Hunter Dahna next author in 2016-2017 MLHS senior student editorial series
Hunting is Good for the Environment
Hunting has done a lot of good to protect and help animals; hopefully this will continue. Hunting has kept people safe from diseased animals from hitting deer while driving. Hunting does more for the environment than you may think. It gives animals a greater chance to survive, can control the population and also control the spread of disease.
On the first point, hunting gives animals a greater chance to survive because, if you let the population grow, those numbers will require more food, and many animals may eventually starve. It the deer population grows too much, more deer will be hit by vehicles, causing injuries as well as costly vehicle repairs. Raccoons are a problem and a danger to children, and, if that population increases, people might not be able to safetly go outside at night, along with more field crops being eaten.
In addition, if the animal population is not controlled, it can have varying effects on other wildlife and on the environment. Hunting keeps the population smaller and at a healthy size for the animals. The spread of disease is then limited, and is kept from spreading to other areas as well. If there is an appropriately-sized population, then the animals will have more available food, space in which to live and because of that, be healthier.
Hunting also controls the spread of disease. It keeps disease rates lower than if there was a large population. If the population gets too large, disease will spread rapidly and cause a lot of problems. There is a great need to keep the population at a healthy level to keep disease from spreading. Some animals have genetic disorders such as deer that have drops on their antlers that should not be there, or albino animals. Diseases deer have include hemorraghic disease and chronic wasting disease. Hunting them helps to cull out the animals with disease or genetic disorders.
In short, hunting does a not for the environment by controlling the spread of disease and defects in animals. Hunting keeps animal populations under control so raccoons stay out of the trash and away from kids when they are playing outside, helps so you have less chance to run into a deer when driving or curbing dogs getting sprayed by skunks at night.