Trophy hunting is when an animal is killed for sport and not for eating. These killings of animals are not always humane, and they need to be stopped. Read this article to take action.
Image from: Kentaro Komoda
Trophy hunting. An animal shot. An animal dead. An animal that can never be reborn is gone. Forever.
Trophy hunting is when an animal is killed for sport, and is not commonly eaten. Many people don't what trophy hunting is. It's an issue that needs way more attention. Which is why I'm writing this article. There are a couple of different definitions when it comes to trophy hunting. Here they are:
A Canned Hunt: a canned hunt is when an animal is trapped in a small enclosure or tied up, making an easy kill for amateur hunters
A Trophy: the result from a trophy hunt, such as an exotic pelt or a precious tusk
Exporting of Trophy Hunted Animals: alive animals brought and sold to game farms
Game Farms: farms where animals are bought to again be sold or to be canned hunted
Game: the animals being trophy hunted
This is a Serious Issue
“The earth is large enough to share, but [human's] heart is not large enough to care” -A.D. Williams
Surprisingly, trophy hunting has been around since 1892. We've gone 129 years without stopping trophy hunting. Want to get a scope about how many animals must've been killed in that period? In a four year period (2011-2015) the U.S.A. imported almost 60,000 trophy hunted animals. 60,000. And that was the U.S.A. alone (though the U.S. imported the most compared to the other countries in the period of time). Keep in mind that this is just for four years, and we've gone 129 years without doing anything. Animals are being killed. We must take action, for this is a serious issue.
Trophy Hunting Isn't Always Humane
I don't have anything against trophy hunting if you're not killing an endangered animal, killing humanely, and are eating what you kill. (But then that isn't trophy hunting, unless you are keeping the horns). However, trophy hunting isn't always humane, especially when it comes to amateur hunters. One time, an elephant suffered a slow and very painful death when a beginner hunter was trying to take them down. Multiple shots all over the body finally killed the elephant.
However, sometimes it isn't amateurs creating a painful death for the animal. For example, a man named Tompson Seton (yes, the founder of boy scouts) trophy hunted a wolf known by the name of 'Lobo.' After Seton killed Lobo's mate, Blanca, he went after Lobo. Catching the massive wolf in traps, Seton took Lobo into town, with the wolves jaws clamped tight, yet he made sure that Lobo was still alive. Seton wanted to observe the living trophy of his, however Lobo died of a broken heart a day later.
Lobo's death changed Seton, and he starting deciding not to trophy hunt. He became advocating for wolves, instead of killing them. Later, he founded boy scouts.
Many Famous People Trophy Hunt
"One hunter now has a trophy, while 100,000 wolf watchers and visitors mourn her death" - protester of the killing of 06, a famous wolf who lived in Yellowstone National Park
It's not just Tompson Seton who trophy hunts. Many other famous people do, too. Such as "Teddy" Theodor Roosevelt (however he also helped conservation by creating national parks), Donald Trump Jr. (aka Donald Trump's kid), and so many governors have trophy hunted or pushed to make trophy hunting legal.
Wildlife Killing Contests
"A sport for you. A life to him [and her]" -Protect All Wildlife on Twitter
After this article, you must think that there's nothing worse than trophy hunting. Think again. Wildlife killing contests are contests where people try to kill as many animals as possible. This only isn't bad for the animals, but it's also ruining the ecosystem. Animals have feelings, too, and shouldn't be killed as if they were figurines in a video game.
However, there's something even worse than that (yes, worse): People are rewarded for killing the most animals in a wildlife killing contest. Yes. They're rewarded. Meaning that they want to continue to enter wildlife killing contests and win so that they can continue to get prizes.
Do Some Before it's too Late
People who want to stop trophy hunting have to take action. We need to stop trophy hunting - or at least try to make killings more humane and make trophy hunting numbers decline. This is why I'm writing this blog post. They need your help.
We can make change. We must do something. We can do something. We need to save these animals. Thank you for reading this article, and I'll give you a double thanks if you write a letter or send the letter template to the senator. If you have, respond in the comments. If you have a STEP account, we'll award you a STEP badge that will appear on your profile.
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