Altman 1

Nicholas Altman
ENG 101
Professor Bolton
17 November 2014
Acrimonious Debate on Hunting
Throughout history, hunting has become traditional to us humans for we have been hunting for thousands of years
as a way to survive by: putting food into our bodies, a traditional trade that is helpful in a time of need, and these antihunters are making a big stir to end all hunting due to their own opinions. Over the past decade, hunting deer with dogs
has become almost impossible with it being banned around the nation due to the fact that anti-hunter believe: dog hunting
is a nuisance, dogs are trespassing on their land, dogs are doing damage to private property, hunting is wrong, it is
inhuman, hunters are slaughtering the deer population, it is murder, hunters do not respect deer, that it is not fair chase,
and that hunters are depriving people who live around hunting areas of their happiness. Theses anti-hunters have many
opinions that they strongly believe in, but they dont look at the actual role of importance that hunting partakes when it
comes down to the ecosystem, along with population control of the deer. The impacts of overpopulated deer on plants
cascade through whole ecosystems: They've been shown to cause declines in the abundance and diversity of all kinds of
forest creatures, from insects to mice to canopy-nesting birds. Perhaps the most dramatic illustrations of the power of deer
to overwhelm an ecosystem come from Quebec's Anticosti Island, a landscape that had been empty of deer until 1896,
when about 220 of them were brought there. The island's deer population boomed in the late 1920s, probably reaching
more than 150,000. Aerial surveys since the late 1960s have produced population estimates ranging from 60,000 to
120,000 deer on the island's 7,943 square kilometers [3,067 square miles] (par 12). Recent studies like these shed new
light on why deer hunting is important, which previous studies had not addressed, but who really cares? All people should
care who live near deer populated areas, thats who, because ultimately the lives of other animals and plants need hunters
to maintain deer population so that they can exist, and not go extinct. Ultimately we need to look at how much
significance hunting has to offer such as: passing on a tradition, keeping the deer population control in check, reduces the
percentile of chance that a deer is going to collide into your vehicle, reduces human/deer conflict, Lyme disease,
landscaping damage, helpful to the ecosystem, and this is many of the reasons why deer hunting should not be stopped
due to the opposing opinions that the anti-hunters have towards dog hunters.

Altman 2
These statements challenge anti-hunters common assumption about population control. Wildlife populations are
self-regulating based on shelter, food supply, and disease. When we talk about overpopulation, we have to look at two
types: biological and social. Season to remember: 1972. Although the 18,894-deer harvest is miniscule by todays
standards, the 1972bseason began a series of almost-always increasing deer harvest, which eventually broke 300,000 mark
in 1999 (pg 172). Most overpopulation that we hear about is socially perceived by some individuals complaining that
there are too many of this or that. That's social perception. There are always intelligent, humane, and non-lethal methods
of dissuading animals from where they are not wanted. Please keep in mind that management for game species keeps
numbers artificially high These anti-hunters are wrong about the whole population control theory that they have going
for them. We need hunters to maintain these deer because there numbers over populate very quickly and they will spread
over a vast area in no time. Which will lead to many negative affects not only on the ecosystem, but they will also start to
effect people (par 15).
On the coast, a small reserve, Crane's Beach, had been set aside years ago. Hunting was forbidden and the deer multiplie
d to the point where both the reserve and the deer were headed in a dramatic downward cycle. To make matters worse, Ly
me disease became endemic in the deer, and the tick-borne disease swept through the several hundred families with homes
adjacent to the reserve. It is estimated that over one-third of all the families abutting the reserve now have at least one fa
mily member afflicted by the disease. This right here is a great example of why we need deer hunters today (pg119).
The trustees of Crane's Beach faced the wrath of the animal rights activists when they proposed bringing the deer herd do
wn to sustainable numbers. As a compromise, all parties agreed to allow sharpshooters in to do the dirty work. It did not w
ork well, because after the first shots rang out the deer refused to cooperate, becoming the elusive creatures hunters so ad
mire. The next year the area was opened to a controlled hunt that proceeded without a hitch and resulted in many more de
er being taken. Williams concluded from this and similar experiences across the country that: "The people who have been
hunting deer in this state are the best qualified to hunt deer (pg119).
Considering the fascination with guns in our culture, it should not be hard to find people willing to sally forth and shoot d
eer more or less as target practice. In fact, volunteers are few. Part of the reason is that after a century or more of idealizin
g the white-tailed deer, everyone has a hard time thinking of the animals as pests or vermin. Hunters are quick to ridicule t
he idealizations of the antihunters, whom they disparage as "Bambi lovers." But hunters, as we have seen, also idealize the
deer. The white-tail is one of the most challenging of all game animals. Its grace, speed, and wariness combine to make h
unters admire the animal. Killing a deer is an accomplishment of which they are proud. Only a handful of hunters, compar
atively, are successful more than a few times in their lives. Over populated areas of deer will lead to less food in the
wilderness for other animals to eat, which will cause many animals to die out, and will lead to the start of deer doing huge
damage to landscaping, such as a farmers crops. When the deer then start to hurt farmers crops heavily we will need
hunters to take the matters up into their own hands and manage the deer population by decreasing the numbers of the deer,
or we will suffer from less crops harvested at the end of a season by the farmer due to the deer eat up the farmers crops.
This means that hunters will need ways to hunt deer besides shooting them out of a tree stand, so that where dog hunting
will come into play (pg119).

