“My dad is very successful in his business. He’s always been big in having hobbies and having little ways to get away. He always made time for hunting and fishing. He always encouraged me to do it.”
Luke Bryan, Musician
Advantages & Disadvantages of Hunting
Hunting has a long tradition in many cultures all over the world.
Our ancestors had to hunt wild animals in order to survive.
In our nowadays society, many people still enjoy hunting as a hobby to relax and to unplug from their stressful daily life.
Apart from many other advantages of hunting, there are also some problems related to it.
In this article, the pros and cons of hunting are examined.
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Contents
Advantages of Hunting
- Hunting gives you the opportunity to spend time in nature
- Can help to reduce our stress levels
- Back to the roots
- Hunting can help you to become more patient
- Can help you to assure your meat supply
- People will value their meat more
- Hunting can help you to improve your fitness
- You can sharpen your senses
- Hunting gives you the opportunity to mature in character
- You can learn a lot about nature
- Hunting can help to control populations
- High-quality meat
- Hunting can help to avoid factory farming
- May help to prevent accidents between cars and wildlife
- Main income source for many people
Hunting gives you the opportunity to spend time in nature
One key benefit of hunting is that it gives you the opportunity to spend time in the middle of nature.
Many people in our nowadays society have completely lost their connection to nature.
Especially if you had been borne in a big city, chances are that you will live city life without spending too much time in natural environments.
Even though there is nothing wrong with living the city life, it is also important to experience different aspects of life.
This also includes spending time in nature.
Through hunting, you will get the opportunity to spend your leisure in nature, which can be quite good for your soul and also to unplug from your daily life.
Can help to reduce our stress levels
Many people in our nowadays society also often complain about how stressful their daily life is.
Many of us work in quite demanding jobs while having to manage our families at the same time.
Moreover, we are also flooded with information on a regular basis.
All of this can lead to serious levels of stress, which can lead to serious adverse health effects in the long run.
Hence, in order to reduce your stress levels, hunting can be a quite nice hobby since you will have time for yourself and you will also be able to spend your time in a quiet forest.
Moreover, in case you turn off your phone, you will also no longer get messages and you will also not be available for phone calls anymore.
All this can significantly lower your stress levels and also give you a higher overall feeling of freedom.
Back to the roots
Another upside of hunting is that it can bring us back to the roots.
Our ancestors hunted animals for thousands of years in order to survive.
Therefore, it is deep inside us to come back to nature from time to time and to hunt animals as well.
Many people also argue that basic things like fishing or hunting are deeply anchored in our DNA and that we as humanity should not forget about this fact in order to live in a healthy manner.
Hunting can help you to become more patient
In order to be a successful hunter, you also have to learn patience.
Quite often, you will have to wait many hours until a deer comes by.
Some days, you will not even see any animal at all and you will have to go home without a trophy.
Hence, through hunting, you will really learn how to become patient.
Patience is not only important for hunting, it is also crucial to achieve long-term success in life since nothing valuable comes fast.
This is especially true when it comes to building a business.
You have to put in tons of work and it will take a long time until you see any results.
Hence, hunting can also help you to develop this important skill.
Can help you to assure your meat supply
Through hunting, you will also be able to assure your meat supply.
Successful hunters will not only be able to assure their own meat supply, they will even be able to give away some of their hunted meat to family and friends.
Some professional hunters may even supply grocery stores with meat that can be sold to customers.
Hence, hunting can also help us as a society to assure our supply with healthy food.
People will value their meat more
In general, if you hunt your own food, chances are that you will also value your food much more since you know how much work was involved in the hunting process.
You will also know that it was necessary to take the life of an animal, which will lead you to appreciate your meat even more.
This is a quite crucial topic.
Many people in our nowadays society just don’t know and also don’t care where their meat comes from.
They just get it from their local store, yet they don’t see that an animal had to die for them.
Hence, in order to increase the awareness and the value of our meat, hunting can be a great way to show people where their meat actually comes from and how much work and mental strength is necessary to assure ourselves with bush meat.
Hunting can help you to improve your fitness
If you are currently out of shape, hunting could be a great way to improve your overall fitness.
In fact, hunters often walk quite long distances until they find the right hunting spot.
Moreover, if you currently suffer from overweight or even from obesity, you can also tackle this issue through the level of exercise that is often implied by hunting.
