The anti-hunter claim that hunting can harm other animals, humans and pets, and even increase the chance of a fatal accident is wildly exaggerated.
Hunter education classes are conducted in all 50 states with specific goals to instill hunters with firearm safety, knowledge and skills, ethics and ensuring the comprehension of laws and regulations.
Hunting should not be confused with poaching which is the illegal taking of wildlife—including hunting without a license, doing so out of season, ignoring hunting rules and regulations, targeting endangered species, trespassing on private land, using illegal weapons, spotlighting animals at night, filling a tag not your own or leaving a harvested animal to rot.
Such behavior is illegal. It is not hunting.
State fish and wildlife agencies rely on hunters in the field who, more often than not, are the first line of defense against poaching by reporting suspicious or illegal activity.
A Political and Social Research Firearm Injury Surveillance Study conducted over a 15-year period from 1993 to 2008 observed that firearm-related incidents occurred in only nine days per every one million hunting days in the field.
Even then, hunters cautiously act in a way to try to reduce that number.
Individuals who target dogs, cats, other pets, livestock or even people with archery equipment or firearms are not hunters. They are criminals acting illegally and should be reported to authorities, prosecuted and punished.
Hunters take great care to do things right. They care for wildlife. They care for wild landscapes. Taxes on their guns, ammunition and archery equipment, as well as their hunting licenses and fees generate critical funding for nationwide conservation projects.
And hunters want nothing more than to both cherish and advance safe, responsible hunting behavior and their hunting heritage for future generations to value and enjoy.
What’s the bottom line? When you take a step back and look at the big picture, it’s more than evident that Hunting Is Conservation.