In the first three parts of this series of columns we asked what kinds of hunting history has given us. The first was subsistence hunting. It gave way to the second, market hunting, which could not be sustained with the booming growth of the human population during the industrial revolution in America.
Now, we turn to the third, sport hunting, which is the kind of hunting we have today. Sport hunting is hated and vilified by many, but most critics don't understand what sport hunting is and why we have it. Criticisms of sport hunting arise largely out of ignorance—ignorance of what sport hunting is, and ignorance about the historical context which gave it to us.
Not only do few critics actually know what sport hunting is, they also do not know it saved wildlife from the devastation market hunting caused in the nineteenth century. They don't grasp that the protection wildlife needs comes from its funding, and that it's sport hunting that provides funding. They can't suggest any alternative to sport hunting that would sustain healthy, abundant, and accessible wildlife. They don't even understand why it's called "sport" hunting.
Read what sport hunting is and why it's a valuable and necessary thing in my March 28 column in the Jamestown Gazette, "Sport Hunting — the Third Way."
Photo caption: One of many benefits of sport hunting is that it keeps wildlife in balance with its habitat, with the other species that share the habitat, and with humans. Without sport hunting we'd see many more road-killed deer and other animals as well. (Steve Sorensen photo)
To access more of my writing on hunting topics, go to the home page of my blog, Mission: Hunter.
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