Argumentative Essay: Is Trophy Hunting Really The Answer?

What is big game hunting?There are around 20,000 to 35,000 wild lions left in Africa, depending on whom you ask, and big game hunters legally kill around 600 each year. This is a lost in population by two to three percent. Is big game hunting legal? Hunting is a well known sport. According to some, big game hunting is business for the wealthy, yet others believe it may actually provide benefits to the human, and animal population.

Every year hundreds of wild, exotic animals are killed, primarily in Africa, for money, bragging rights, and even decoration. Big game trophy hunting is a booming business, but has sparked a worldwide debate, especially after the killing of Cecil the Lion. Trophy hunters claim they are helping conservation efforts, but in reality, they are harming them. This sport is damaging the overall population of a species, especially lions, rhinos, and elephants. Also, the overall revenue from big game hunting is a small amount, and only a small percent of that goes to help the community. Although some countries have banned trophy hunting, they continue to allow “canned hunting” in which animals are bred to be hunted.Big game hunting takes a turn for the worse when it becomes canned hunting, or when it can be linked to poaching. People all over the world are voicing their opinion on the sport, legal or illegal. Big game trophy hunting is an unethical game, and this sport should be banned in more countries.

According to “Big Game Hunting Is Also Big Business, for Wealthy Few” by Liam Stackaug, "6 major pros and cons of hunting" from NLACTP.ORG, and "can trophy hunting actually help conservation?" By science magazine. Big game hunting is good because it provides economic aid to countries that allow big game hunting, and controls the population of certain species. However, big game hunting is an unpredictable activity that could hurt you. Although there are negatives to big game hunting, the benefits heavily outweigh the opposition.

Hunting to me is something special. Not only are you putting food on the table but you are making some very good memories. One of the best memories I have is my very first hunt, it was my dad and I we were in the blind for maybe thirty mintues and a little six point buck walks and looks around then goes back into the tall grass then my dad rattles the antlers and he comes out and boom that was the end of it. It was an amazing expericence and every since then I have never stopped hunting.

Hunting Benefits All Hunting is seen by some present-day people as crooked and dishonorable, while it is really the act of protecting the health of animals for the future. Hunting is a simple and beneficial way to help animals in ways that some people may not understand. What people may not know is that “...the majority of the American public supports hunting even if they don’t personally participate, with about 79 percent of adult Americans nationwide indicating they approve of legal hunting” (“Understanding Hunting”). This percentage of people know the true value of hunting and the betterment it has on our world today. Hunting is a very logical and beneficial way to help animals, along with the hunters themselves.

Hunting has been a part of our society since the first man set foot on this continent, but animal rights movements have become popular in our society recently that has questioned the necessity of hunting in our modern times. Because of this, animal populations are left freely to where they can multiply at an alarming rate. Hunting is a great means of controlling animal populations’ growth, although greatly opposed by many. While hunting is a very controversial topic in our society, there are great points for being for and against it.

Due to the fact that not all hunters claim all of the animal remains produced from big game hunting, many hunters give the meat, bones, and hide to local communities for their usage. The revenue produced from hunting goes back to the local community that the animal was taken from. All trophy hunters pay many fees for a big game hunt, but considering that most hunters do not take home the entire animal they killed, anything that remains from the hunt is left for the benefit of the community (Big Game). “Game laws should be drawn primarily in the interest of the whole people, keeping steadily in mind certain facts that ought to be self-evident to every one above the intellectual level of those well-meaning persons who apparently think that all shooting is wrong.…” (Roosevelt).

Is hunting for sport (not food or survival) morally justified? At one point of time hunting was very crucial for survival but now some would say hunting is nothing more than a violent form of recreation that the majority of hunters do not need for subsistence. Those who support hunting may say it does more good than bad for economic reasons. Outsiders are more concerned with the pain and suffering and loss of life endured by the animals. A study conducted by a Yale professor concluded that 60% of Americans disapprove of sport hunting and about one-third of Americans favor a total ban on hunting (Achor 138).

Hunting has been a tradition for many years. There are both pros and cons of hunting. There are several actions that you can do right and wrong to keep the environment healthy when you are hunting. Hunting is still very controversial and whether it is supported or not depends on who you ask. People against hunting think it will kill out a species, assume hunters kill animals for no reason or to show off, and some are against it because they are vegetarians and think that there is no point to killing animals.

In the film, "Louis Theroux's African Hunting Party", South African wild game farmers advocate trophy hunting as a necessary activity for saving certain species from inevitable extinction due to illegal wildlife poaching. However, when considering Peter Singer's utilitarian theory on the ethical treatment of non-human animals, the process of shooting and killing an animal to preserve its species seems counterintuitive. Applying Singer's perspective, my position is that trophy hunting is morally unacceptable as it reasserts speciesism by disregarding the suffering of the animals being murdered for sport. Indeed, the act of purchasing a hunting permit so that a person may kill an animal for its material value dismisses the animal's personhood.

Hunting is defined as the act of killing or taking down a creature. Killing is a synonym of murdering, and murdering is a crime. Some may say that hunting can provide food, which is a necessity for humans, or that is one way for them to make money. Despite these facts, some people are selfish enough to exceed their wants and hunt down animals for pleasure. That is why, sport hunting should be made illegal because hunting destroys animals ’wildlife habitats and hunting contributes to their extinction.

Many illegal hunters do it for the money that it brings in the long run. The selling of illegal animal products around the world is somewhere in the high millions if not billions. Some do it for the ‘thrill’ or ‘fun’ involved in it, and others

It helps the economy stay high with all the money it makes from hunting. Hunting also helps people stay healthy by eating organic food. Hunting has many pros, and these are some of them. “One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary one kills in order to have hunted. ”-Jose

Poaching is defined as illegally capturing, injuring, or killing an animal that is not on your land. The motive to commit this crime over the years has shifted from simply from individuals illegally hunting game to large organizations slaughtering animals to gain profit. Many are aware of this issue, but underestimate the sheer enormity of it. According to The Fish and Wildlife Service, there is an estimated $15-20 billion global market generated from poaching and trafficking of animals and their body parts. They have also reported that over 8,000 endangered species do not receive any federal protection.

Intro Paragraph: Hunting is a fun sport when you are considering bowhunting and gun hunting. When talking about hunting it is very fun and you must have patience. When hunting if you get what you are hunting for it is very rewarding.