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I do not at all approve of hunting wolves, bears, elephants, lions, cougars, or other predators...mainly for two reasons.
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I sincerely disagree with that statement for a few reasons. I think hunting predators has to take place to keep the balance or the tags out there for deer, elk, and moose will severely decrease as the numbers decrease. This will bring a lack of revenue to the States and will increase the cost of tags, thus making hunting a rich mans game even more. This will give more reason to seek hunting on game ranches and more incidents of canned hunting and thus giving more ammunition to the anti-hunting crowd.
What happens when there isn't enough game for the amount of predators? By hunting only the traditional game animals and not the predators we are upseting the natural balance even more. If we allow hunting of small game, pronghorn, deer, elk, and moose we have to approve and allow hunting of predators.
Livestock owners have the right to protect their herds. Predators are opportunistic and will take out the easier prey; domesticated animals will always be easier to kill for them than wild game. Hunting of predators gives the Ranchers and Farmers a tool to protect their investments.
As far as hunting elephants, lions and other dangerous game in Africa it has saved some animals from extinction in various regions. Making the animal a profitable one for the villages instead of a nuisance has stopped poaching in a lot of areas. It has been proven that countries in Africa that allow hunting have more animals than the ones that don’t. The hunter gets his trophy; a percentage of the trophy fee goes to help local villages as well as most of the meat harvested from said animals. This way the villages see the animals as an asset and will protect them.
I don’t think any true hunter wants to see an animal species become extinct from what he/she is doing. But by being selective by taking animal past prime or only mature animals they are doing their part to maintain a healthy balance in the herds. This means taking wounded or sick animals as well to maintain the herd’s health and end the suffering of the injured animal.
As long as the person who is trophy hunting and being ethical about it I see no problem in hunting for trophies. For me being ethical is hurry up take your pictures then take care of the animal, harvest all edible meat before taking the trophy from the field. Show the animal the respect and care that it deserves, and if you don’t eat it donate it to someone who can use the meat. If we as hunters will do this then there is nothing wrong with enjoying a nice trophy on the wall.