Hunting Isn't Harmful
Lilly Molini
A&E Editor
With opening week for hunters, beginning last week, most of the hunters in Waverly are ecstatic. Not to mention exhausted, due to the fact waking up at five every morning to hunt is not something they are used to.
There are many Waverly students that take pride in hunting and everything that comes with it.
“There is not a lot of women hunters,” senior Anna Luber. “My sister and I are the only girls that hunt in my family.”
Although hunting isn’t something everyone agrees with, what people need to understand is that there are many upsides to hunting and there is a purpose behind it.
Hunting has been a key to survival for centuries. It wasn’t until the last couple decades that people have been hunting for the wrong reasons. Yes, there are people that misuse this pastime but there are many that find hunting very critical to life.
There are countless principles behind hunting, but the main reason is population control for animals. This can be looked at as torture, but controlling a species that create problems in our everyday lives is not persecution.
Each year around harvest time, deer population is at it’s peak and in states like Nebraska, car accidents caused by deer escalate as well. It’s stated that deer cause over 200 human deaths in car accidents each year.
Deer don’t just take lives but cost people millions, even billions of dollars.
Another big push to hunt is property damage, and all the money it entails, deer cost farmers each year. $1.1 billion is thrown out each year due to deer damage.
There are many organizations that focus more on the positive side of hunting showing the damage that some animals do.
Last year, Nebraska Game and Parks started a program called Hunters Helping the Hungry. The organization was created to connect hunters with the love of the hunt to people who are in need of food for survival. Many around the country go without having food and by having this association it shows just how much hunting can useful and benefit people.
Yes, there are people that mistreat the rules and consider hunting more of a sport and do it just do it. There are many people that really have a true compassion for hunting and consider it a lifestyle.
Whether or not someone agrees with hunting is up to them, but before making accusations, people need to consider how much the positives really do outweigh the negatives when it comes to hunting.
Hunting game isn’t like shooting a basketball or as carefree as an easy round of dodgeball. The tradition that kills all the competition for from deer to deer.
