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Luke DunbarProfessor Judy HampelArgument paperEnglish 1001 – 03110/24/2017Hunting is essential to wildlife conservationHunting is an extremely controversial topic. It’s something that has always been a big part of my life and is a topic of argument I often find myself defending. Hunting is absolutely necessary to conserving wildlife because, hunters can cull the population while keeping certain animal’s populations maintained at a healthy balance between species, hunters fund more than eighty percent of the United States’ wildlife conservation cost, and hunting regulates the animal’s population to a number compatible with human activity.Statistics have shown jaw dropping numbers that animals populations are increasing. Even though hunters are harvesting between 180,000 and 220,000 deer every year, the state of Ohio has estimated over 750,000 whitetail deer within the state. These numbers are manipulated by the regulations placed on deer hunting by game wardens and wildlife officers. Wildlife biologist study deer numbers and estimate the population by collecting data from the field. Calculating the number of deer killed every year, the average amount of deer being born every year, disease caused deaths and car accident reports involving deer. Hypothetically speaking, if all hunters stopped participating in the sport and stopped harvesting animals. Populations would skyrocket and spiral out of control, causing overpopulation. Whitetail deer for example would be estimated to grow from a healthy herd of 750,000 deer in Ohio, to an unbelievable number of over 3,000,000. There are 18.3 deer per square mile radius as of now with 750,000 deer in the state. If hunters stopped hunting and the deer population rose to the estimated 3,000,000 deer, there would be over 73 deer per square mile. This enormous overpopulation would occur in only three years if no one hunted whitetail deer in Ohio. (Laub) Predators such as [Coyotes] would also become overpopulated. “They're already in towns and suburbs all over America. They don't just prey on wild animals. They also kill thousands upon thousands of lost and stray pets across the nation. These also attack people.” (Can Hunting Be Conservation) when the animals become overpopulated, government would have to pay for skilled people to kill certain kinds of animals especially deer and predators to make sure the population doesn’t interfere with people’s safety.Many people have opinions that hunting isn’t necessary to control wildlife populations from becoming overpopulated. ““Hunters manipulate a few game, [target] species into overpopulation at the expense of a much larger number of non-game species, resulting in the loss of biological diversity, genetic integrity and ecological balance.” (Does Hunting Help or Hurt The Environment.) Regulations are put in place based on scientific statistics, to make sure hunters harvest a certain number of each species of animal, and to create a diverse and healthy number of every species in our environment. Hunting regulations are put into place To conserve wildlife for future generations to enjoy, wildlife management laws were passed. These laws allow game to flourish by: Establishing hunting seasons that limit harvesting and avoid nesting and mating seasons. ... Creating enough funding for wildlife programs by collecting license fees. Others might continue this argument and state the only reason animals need to be hunted today is because humans/hunters created an unbalanced ecosystem in the first place. Archaeologists have unearthed what could be the earliest evidence of ancient human ancestors hunting and scavenging meat. Animal bones and thousands of stone tools used by ancient hominins suggest that early human ancestors were butchering and scavenging animals at least 2 million years ago. (Does Hunting Help or Hurt The Environment ) People began hunting in the early age for survival, so they could feed themselves and their families. Then hunting graduated to the fur trade and selling parts of the animal for the persons individual benefit. Which made many animal species endangered, this is why department of natural resource offices were created and why regulations have now since been set to manage the population and keep the herd culled to a healthy quantity of each species. The regulations that are put in place are scientifically studied so that each regulation jives with the other perfectly, creating a healthy and managed population of animals and efficient ecosystem. Overpopulation is the biggest reason hunting is necessary to wildlife conservation. Many negative effects branch off of overpopulation such as increase in diseases. Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) is an infectious disease that is characterized by extensive hemorrhages, then following is a fever, state of shock and soon after, death. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is another disease that deer can carry. Gideon of Ithaca university states, ”Host culling whitetail deer is the best and most effective way of managing chronic waste disease and EHD (Gideon.) “Emerging wildlife diseases pose a significant threat to natural and human systems. Because of real or perceived risks of delayed actions, disease management strategies such as culling are often implemented before thorough scientific knowledge of disease dynamics is available. Adaptive management is a valuable approach in addressing the uncertainty and complexity associated with wildlife disease problems and can be facilitated by using a formal model.” (Rolley) These diseases are already being carried by deer, if deer become overpopulated, this disease will spread even quicker, and cause deer to suffer and begin to spread disease uncontrollably. Untamed science states that if everyone one stopped hunting that there would be over population, animals would suffer, but eventually over many years the animals would equal out. Bringing many more animal passed diseases and animals would eat more of farmer’s crops. Overpopulation can also lead to destruction of foliage and habitats, as food sources begin to diminish as the population increases. Deer and other animals then will begin