You can sharpen your senses
Another benefit of hunting is that you will also be able to sharpen your senses.
In order to be able to hunt animals, you will have to use all your senses.
This not only includes using your eyes, it also includes using your sense of hearing in order to detect movements in the bushes or in forests.
Therefore, if you go hunting on a regular basis, chances are that you will be significantly able to sharpen your senses and also to listen to your intuition from time to time.
Hunting gives you the opportunity to mature in character
Through hunting, you can also learn to develop a strong character and to really grow up.
In fact, hunting involves almost all skills which are crucial to understand how life works.
You even have to take away the life of an animal, which is a quite hard thing to do.
Yet, it is crucial to understand how nature works in general.
We need food in order to survive, similar to the animal kingdom where animals have to eat other animals in order to assure their food supply.
Hence, hunting can really help you to understand how life works and therefore, you can really grow in character over time.
You can learn a lot about nature
Hunting also gives you the opportunity to expand your knowledge about nature in general.
During your hunting career, you will not only learn about the different animals, you will also learn about the local flora.
Over time, many huntsmen not only hunt animals, but they also engage in collecting their own food in nature.
In the long run, those people will acquire extensive knowledge about our flora and fauna.
In turn, if you practice hunting for a long time, you can also teach your children about our local animals and plants and hand over your knowledge to the next generation.
Hunting can help to control populations
Another important aspect of hunting is that it can also be quite useful in controlling animal populations.
Quite often, certain animals reproduce much faster than others, which can lead to a state where one animal species will become predominant while other species will no longer find enough food and may significantly drop in population.
In such a case, it makes sense to hunt animal species which become too strong in populations in order to assure the balance of our local ecosystems.
High-quality meat
Bush meat is also quite healthy.
Since hunted animals are not raised under artificial conditions, those animals consume plenty of natural food over the course of their lives.
Moreover, those animals also have plenty of space to move and run.
In turn, the meat of those wild animals is often much healthier compared to conventional meat from factory farming.
Hunting can help to avoid factory farming
Factory farming implies a variety of problems and therefore, we should try to avoid buying meat from factory farming as often as possible.
If you no longer want to support factory farming, hunting your own meat may be a great way to do so since you can assure your meat supply without having to buy meat from conventional stores.
Hence, if you are a strong opponent of factory farming, you may want to learn how to hunt in order to produce your own meat and set a good example for other people around you.
May help to prevent accidents between cars and wildlife
There are also many accidents between local wildlife and car drivers over the course of the year.
Especially at nighttime, animals get attracted by the headlights of cars and sometimes, deer and other animals will jump in front of your car.
This is not only detrimental for the local wildlife, it can also lead to serious accidents and some people even die from those accidents.
Therefore, in order to reduce the number of those accidents, it can make sense in certain regions to hunt more in order to reduce the population size of animals that could cause serious accidents with cars.
Main income source for many people
Even though hunting is more like a hobby for many people in our Western world, it is still a major source of income for many people in the Southern hemisphere of our planet.
In fact, many people still rely on hunting in order to assure their livelihood and also to provide themselves with sufficient food to survive.
Disadvantages of Hunting
- Hunting is subject to numerous legal restrictions
- Can take a long time to learn
- Hunting can be a costly hobby
- You need to rent a forest
- Hunting can be risky
- You have to learn how to dismantle animals
- Overhunting can be a problem
- Game pits can hurt local wildlife
- May not be suitable for people who suffer from poor vision
- Hunted animals can have diseases
- Trophy hunting
- Can contribute to the endangerment of species
- Many hunters have insufficient knowledge
- May not be suitable for sensitive persons
- Hunting may conflict with the ethics of people
- Potential fines
Hunting is subject to numerous legal restrictions
Apart from the many important advantages of hunting, there are also some problems related to it.
One disadvantage of hunting is that there are many legal rules and regulations regarding hunting in numerous countries of our planet and chances are that you will need to spend many hours for exams until you are allowed to actually go on a hunting trip on your own.
Hence, if you plan to go hunting, make sure to check out your local laws in order to avoid any sentences.
Can take a long time to learn
Hunting is also not an easy sport and it takes plenty of time to learn how to focus and how to shoot.
Quite often, hunters will miss their target at the beginning and it takes time to progress.
