I personally enjoy hunting. I get a license and go out in the woods every year. It's an application of practical skills in navigating, tracking, understanding animal behaviors, and marksmanship. I consider it a more technical sport with the bonus that you eat what you kill- within reason. Hell, I even think keeping trophies is fine, if that isn't the only thing you're shooting for. Venison tastes better than cold cuts, and a hundred pound deer nets me forty pounds of good meat.
Most of the money spent on hunting ends up going back into the conservation of nature and the funding of parks and rec and various departments of natural resources, so I'm fine with that. They're largely the least corrupt of any government departments. There's more hunters that go into the woods with a backpack, a rifle and their wits than there are TV show hosts with whizbang gizmos and whatever analytics they have.
Poaching is practically a non-existent problem (at least in America) considering the red tape and hoops you jump through to hunt on public land (the feds and state governments usually don't care about whatever you kill on your private land). Even the stuff you're allowed to kill as much of as you can is that way for a
very good reason. In my state, there's no limit on coyote, hog, beaver, groundhog, or armadillos. Largely because they're considered pests and the first two are invasive species. The DNR
wants as many of them dead as they can get, since they breed like nothing else and destroy native wildlife and farmland.
You know what we need to do to make hunting humane: Ban guns, use your bare hands. Make it even. They fight with you without a weapon, so you shouldn't either. And if you do consider horns and claws weapons, then use a bowie knife. if the animal is large, bring a pal along. I call it, fair hunting!
And I'm not so sure about you, but I'm not going mano-a-mano with
Hogzilla, I'm keeping my distance from ole
Bullwinkle, and I will certainly not invite
Yogi to my picnic. I'll keep my rifle handy, thank you very much. Wild animals are dangerous and as much as I respect them for their natural beauty and strength, I also enjoy having my insides not be my outsides, and an eventual open-casket funeral for my family.
