Current Issues

In the hunting world, there is always people that dislike and disagree with hunting and its practice. The reasons are endless, these are some of the issues hunting faces today: some people just think its wrong to kill animals, some dislike it because it is considered killing for recreation, others believe that certain hunting equipment give hunters an unfair advantage over the animals and some believe that it is wrong to hunt an animal during matting season. However, the hunters claim that not only is it a right to hunt but it actually keeps animal population at a healthy lever and that it is no different then killing an animal on a ranch to be sold in a market. Both parties endlessly battle over morals and perspectives on whether or not hunting is human but there is one issue that both pro-hunters, as well as anti-hunters agree on as being a problem and that is poaching (Arguments for and against hunting). But to every issue, there is both sides of the fence so it is hard determining which side is right or wrong and it is up to each state, individually, to have certain regulations for hunters.

State regulations are what determines each states laws on hunting and each year there are new amendments. These changes are made in order to better hunting as well as try to come to level terms for anti-hunters as well, but this is hardly ever reached due to the fact that they wish hunting to be eliminated. However while regulations are being made to please one party they sometimes enrage the other, so it is very difficult for the individual state to create laws that pleases both sides. For us in Colorado, many of the hunting laws are very conservative. Our laws are well set and do a very good job addressing the issues that are commonly debated back and forth between the two sides. In the state of Colorado we do not allow certain types of hunting techniques such as baiting and trapping without a special permit for example. All animals also have set seasons in which you are allowed to hunt them and are labeled either as small game or big game. To ensure that every one understands these laws the DOW ( Division Of Wildlife ) Distributes brochures annually across the state for free so that all hunters are kept up to date on the laws. This ensures that every one can be considered liable if they break any of the laws. If any of the laws are broken, there is usually a fine that the individual must pay and depending on the law being broken, they could lose their license for multiple years as well as equipment they had used when breaking it. These fines can be very substantial when you consider that if you not only get find but the gear you used at the time is confiscated as well as the vehicle you had used to get to the area, you are looking at some serious losses.

Yet people still insist on breaking these laws, and the one that is constantly being enervated is poaching. Poaching is defined as when an animal is killed out of season or illegally. People poach for multiple reason like for the animals antlers or fur, for food or cruelly for "fun". This is a serious problem around the world because poachers kill regardless if the animal is endangered, threatened or considered to be non-game. Each year thousands of geese, bears, moose, elk, antelope, swans, cougars, turkeys, wolves, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, boars, and other woodland creatures are killed by hunters (Compiled by The Fund for Animals with data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife agencies.) It is estimated that poachers kill the same number, if not more animals as paid for hunters do each year. There is no question that poaching is a serious issue in the world of out doors, and worse yet, there is no true solution that would automatically resolve this issue. But the D.O.W. does its best to eliminate these crimes and prevent them from happening through there heavy law enforcement and strict regulations.

Sources:

- Arguments for/against hunting

http://www.idausa.org/facts/hunting.html

- Division Of Wildlife

http://wildlife.state.co.us/rulesregs/lawEnforcement/operationGameThief/Pages/OGT.aspx

History

Since the dawn of time, man kind has hunted for survival. Hunting was the way of life, it was a necessity for survival from the time of the cave-man to colonial times. All across the world there are different forms of hunting for various types of prey, every culture has relied on it and has a history of its practices. Today we can simply just travel to the town market and purchase our foods but there was a time when that was not an option and what determined whether you ate or not was if your family had managed to successfully bring home a animal. The world of hunting today is not as big of a deal as what it was then and is commonly frowned upon due to people protesting against it claiming that hunting is needless and just used for sport and nothing more. When in reality a harvested elk or deer will feed a family for multiple months and almost all of the animal put to good use. Whenever a tag is purchased so that someone can hunt an animal, the money is put towards wilderness protection as well as animal protection so that wild life can remain in tact. Hunters actually give more money to animal rights and protection facilities then any anti-hunting organization ever has. Another advantage of hunting today is to actually control animal population (Division Of Wildlife). When human kind staked their grounds in wilderness, there were many predators such as bears, wolves and mountain lions. But humans quickly began killing these animals off because they were scared of them, resulting in no predators which meant that their prey was no longer being killed. This resulted in over population of these animals and they began destroying plant life and all the vegetation they needed to survive. So society needs hunters so that these animals population is monitored so that they can actually survive. Many people today actually do not partake in hunting as much as we actually think, which is something we would not expect here in colorado considering that about one in five people have hunted or know of people that do hunt. But only a mere 7% of the US population actually hunts (Hunting Facts).

Now a days, hunting is considered sporting activity but is commonly mixed up for "hunting for sport". This term means that people hunting are just killing animals for bragging rights and for show and yes, some people do go about this but the vast majority of the hunting community is against this concept. Take these images for example, Some people wish to just embark on hunts to harvest trophy animals such as this massive bull elk.

But in this image below this is more of the average bull elk that most people harvest and are happy with. Notice the size difference as well as the facial expressions between the men in the images, who truly looks more satisfied with their kill?

Hunting is not thought of as about just killing animals. It is cherished by those that partake in it because of the connection to nature and because of its unique characteristic that brings families and friends closer together. Its because of these attributes that people love hunting as well as the outdoors.

Sources

-Division Of Wildlife

http://wildlife.state.co.us/Pages/Home.aspx

-Hunting facts

http://www.idausa.org/facts/hunting.html