern Asians have been training
cheetahs for thousands of years to kill antelope, deer, and other fast-moving prey for humans.

Hunting is also characterized by the type of game being sought. Big game hunting includes large
animals such as moose, caribou, bear, reindeer, wolf, tiger, leopard, elephant, and wild goat. It
can be very dangerous because the hunted animal is capable of counterattacking the hunter, and
because these excursions take hunting parties to remote wilderness where immediate medical
attention is unavailable. However, big game are the preferred sport for trophy hunting. Small-
game hunting, known as shooting in Great Britain, focuses on smaller animals such as wild fowl,
hare, rabbit, woodchuck, raccoon, and squirrel. These animals are more often destined for food
than for trophy.

Poaching is the unlawful hunting of protected game either outside the allotted hunting season or
against a hunting ban. It is strictly opposed by all sport hunting associations and should not be
confused with lawful hunting.

Against Animal Hunting Campaigns

Hunting might have been necessary for human survival in prehistoric times, but today most
hunters stalk and kill animals merely for the thrill of it, not out of necessity. This unnecessary,
violent form of entertainment rips animal families apart and leaves countless animals orphaned
or badly injured when hunters miss their targets.

Quick kills are rare, and many animals suffer prolonged, painful deaths when hunters severely
injure but fail to kill them.

A member of the Maine Bow Hunters Alliance estimates that 50 percent of animals who are shot
with crossbows are wounded but not killed. A study of 80 radio-collared white-tailed deer found
that of the 22 deer who had been shot with traditional archery equipment, 11 were wounded
but not recovered by hunters.

A British study of deer hunting found that 11 percent of deer killed by hunters died only after
being shot two or more times and that some wounded deer suffered for more than 15 minutes
before dying.
Twenty percent of foxes wounded by hunters are shot again; 10 percent manage to escape, but
starvation is a likely fate for them, according to one veterinarian.

Hunting also disrupts migration and hibernation patterns and destroys families. For animals such
as wolves and geese, who mate for life and live in close-knit family units, hunting can devastate
entire communities.

The fear and the inescapable, earsplitting noises from the gunfire and other commotion that
hunters create cause hunted animals to suffer tremendous stress. This severely compromises their
routine and their eating habits, making it hard for them to store the fat and energy that they need
to survive the winter. Loud noises can also disrupt mating rituals and can cause parent animals to
flee their dens and nests, leaving their young vulnerable to natural predators.

Hunters intended targets arent the only ones who suffer. Hunting accidents destroy property and
injure and kill horses, cows, dogs, cats, hikers, and other hunters. According to the International
Hunter Education Association, there are dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries attributed to
hunting in the U.S. every yearand that number only includes incidents involving humans.

Hunters, however, strive to kill the animals they would like to hang over the fireplaceusually
the largest, most robust animals, who are needed to keep the gene pool strong. This trophy
hunting often weakens the rest of the species population: Elephant poaching is believed to have
increased the number of tuskless animals in Africa, and in Canada, hunting has caused the
bighorn sheeps horn size to fall by 25 percent in the last 40 years. Nature magazine reports that
the effect on the populations genetics is probably deeper.