Essay on “The Evils of Hunting” Complete Essay for Class 9, Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

The Evils of Hunting

Hunting is the pursuit of game for food or sport. Hunting with a pack of hounds is a popular sport in England, Wales, Ireland, and parts of Scotland. The principal quarries are fox. Hunting is an unnecessary activity in the modern world. Slob hunting is the way many so-called sportsmen hunt these days. The phrase slob hunting refers to indiscriminate assault on animals, whatever their type. This type of recreation is harmful and undesirable the United States for three reasons: (1) It reduces the number of areas available for tracking animals, (2) It upsets the natural balance, causing many species to have their ranks drastically reduced, and (3) It can be unnecessarily cruel to animals. Hunting on private lands is one of the best ways to hunt, because the game is plentiful, and there is challenge to the sport. However, when land-owners encounter a slob hunter on their lands, they are much less likely to let anyone hunt their land in the future. When a person wishes to hunt on a certain person’s land, he/she is often denied the privilege, after the proprietor of the land has had one negative experience with some other hunter.

This can make hunting a much harder sport to participate in, even for the people who are hunting for their livelihood. Over the years, hunting has reduced the animal population drastically. In the 1970s, the number of ducks making annual flights was approximately 91.5 million. In 1995, the number had been reduced to around 64 million. Within 20 years, in short, the duck population was reduced by almost one-third, showing the drastic toll hunting is taking on our wildlife. If we assume that other species have been reduced in number at approximately the same rate in recent years, then what are the larger implications for our ecological balance? If this trend continues, by the year 2055, the members of species, which are hunted, could be reduced by as much as 81 per cent. Not only does hunting reduce the number of animals, it can also be necessarily cruel to the creatures. When deer are bow-hunted, they often are not instantly killed. Most deer will then suffer a painful and lingering death, as only 50 per cent of deer struck are retrieved and put out of their misery. This is unnecessary cruelty; only an end to slob hunting would bring this to a halt. People of wealth and rank in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome enjoyed hunting for sport. The Greek historian Xenophon argued that hunting is an asset to society, in that the recreation promotes the health and well-being of the hunter. The first laws to conserve game were not instituted until the 13th century, however, when Kublai Khan forbade his subjects to hunt during breeding season. During the Middle Ages the feudal lords of Europe imposed extensive restrictions on hunting with draconian laws against poaching, effectively limiting the taking of game to the ruling classes. Stag hunting with hounds and horses and the pursuit of game birds with trained falcons were popular pastimes of the nobility. Unregulated hunting with shotguns and rifles increased during the 19th century and began to threaten the existence of some creatures. Prime examples of this occurred in the United States when egrets were slaughtered for their plumes (used in millinery) and buffalo herds that once numbered in the millions were virtually wiped out by hunter intent on profit and enjoyment; by 1895 only 400 buffalo remained in the country. Hunters took their toll of other wildlife as well. Pronghorn, deer, and mountain sheep were decimated to feed the growing population in the American West. In the eastern United States, waterfowl population plummeted as hunters using cannon-like shotguns wiped out entire flocks in one shot.

In the modern era, with advanced technologies, we have found ways of killing large numbers of animals painlessly. Although some people continue to hunt, it is needless because it can lessen the area available for hunting in, cause many animals to have their population decreased, and be pointlessly cruel to animals. These three evils humanity can live without, which makes slob hunting an ecologically unsound throwback to a less enlightened age.