Trophy hunting is a wildly controversial topic, especially in today’s social media driven world. Every time a new picture of a hunter and a dead lion or other animal is posted online the media goes crazy. Africa is known for it’s beautiful landscapes, and more importantly the exotic highly sought after animals that roam the land. Africa’s most prominent animals are known as the “big five” it consists of the most challenging and rewarding animals to hunt. The big five consists of: lions, elephants, white rhinoceros, leopards, and finally the buffalo. The big five are majestic and extremely dangerous creatures, therefore they are highly sought after by mainly wealthy white males from all over the world as trophy hunts. Locals to Africa see the animals as threats to their way of life, America see’s them as exotic creatures that need to be protected, and trophy hunters see them as a challenge and another check on the list. The two perspectives I am going to look at about this controversial topic is from a social construction perspective and a political economy perspective.
Trophy hunting has sparked an outrage in today’s society however, there is a long storied history from which glorifies the art of big game hunting. “In King Solomon’s Mines, novelist H. Rider Haggard captured the imagination of Victorian England with the tale of a fearless hunter who ventured to Africa.” (G. Gustin, 2015). Haggard’s novel popularized the “white hunter” a “colonial minded Englishmen who
It may be safe to assume that some Americans view hunting as being barbaric. This may be due to the fact that our society is not one that relies on this method for survival anymore. Most Americans acquire their food through a local grocery store which gets their food from farmers who grow vegetables and raise domesticated livestock. In the recent decades, hunting has been portrayed more as a “sport” than as a means for survival. It would appear that the meaning behind hunting has been lost and with it people’s idea that it is meant to be helpful.
"Outcry for Cecil the Lion Could Undercut Conservation Efforts." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2016. It begins to explain the perspective of Mr. Dorrington. A nonfiction piece of emotion, so not actually true. It portrays a feeling of what he felt as many others when Cecil was killed. After it begins to explain what would have happened if someone were to want to buy game off of National organizations. In Africa’s case; “There’s only two places on the earth where wildlife at a large scale has actually increased in the 20th century, and those are North America and southern Africa,” [said Rosie Cooney, a zoologist who is the chairwoman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group. “Both of those models of conservation were built around hunting.”] So it’s acceptable as a “sport” but when you think about organizations taking almost extinct animals and using that district as something for fun you decrease the animal species, whereas when you look where there are animal perseverations the large scale has actually increases.
Hunting has become a staple of American traditions since the beginning of the first hunter/gatherers, to the Native Americans who have lived in the U.S for millennia, even all the way until present day. Much of today’s society looks at hunting as a cruel activity when in reality it has more of a positive effect on the environment than it does harm. There are an abundance of benefits that come from hunting. Some of the benefits of hunting are: it is the biggest contribution to conserving wildlife, the meat is healthier than commercially produced meat, many jobs are being supported out of hunting, and every hunter wants “to bag” the trophy animal; however, there are a few cons to this, which include poaching and interference by the activist
Hunting has been ingrained in American history from the Native American tribes and from when the first settlers arrived to the New World. While hunting is not needed for survival in today’s society every year thousands of hunters take to the woods in pursuit of their quarry. While many people think these hunters are all the same there are two main sects that make up the hunting community; gun hunters and bowhunters. While both methods of hunting are similar and share many common points, there are some key differences between the two as well. While bowhunting is more challenging and the less popular of the two methods, and being less popular is often seen as a bad thing, bowhunting’s lack of popularity and increased challenge is what makes it the true pure form of hunting.
Hunting is a common controversial issue among people. Determining when killing an animal is necessary and ethical has mixed viewpoints. One type of hunting that generally creates feelings of animosity among people is trophy hunting. There are very few ethical theories and ideas that support trophy hunting. Trophy hunting is a form of hunting in which the hunter kills an animal with the main goal of taking a part or parts of that animal for a trophy. The majority of trophy hunting occurs in Africa, with big game as the most popular trophies, but trophy hunting also applies to non-exotic species as well. In this paper, I will start with introducing a recent incident involving the killing of a popular African lion, then outlining the main ethical issues with trophy hunting. Next I will analyze the trophy hunting from an anthropocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric viewpoint, and finally I will propose a few solutions that would make trophy hunting a more ethical activity. Trophy hunting has been said to provide many benefits to conservation and preservation of species but is ethically lacking; with some stronger laws and regulations trophy hunting has the potential to be both ethically acceptable and beneficial to the environment.
From gophers to the mighty Cape buffalo, people across the world love hunting animals. It has been a favorite past time for countless years and a survival need as old as the dinosaurs themselves. One local millionaire however, took the sport severely too far.
Natural law is a connection between the law and human mortality. Trophy hunting is an issue that has both sides of that trophy hunting is good, or trophy hunting is inhumane. The private pregnancy clinic also has two sides which are that pushing morals on a person to stop them from having an abortion is good, yet on the other hand, some people say that the lady has the right to choose on her own decision. The opinion that I will be arguing on both issues is that trophy hunting is not a humane thing to do, and abortion should not be something a person should be judged about.