to starve and start to ravish agricultural fields and farmer’s crops, causing a serious hit to agricultural economy. Hunting is a worldwide sport/hobby, including in the country of Kenya. Kenya has many more dangerous and much bigger trophy animals, which is one reason why they deal with so much poaching. Poaching is the unlawful harvest of an animal, to benefit from the trophy of the animal or selling the animal for personal benefit. Teresa M. Telecky is a reliable source because she has a PHD in wildlife conservation, and is the director of the wildlife department for humane society international. Kenya among other countries has banned Trophy hunting of Africa’s “big five”, African Elephant, African lion, Cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros’ (Telecky.) Telecky states, “hunting is biologically reckless and it causes harm to wildlife populations.” This is incorrect for the United States, in countries such as Kenya, their animals are poached for trade and to feed communities. Their countries do not have the same opportunities that the United states do, therefor their lifestyles do not coincide with the animal’s wellbeing. Wildlife conservation is essential to keeping animals healthy and the habitat for the animals strong. Yearly the United states budgets 1.3 billion dollars for wildlife conservation. ( ) This seems like a lot of money although, 1.3 billion only covers twenty percent of the cost. Hunters, fisherman, and trappers pay 80 percent of the conservation cost. They do this by buying licenses, deer and turkey tags, and paying excise taxes on hunting related items, such as ammunition, guns, bows, arrows, and other hunting gear. Hunting licenses and tags cost 20-25 dollars each. The United States has over 13.7 million hunters. (ODNR) This money is utilized by saving protected areas of land these animals live on, and by cleaning up land and habitat. James R. Hefferfinger states, “hunting only pays for the damage that hunters have caused in the first place.” This is horribly bias, as hunting is the only management tool we have to date that keeps the animals healthy and the ecosystem efficient. Sportsman clubs are a huge contributor to conservation. Groups such as pheasants forever, ducks unlimited, and buck commander are groups that hunters can have fellowship in, go on hunts together, and most importantly give back to the wildlife through conservation. Pheasants Forever, including its quail conservation division,?Quail Forever, is the nation's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have more than 149,000 members and 700 local chapters across the United States and Canada. Chapters are empowered to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds are spent; the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure. Since creation in 1982, Pheasants Forever has spent $634 million on 502,000 habitat projects benefiting 14.1 million acres nationwide. Daniel J. Decker states, these sportsman clubs have raised over 50 million dollars combined.” Sportsman clubs have an everlasting positive effect on funding wildlife conservation and without them, the government simply couldn’t keep up on conserving wildlife.Hunting is absolutely necessary to managing the population to a healthy animal to human balance as well. In today’s populations animals and humans already have enough negative contact due to being a small excess of population. Car collisions involving deer are very high. Culture of states, there were 6.1 million deer collisions in the united states and over 200 deaths in 2001. As well as 1.1 billion dollars in property damage” These numbers are unbelievable, they would quadruple if hunters didn’t hunt. Agriculture has an everlasting problem with the crops being eaten. Deer can eat up to 10 pounds of crops a day. These crops include corn, cotton, pecans, soybeans, and peanuts. It is estimated deer eat 6,800 pounds of crops a day, that’s 2.5 billion pounds of crops estimated eaten each year. Farmers lose over 4.5 billion dollars in crops annually (.) AFOA states, “So, at an average of around 38 deer/square mile in the subject county, there should be approximately 300 deer on the property. In a normal population, a well- managed free-range condition would equate to around 100 bucks and 200 does/fawns, with a 1:2 buck to doe ratio. These 300 deer would consume approximately 2,550 pounds (green weight) of vegetation/crops per day, or around 930,750 pounds vegetation/ crops per year, most of it native browse.” This puts in to perspective what just a normal amount of deer can accomplish on a small agricultural property. If no one hunted, everyone stopped hunting today, the deer would begin to overpopulate, and these numbers would quadruple over the next three years. This would drive farmers into an economic crisis. Causing crop’s prices to sky rocket and crops to become un practical for the average person to purchase. The increased crop price would also make it harder for restaurants to acquire them and make purchasing them too expensive for consumers. If the deer numbers quadrupled the car accidents involving deer would increase to unimaginable number. Causing car insurance rates to skyrocket, and deaths from deer collisions to increase to over 1,000 per year.Given these viewpoints and arguments, it is clear that hunting in this day in age is absolutely necessary to wildlife conservation. If hunters don’t participate in the sport, animals will become severely overpopulated. Causing animals to suffer by starving contracting diseases very quickly and the habitat of these animals to diminish to a point where it is inhabitable for these animals that rely on it. Without hunters and sportsman clubs such as pheasants forever, the government would not be able to pay even a fourth of what wildlife conservation demands monetarily. This would cause even more of the wildlife’s habitat to diminish. Hunters need to hunt to preserve a healthy human interaction with animals as well. Keeping farmers and our economy healthy, as well as the car collisions with deer down. None of this is attainable without hunters hunting animals and keeping the population culled. ................
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