Hunting is Hardly Sustainable

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There aren’t all that many deer around here, but you wouldn’t know it by the number of rigs full of hunters driving up and down the roads lately. Due to several factors—poaching, for one, along with a healthy population of natural predators, and the fact that thick evergreen forests don’t provide much to browse on—deer are far from common in these parts.

It seems hunters are the overpopulated ones. For every little deer there must be a dozen Elmers out for a drive-by drool. Often you see 3 of them packing the front seat of a pickup; but they’re there for the party atmosphere, not to conserve on fuel. The first weekend of hunting season is a lot like opening day at some popular fishing hole. But instead of boats full of fishermen tangling each other’s lines on a crowded lake, hunters troll back and forth on the roads, competing for that one “trophy” buck out there.

I often wonder if anyone has done a survey of just how much money is spent, and gallons of fuel burned, by the average hunter as compared to their success rate and the amount of food procured. According to their apologists, hunters in the U.S. spend $24.7 billion annually on their sport, including the cost of guns and ammo, travel, gas, food and drink, supplies, vehicles, leases, lodging, and guide services.

Meanwhile, the cost to society in dealing with the psychopathic behavior hunting encourages and enables is immeasurable.

I know one thing: it would be far more cost effective for them to get their protein from grains, like wheat or rice and legumes like beans or lentils. When it comes right down to it, hunting for subsistence can hardly be considered sustainable.

 

23 thoughts on “Hunting is Hardly Sustainable”

  2. The Environment vs.The uneducated.

    What a legacy!

    Poaching on Private Property is HUGE in SE PA.

    Try to question the rise of small Carnivores and increase of carcasses along Rt. 309. No answers. FWS.

    Bobcats are scarce.

    Dead deer, badgers, possums, racoons, etc on Rt. 309.

    Where are the Predators?

    I have found decapitated deer under the overpass at Cathill Road.

    Sickening.

    (Buffalo Bill?)

    I do not see Hawks, Owls and Eagles.

    Buzzards, yes.

    Bats, yes.

    I want this Area to remember Cat Hill Road.

    Dumping dead carcasses, beer cans, fishing lines stuck in tree branches seems to be a ritual.

    Do not let the Spin Doctors waste your time.

    I promise to continue the focus of my Life 🙂

    Just a final note.

    I am not the most popular human in this area.

    I speak my mind.

    Your Children and Grandchildren will inherit this Earth.

    Life.

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  4. I’ll bet they have a lot of “Deliverance” action going on in those packed front seats of the pickups. Cozy. They get all tingly in close quarters rubbing up against each other like that, especially when they’re about to stupidly kill or maim some innocent life or already have done. It so titillates their diseased little forebrains. In Hell they are quite docile when not screaming and weeping. Or so I hear.

    FYI, animal advocacy is not owned by liberals. Obama is an enemy of animals as much as any conservative. He also armed criminals in Mexico for nefarious reasons, adding to our bad situation. He’s no one to celebrate being in power. Quite the opposite.

    Here’s a view from one conservative Catholic vegan who states it well even if I’m nonreligious:

    On being Christian, Conservative and Vegan …

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  5. I doubt very much there’s financial incentive to do this type of study, based on how favorable most agencies are to hunting, but it should be done. I’ve seen estimates (depending on where one hunts and how) that relate to how expensive hunted meat actually becomes for some — $40/pound meat, as one example. Of course, that’s not applicable to someone who goes out their back door and hunts their own property, it’s referring to the very type of activity you describe.

    Add to the personal cost, the emissions, as you say, from vehicles and ATVs, and the residual lead from those who refuse to give up lead ammo. Then, you have to take into account the meat processing which comes with its own environmental issues of water usage and waste. Then, consider that most recreational hunters I meet also eat products of our industrial food system (burgers, fries, etc.) and there you have to count not just the contribution to climate change by eating beef, but also the fact that these people are eating both wild and domestic animals, contributing to the inherent abuse of both.

    There’s the additional consideration of areas where deer are managed for high hunting numbers, where deer-friendly areas are cleared of foliage that would better sequester carbon, just to keep deer populations high for recreational hunters. And, of course, there’s no way that increasing numbers of hunters could be sustainable given our wildlife and land resources. If you add to all of this the predator hunting done very often at the behest of farmers and ranchers who are making considerable contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and habitat destruction, the impact has to be pretty high.

    So, whenever hunters argue with me that a person eating a veggie lifestyle is having a bigger impact on the earth because of all those soy and corn fields, I have to remind them that not only are most of those fields being grown to feed the livestock they themselves eat, hunters are also often eating grains and other commercially produced crops, and then killing wildlife on top of it. None of this is scientific, but even a cursory look at the type of recreational hunting you describe would suggest it’s anything but sustainable. That’s not even arguing the ethics.

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