Hunting as a Haman Activity debate

Many people are perplexed as to how any advanced conservationist, such as Aldo Leopold, might explain hunting as a human activity. There is a long, tumultuous, and sophisticated tradition of hunting and land ethics. From all accounts, Aldo Leopold was a loving person, not the moral monster that some animal advocates portray him to be. It is important to remember that modern hunting (sports hunting) and traditional subsistence hunting have distinct backgrounds, but they still share ethical viewpoints. I share the opinion that Aldo Leopold would have never become the seminar thinker he was if he had not been a hunter. He had a strong passion for wildlife which included hunting, and this has remained a paradox for many. In the present times, there exist many non-hunting organizations such as the Soil and Water Conservation Society, Land trusts and the Wildlife Conservation Society. However, hunting or not hunting is not a primary mission for any of the organization. Conservation is not limited to wildlife only but includes all biological diversity, and all ecosystem aspects and Leopold understood this fact pretty well. He was a focused pragmatist that was trying to develop the discipline of wildlife ecology and management and at a time when animal species were disappearing at an alarming rate (G. Tyler Miller, 2011).

Arguments against Hunting

Predation is a reasonable and healthy coexistence among species in nature. Both predators and prey have overtime evolved together in the same ecosystem thus the predator-prey relationships are symbiotic as both benefits from the relationship. Both predator and prey have developed behavioral as well as physical adaptations that enable them to be better predators and prey animals. For example, Rodents such rats are typical prey species but are among the quickly reproducing species in Mammalia kingdom (Keller, 2010).

A natural predator can only take a few of prey species but not to the extent of endangering its entire existence. In nature, predation is a spontaneous activity that is beneficial to both the predator species and the prey species. The predator species gains by having their need of food satisfied whereas the prey species profit as predator species are only able to capture the slowest and least alert of their species. Overall, predation has removed sick, infected and sick animals from the ecosystem thereby minimizing the risk of spread of parasites which benefits the entire ecosystem by promoting biodiversity (Peterson, 2013).

Human hunting operates in a pervasive nature as it has never been akin to natural predation.

The rise in technology has made it worse, but even killing of animals by indigenous people was just as destructive. For instance, the elephant of Madagascar and the pygmy hippopotamus are among the animals that were killed into extinction back then. Therefore hunting is a harmful activity to an ecosystem. It is not the solution but the cause of hunger as well as overpopulation. The wildlife agencies in different parties of the world hearten the destruction of a natural ecosystem by inspiring hunting that rapidly increases wildlife’s population through the elimination of natural predators from the ecological community which alters the ecosystem which leads to some consequences to both human and wildlife (David Clowney, 2009).

Arguments for Hunting

On the other hand, people that are pro-hunting agree that is ethically wrong to hunt and kill animals, but they also believe that hunting may be good for the environment. They argue that hunting plays a vital role in the preservation of an ecosystem as it controls animal populations. They also say that animal rights put biodiversity in danger because they prevent breeding by keeping endangered species in captivity. The section of those that support hunting as a human activity argues that hunting is therapeutic promotes nutrition and brings enjoyment. They base their arguments on three rationales: therapeutic hunting, subsistence and sport hunting. Therapeutic hunting is a form hunting that involves intentional killing of animals with the aim of preserving wildlife and its environment. Subsistence hunting is the deliberate killing with an objective of getting food which contrasts sport hunting in every sense of it. Sport hunting is killing animals for leisure purposes (Chiras, 2011).

Conclusion

In summary, it is difficult to argue that human hunting is necessary for the contemporary world in the similar way it is for animals. Hunting is morally permissible when it is indispensable for the hunter’s survival. In this context, the word “necessary” could mean hunting for nutritional as well as ecological need which would, in turn, provide a moral cover for therapeutic and subsistence hunting. However, sport hunting cannot be justified in this way. Hunting as a human activity is not and never will be a sustainable predator-prey relationship that would be mutually exclusive. Human hunting styles are too efficient to qualify the predator-prey relationship. The efficiency of human hunting techniques causes an instant habitat degeneration which can, in the long run, degrade and obviate all subjective measures.

Methods such as sex-ratio, removal of natural predators and habitat manipulation destroy biodiversity. It is as though the purpose is to attain the maximum number of animals to meet the need of hunting, in the process ruining the natural habitat and putting the animals at risk of extinction. The number of indigenous animals is maximized at the cost of all other animals in the ecosystem thus short-circuiting the naturally evolved adaptations that enhance biodiversity (Gowdy, 2013). The only way for the ecosystems to recover is to prevent human hunting and other forms that encourage wildlife destruction. Unfettered re-immigration and reintroduction of predators should be encouraged.

References

Chiras, D. D. (2011). Environmental Science. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

David Clowney, P. M. (2009). Earthcare: An Anthology in Environmental Ethics. Rowman & Littlefield.

G. Tyler Miller, S. S. (2011). Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions. Cengage Learning.

Gowdy, J. (2013). Coevolutionary Economics: The Economy, Society and the Environment. Springer Science & Business Media.

Keller, D. R. (2010). Environmental Ethics: The Big Questions. John Wiley & Sons.

Peterson, A. L. (2013). Being Animal: Beasts and Boundaries in Nature Ethics. Columbia University Press.