Altman 3
Dog hunting has been a type of deer hunting for a long time which is often referred to as fair chase. Even when a
particular hunting practice is legal, many hunters may view it as unethical or inconsistent with the idea of fair chase. Fair
chase is a term first used by the Boone and Crockett Club in the early 1890s. They defined it as the ethical,
sportsmanlike, and lawful pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild, native North American big game animal in a
manner that does not give the hunter an improper advantage over such animals. Which I agree with all of that because
hunting by fair chase is a very ethical, sportsman way to kill a deer by giving it a fair chance. This is not cruel like antihunters like to make it out to be due to fair chase. The term fair chase simply means that the deer has an equal chance of
getting away just as it does of getting killed. This is very true due to the fact that the hunter could completely miss the
deer when he or she goes to shoot the deer. Though many anti-hunters have found this practice to be unsportsmanlike, is
not much of a fair chase, and animal rights activists call it inhumane. Fair chase would allow the deer that fair chance of
survival that anti-hunter call unfair and inhuman. Then anti-hunters also like to throw out the opinion that hunter are just
hungry for the taste of blood when that isnt true either. Most hunters dont go for the taste of blood at all as much as antihunters would like to believe, because many hunters actually just go for the fellowship, or to hear the music of the dogs
barks as they run the deer through the woods. Anti-hunters also think that not only deer hunting should be banned deer
hunting but also want to banned wildlife management along with it. Which most anti-hunters dont know is that wildlife
management keeps tract of the population of deer and how many deer can be taken in certain areas by hunters Antihunters also say that deer hunters dont even eat the meat of the deer. Deer are not managed for the few people who
claim to be subsistence hunters: they are managed for sport hunters. Simply because someone claims to eat what s/he kills
does not qualify him or her as a subsistence hunter. That is another prime example of anti-hunter just throwing their own
opinion around with no facts to actually back up what they are saying, because I know lots of people down here in the
south eat and cook deer meat in all sorts of ways without letting it go to waste, and the meat rot away.
Many anti-hunters believe that dog hunting isnt and cannot be traditional and is not a good tradition which I
believe they are wrong. My opponent has pointed out that not all traditions are good, and I will give that to them if they
can put forth a bad tradition. What they have so far called "tradition" is in fact not tradition, and never was. The slave,
beating of children, and taking women as spoils of war were ideas that lasted in very specific time periods. It was never a
tradition to have slaves, people didn't get slave because their parents or grandparents had them, they got them because it
made sense at the time. If you had more slaves, then you could farm more land, and ultimately make more money. People
also didn't beat kids because they had been beaten, they beat their children as a disciplinary action. I'd also like to point

Altman 4
out that beating still happens, just not as often and to the same degrees. Finally, people took women as spoils of war
because the women were things they wanted. And this too still happens, just not necessarily among humans. It happens
with other animals. During the rut, bucks fight to see who can win, and ultimately mate with, the most doe's. In a pack of
wolves, only the Alfa male, who has been proven the strongest, can mate with females. Finally, you generally get one bull
in a herd of cows. Finally, in this paragraph my opponent first introduces the idea of hunting being genocide. Now, if
you'll look back at the definitions that I posted, you will see that hunting cannot possibly be genocide for two reasons.
Reason one: hunting is not a deliberate or systematic destruction of anything; nothing is destroyed let alone destroyed
systematically and deliberately. Reason two: animals don't fall into any racial, political, or cultural group, therefore, there
can't ever be a real genocide of animals (par 17). This clearly show that dog hunting is tradition just as much as the rest
of this stuff is a tradition, and how important it hunting is.

This stuff all being listed should have showed you the importance of deer hunting and why it is an important
tradition that must be carried on. We also got to see the significance that hunting has to offer such as: passing on a
tradition, keeping the deer population control in check, reduces the percentile of chance that a deer is going to collide into
your vehicle, reduces human/deer conflict, Lyme disease, landscaping damage, helpful to the ecosystem, and this is many
of the reasons why deer hunting should not be stopped due to the opposing opinions that the anti-hunters have towards
dog hunters. Now you anti-hunters need to rethink about being against deer hunting when it is only your belief and not
fact.

Altman 5
Work Cited

Levy, Sharon. "Hunting Plays a Crucial Role in Maintaining Natural Habitats and the Environment." Hunting.
Ed. Dawn Laney. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "A Plague of Deer."
Bioscience 56.9 (Sept. 2006): 718-721. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 16 Nov. 2014
Chau, Yong. "Hunting Is Destructive to the Environment, Ecology, and Biology." Hunting. Ed. Dawn Laney.
Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Interview with Anne Muller, President of
the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting." www.tqnyc.org. 2006. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 16
Nov. 2014.
Deer Hunters Almanac, 2006. F+W Publications.

http://www.debate.org/debates/Hunting-should-NOT-be-illegal./1/

Going Wild : Hunting, Animal Rights, and the Contested Meaning of Nature. By: Dizard, Jan E. Edition:
Rev. and expanded ed. Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press. 1999. eBook.