What's Wrong with Trophy Hunting? | Born Free USA (2024)

FAQs

What's Wrong with Trophy Hunting? | Born Free USA? ›

Trophy Hunting May Lead to Other Cruel Practices.

The Pro Hunting Argument

Most trophy hunters will argue that hunting the likes of elephants, lions, and rhinos helps the wheel of conservation. The major argument is that the money made from hunting goes right back in to conservation efforts by allowing the large amounts of land to remain free of human development.

The solution is to let the hunting occur on private land that is also run by a private company. If the land is run privately, there is a greater and, more importantly, a direct incentive to protect the animals. An example of where governments fail in their approach to trophy hunting is lions.

Another problem with hunting involves the introduction of exotic “game” animals who, if they're able to escape and thrive, pose a threat to native wildlife and established ecosystems. Most hunting occurs on private land, where laws that protect wildlife are often inapplicable or difficult to enforce.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) regulates trophy hunting, in part, by issuing permits to import trophies of species that are listed as threatened or endangered under ESA. creating an independent third-party certification system to evaluate trophy hunting operations.

Trophy hunting is not only unethical treatment and killing of animals; it can also harm conservation efforts by exacerbating direct and indirect threats facing many imperiled species.

Studies have determined that only 3 percent of funds from trophy hunting reaches the rural communities where the hunting occurs. Middlemen, and large companies and organizations, take the majority share of sport hunting proceeds. In reality, the last thing on the minds of trophy hunters is conservation.

Photographic safaris can be a positive alternative to trophy hunting. Shooting an animal with a camera, rather than a gun will not only save that animal's life, but enable it to continue to generate funds through photographic tourism for years to come.

A much more likely benefit of trophy hunting in places like Africa is that it serves as the impetus for private landowners to maintain large swaths of land in a semi-natural or natural state, thereby providing habitat for potentially thousands of species of insects, plants, small mammals, birds, and reptiles.

This report reveals that American hunters are the world's leading consumers of hunting trophies of internationally regulated mammal species, having imported 75% of the global total between 2014 and 2018.

Do trophy hunters eat the meat? ›

Despite the notion that trophy hunting consists of shooting an animal and cutting its head off to mount on a wall. Regardless of what type of hunting you claim you are doing, no edible meat can legally be wasted. Both forms of hunting have the same outcome: the animal ends up being eaten.

The high cost of regulating hunting means that it is unlikely that there is a net funding contribution from trophy hunters to wildlife conservation. In short, rather than being the source of conservation funding, trophy hunters appear to the beneficiaries of wildlife conservation that is funded by others.

Poaching vs. trophy hunting. Poaching and trophy hunting are very different wildlife practices that often become confused as the same thing. While poaching is illegal harvesting that is severely damaging to wildlife populations, trophy hunting is sanctioned under a required official permit provided by the government.

Pangolins are one of the most hunted and valued animals on the market because of their believed powers. Pangolins are increasingly considered a delicacy in China and Vietnam.

Trophy hunting is the hunting of wild animals for sport, not for food. Usually, the animal is stuffed or a body part is kept for display. Most trophy hunters come from rich countries and pay high fees for their hunts. Many hunters claim that trophy hunting isn't bad for animals.

Poaching is the illegal trafficking and killing of wildlife. Sometimes animal or plant parts are sold as trophies or “folk medicines” and sometimes they are sold as pets or houseplants. With more tigers kept captive than living wild, the scope of poaching can not be overstated.

Trophy hunting has long been used to control predator populations (e.g. cougars and wolves in the US). In most species, sport hunting can only threaten the future of a population when loss of males is so high that females can no longer find mates.

Is trophy hunting acceptable when well managed because it can generate significant economic incentives for the conservation of species and their habitats outside of protected areas and the local population? Yes. Those well managed habitats benefit every animal that lives there, not just the targeted trophy.

Hunters argue that killing the deer is better than letting them starve to death. Hunters argue that hunting is a tradition, a ritual or a bonding experience. Regarding ethics, hunting proponents argue that killing a deer for food cannot be worse than killing a cow or a chicken.