Hunting is considered a sport. Thousands of animals die victims of this bloody sport every year. There are various types of hunting – small game hunting, characterised by the size of the animals hunted. The victims of this type of hunt tend to be small animals such as partridges, turtle doves, rabbits, various aquatic birds, migratory bird species, etc. There is also big game hunting, characterised by the larger size of the animal victims of the hunt. In England this mainly involves red deer hunting, but other deer species are also targeted.

In hunting they often talk about the “good hunter”, who respects nature, who knows and cares for his dogs, and never kills ill, weak or rare animals… and the “bad hunter”, who kills indiscriminately, gets rid of his dogs once they aren’t useful to him anymore and has no respect for nature. In both cases the activity is the same - shooting animals for fun – and, as we’ll see, regardless of the argument they make, both cases are equally unjustifiable.

Arguements in defence of hunting:

Hunting respects nature

Stating that hunting respects nature tends to mean that the life of the animals that have the bad luck of falling victim to the hunters has no value. – according to them - and that their pain and suffering aren’t important because they don’t belong to a species in danger of extinction. According to this argument, animals would only have value according to the purpose they serve, an idea that ignores the fact that animals (ourselves included) are beings that suffer and enjoy our lives, and that as such we have our own value, regardless of how useful we are to others.

Hunting is fun

Certainly an activity like hunting can be considered enjoyable for those who practice it, but this Fact doesn’t justify its continued existance in any way. Just like in the case of circuses, zoos, rodeos, etc. our entertainment is no justification for the suffering and death of others.

Animals hunt each other

That other animals show certain behaviours doesn’t justify us doing the same. For example, there are non-human animals which eat others of the same species and this obviously doesn’t justify cannibalism. Those of us who can reflect upon the consequences of our actions are responsible for them and should bare the interests of other individuals in mind in a fair and equitable way. As such, hunting should be abolished.

They’ll die anyway

They fact that someone will die one from ‘natural’ causes isn’t a justification for killing them… we will all die one day, pero that doesn’t mean that somebody can kill us today. Hunting takes many victims. There are many ways we can enjoy nature without harming others, for example taking photographs, cycling, hiking, bird watching etc. Don’t make other suffer or die for your enjoyment.