Big game hunting is cause A major population damage . One of them is one of the most beloved animals in the world the Elephant. Every year, tens of thousands of elephants are being killed for trophies . Their population in Africa dropped from 62,000 all the way down to 20,000 in the last decade. WWF Global said they are due to be extinct in the next decade if nothing is done to stop the big game hunter. It’s not just Africa, where animals are being killed for trophies. ‘In Canada there is a breed of leopards called Amurs that were driven down to 10 left in the whole world ‘’ What caused this big game hunters from all over came to hunt an
Trophy hunting is defined as the selective hunting of select species of hunting game for human recreation and not as a way to get food, even though parts of the animals may be consumed. The animal or part of it is kept as a trophy or proof of achievement. Trophy hunters have a code called the fair chase code, this code ensures that the hunter will give the animal they are hunting a fair chase and allow it to escape if the hunter does not have the skill required to kill the animal. By adopting this code the hunter also agrees to allowing the animal to use its senses in order to give the animal a fair chance at survival. The hunter also promises not to use illegal methods to hunt such as banned traps
Trophy hunting is defined as the selective hunting of select species of hunting game for human recreation and not as a way to get food, even though parts of the animals may be consumed. The animal or part of it is kept as a trophy or proof of achievement. Trophy hunters have a code called the fair chase code, this code ensures that the hunter will give the animal they are hunting a fair chase and allow it to escape if the hunter does not have the skill required to kill the animal. By adopting this code the hunter also agrees to allow the animal to use its senses in order to give the animal a fair chance at survival. The hunter also promises not to use illegal methods to hunt such as banned traps that
A century ago, the lion population of Africa thrived as these animals were able to roam freely across the continent. However, owing to a multitude of factors such as poaching, trophy killings, loss of habitat area and conflicts with humans- the population of the African lion today is just 10% of what it once was. The need to address this rapid decline in lion populations is vital in ensuring that these animals are present for future generations to enjoy, whilst not impeding the access for the current generation. Lions, being a non-market public good without well-defined property rights results in society’s inability in managing this resource effectively (Shogren and Taylor, 2008); to overcome this, a market must be established which
Big-game hunting is ethical if executed properly. With the recent death of Cecil the lion, renowned and “beloved” tenant of a local animal reserve in Zimbabwe, a massive uproar of “anti-hunting” protests have risen to the surface. While these oppositions are with good intentions they also squash the opinions and experiences of native Zimbabweans who view creatures like Cecil as objects of terror. While it is true that trophy hunting is indeed unethical, as it is harmful to the ecosystem, the native people of areas where hunters can pay to slay large game think otherwise. As the individuals most greatly impacted by changes in the ecosystem, their voices deserve to be heard over those of sympathetic Americans. In the article “In Zimbabwe, We
Recently, the poaching controversy has gained more attention in the news and media due to the killing of Cecil the Lion back in 2015. But what exactly is poaching and why is it illegal? Poaching can be defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals. Animals are captured and killed for their parts and products that are eventually sold on the black market and to cartels to make medicines, trinkets, and other products. Animals are typically poached for personal gain and value.The the illegal poaching trade in Africa alone has accumulated a worth of $17 billion dollars a year and it keeps growing. Ivory, fur, skin, and bones especially are in high demand and places/people are willing to pay high numbers for these products, so it is no surprise that people continue to hunt them. Due to poaching, the tiger is one of the most endangered species in the world . Tiger parts, such as fur, skin, and bones, are seen as a luxury and are used as commerce on the black market and secretly throughout Asia. Although China has participated in the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, the laws are commonly ignored and it remains the primary destination for tiger parts. Elephants are also on the brink of extinction and the number hunted per year keeps increasing. Despite international ivory trade being banned in the 1990s, it is still sold on the black market and sought after in Asia; once again, China being the biggest demander. According to Kideghesho in Sage Journals , “widespread poaching coupled with inefficient law enforcement in Tanzania was manifested in the dramatic decline of the elephant population to less than 30% of what it was in 1979, a drop from 316,000 to 85,000 by 1987.” Rhinos are also greatly sought after in Africa. In
When a Minnesota dentist killed a prized African lion named "Cecil" he received an onslaught of criticism and reignited the debate concerning hunting. I hunt. I have hunted for years and I don't see anything wrong with it. The reasons I hunt are for the meat, I think it tastes better than store-bought meat and it doesn't have any additives in it, and for the time I get to spend out in the mountains. However, there are some people who are against hunting.
Animal poaching has a bigger price tag than the trophy sitting on the shelf. Poaching is causing iconic animals of many continents and of our oceans to become endangered or even extinct. These animals that people have come to love and fantasize over may be gone before we are (Africa). Elephants, rhinos, lions, and zebras are the animals thought of the most when it comes to animal poaching, but many animals are poached. They are killed for only one quality, like their horns or skins and the rest of the animal is left behind. Poaching is a massive business that is ran by international networks, it’s estimated to make hundreds of millions of dollars (World). Not all wildlife trade is illegal, but it becomes a crisis when an increasing amount of illegal poaching is done and it directly threatens the survival of species in the wild (World). Since 1960 97.6% of the Black Rhino population in Africa has been poached and lions are extinct in seven African countries (Africa).