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Hunting Facts and Myths

MYTH: Hunting conflicts with animal welfare.

FACT: Hunting actually helps animal welfare because it keeps populations in check and balances the habitat. Wildlife is benefited by reduced disease outbreaks, less starvation, more food, larger territory, and less environmental stresses.

MYTH: Wildlife management is unscientific.

FACT: Although wildlife is aloof, there are a number of dependable tools used by biologists to monitor population trends including observation, tagging, aerial surveys, and harvest data. Wild species are now able to be monitored more accurately than ever before. They are harvested after rearing their young when juveniles are fully grown leading independent lives, but before winter mortality which decreases percentages of a more cruel natural death.

MYTH: Some wildlife is being hunted to extinction.

FACT: Due to huge successes of wildlife management and in spite of declining habitat, flora and fauna are increasingly abundant in the US. No endangered species are threatened here by hunting, and intelligent regulation has been indispensable for the healthy return of numerous species. Wildlife management has been responsible for the come back of many species, particularly wild turkey, whitetail deer, elk and black bear.

MYTH: Wildlife should be totally protected so there are more animals for everyone to enjoy.

FACT: If man does not manage the annual excesses of wildlife, natural controls will. The quality of available habitat controls the number of survivors during stressful conditions and rapid reproductive rates produce an annual surplus that can either be harvested and enjoyed or totally wasted.

MYTH: Hunting is a cruel method to control wildlife populations.

FACT: Hunting is far less cruel than any practical alternative method and gives the entire population a better opportunity for health and happiness. Many hunters are naturalists and environmentalists who understand that regulated hunting allows for the humane removal of surplus animals that would die anyway and be wasted.

MYTH: Natural controls of wildlife is kinder and preferable to harvests by man.

FACT: Natural controls of disease, starvation, predation, exposure and hypothermia are not kind, certainly not as kind and swift as hunting. Every plant and animal has needs for food, space, and environmental protection, therefore they compete aggressively with others of its kind to survive. Dense populations cause stress, malnutrition and weakened animals. Increased interaction also multiplies opportunities for disease transmission. Natural diseases have a devastating impact on wildlife, which are compounded exponentially by malnutrition or otherwise in a stressed species. Even healthy animals carry disease in resting or latent forms, which are triggered by stressful conditions. Without the stabilizing effect of wildlife management, populations fluctuate wildly from long periods of very low numbers to short periods of overpopulation. High densities at the top of the population curve are very brief while low densities are much longer often taking years before recovery.

MYTH: Harvesting has no effect upon natural diseases.

FACT: Properly managed species have sufficient territory and space, which greatly reduces the possibility of rapid disease transmission that comes from overcrowding. If population is too dense, natural territories are reduced in size and overlap. The resulting close and frequent contact yields opportunities for disease to spread rapidly in a chain reaction.

MYTH: Diseases among wildlife are really not a problem.

FACT: Many livestock and pet diseases such as distemper, mange, and heartworm are incubated and spread by wildlife. Tularemia, giardiasis, rabies and many tapeworms are also a threat to humans. Scientists believe more red foxes die of sarcoptic mange than are killed with the combination of guns, traps, and vehicle traffic together. These diseases and many others are a huge problem.

MYTH: Farm animals demonstrate that wildlife could also live in greater population densities.

FACT: Farm animals in constant contact with others of their own kind must constantly be monitored, fed, vaccinated and medicated to prevent and control disease outbreaks.

MYTH: Modern farming and ranching practice prevent damage by predators and grazers.

FACT: Many millions of dollars worth of private property is lost each year to wildlife with crop loss and the killing of livestock. Many millions more in damages are caused annually by beavers flooding timber and roads, muskrats destroying dikes, etc. Even with harvests, in the western states alone predation costs $100 million each year. Predatory species are far less apt to prey upon livestock, farm fowl and pets when their populations are in control.

MYTH: Wildlife are managed for the purpose of exploit and profit.

FACT: The main goal of wildlife management is to encourage a proper balance of all species.

MYTH: State governments encourage hunting because they profit from sales of permits and licenses.

FACT: Each state is held responsible for the proper management of wildlife because these species interact significantly with other wildlife, livestock and man.

MYTH: Federal and state governments pay the costs of game and sportfish management.

FACT: Through license sales, fees, and excise taxes paid on hunting equipment, American sportsmen pay for wildlife management - even for species that are neither hunted nor fished. Since 1937, more than $7 billion has been invested in wildlife management by American sportsmen. In 1937 Congress passed the Wildlife Restoration Act, also know as the Pittman-Robertson Act, which imposed a 10% manufacturers tax on ammunition and firearms. The Sport Fish Restoration Act, also know as the Dingell-Johnson Act, was passed in 1950 and placed a 10% manufacturers tax on fishing tackle. With the Wallop-Breaux Amendment passage in 1984, this tax was expanded to include even more boating and angling gear. These funds generate over $450 million annually on top of the sale of hunting and fishing licenses. Tax proceeds are distributed to fish and wildlife agencies for research, habitat protection, recreation and species recovery, which benefits everyone including sportsmen, non-sportsmen and anti-hunters alike.

MYTH: Hunting is outdated, antiquated, and irresponsible.

FACT: Maintaining animal populations in harmony and balance is a responsibility and service to the wild species. Unlike mineral or petroleum resources, wildlife is annually renewable and needs to be properly administered.

About the Author

Dr. Curtis has practiced in Rock Hill, SC for 17 years. An avid hunter and gun rights supporter he recently purchased the longest standing American tree stand manufacturer, Deer Hunter Stands.