Moreover, even if you bag an animal, your work is not done yet. It will take plenty of work until the animal is ready for consumption.
Thus, it can not only take plenty of time to learn hunting, but it can also be quite time-consuming to process the meat in order to make it ready to cook.
Therefore, make sure that you are really serious about becoming a hunter since you might otherwise give up your hunting career rather early.
Hunting can be a costly hobby
Hunting is also not a cheap hobby.
You need plenty of equipment and you also have to rent a forest in which you are allowed to hunt in many regions all over the world.
Hence, this can all sum up to significant amounts of money which you have to spend on your hunting career over time.
Consequently, in many countries, the meat that you will get through hunting will actually be much more expensive compared to just buying your meat from the local huntsman.
Consequently, make sure that you are willing to invest some money and that you see hunting more like a hobby and less like an income source.
You need to rent a forest
In some regions, it is also quite hard to find a hunting spot that is available to a new huntsman.
Many territories are already taken and there will often be a quite long waiting list for you if you want to get your own hunting spot.
Hunting can be risky
Although there are not too many fatalities due to hunting each year, it is still not the safest of all hobbies.
Especially people who don’t have too much experience with hunting will often underestimate the risk, which can turn out into serious accidents.
You have to learn how to dismantle animals
After you bagged an animal, you also have to learn how to dismantle it.
This process is not easy and it needs plenty of experience to learn how to get the most out of an animal.
However, it is quite important that you learn how to do this properly in order not to waste any precious meat.
Overhunting can be a problem
In many countries of our planet, overhunting has become a serious problem.
Over the past decade, many species significantly dropped in population since they had been insufficiently protected by local laws and also since illegal hunting has become an increasing problem over time.
Game pits can hurt local wildlife
Some hunters also use game pits to catch animals.
However, those game pits often lead to serious injuries of animals and in many cases, even though the animal will not be caught by the game pit, it will still die sooner or later due to those serious injuries.
Therefore, you should never use game pits in order to protect our animals as best as possible and to show them the necessary respect.
May not be suitable for people who suffer from poor vision
Hunting is also a sport that requires a quite sharp vision.
It is crucial to hit animals at a certain spot so that they will die quite soon and do not suffer too much.
However, if hunters lack proper vision, they will not be able to hit this spot and in turn, animals may have to suffer from unnecessary pain.
Hence, if you don’t have a good vision, you should not consider becoming a hunter.
Hunted animals can have diseases
Although the chances for that are rather small, hunted animals can also have certain diseases, which can potentially harm human health.
Thus, before you sell your hunted meat to other people, make sure that you test it for several common diseases.
Trophy hunting
Trophy hunting is a quite big problem, especially in many poor regions of our planet.
Trophies like the iron tasks of elephants or the horns of rhinos can bring a fortune on the black market.
Hence, many of those animals solely have to die due to their previous horns and tasks.
This is a big issue and governments around the world should try to prevent this kind of hunting as best as possible.
Can contribute to the endangerment of species
Another issue of hunting is that it can also contribute to the endangered species problem.
Many animals have dropped in population over the past years and if we continue to hunt them as we did in the past, chances are that many species will become endangered or even extinct.
Therefore, it is crucial to protect those species and you should inform yourself about which species are already endangered and you should refrain from hunting those species so that they get the opportunity to recover in populations.
Many hunters have insufficient knowledge
While there are many skilled hunters out there, some huntsmen also don’t know what they are doing at all.
This can be quite problematic since in many cases, animals have to suffer quite a lot solely due to the lack of knowledge of those hunters.
Thus, make sure that you have proper knowledge before you go hunting in order to protect our animals from unnecessary pain.
May not be suitable for sensitive persons
Hunting is a sport which is also not suitable for sensitive people.
Many people have problems watching an animal die and since this is quite common for hunting, if you are one of those people, hunting will definitely not be the right hobby for you.
Hunting may conflict with the ethics of people
Opponents of hunting also often claim that it is simply against their ethical values to take the lives of animals for their own benefit.
Hence, also if you struggle with ethical concerns related to hunting, this sport will also not be for you.
Potential fines
In many regions of our planet, there are also significant fines in case you violate the local rules related to hunting.
Thus, before you go hunting, make sure that you inform yourself about the local laws in order to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
Top 10 Hunting Pros & Cons – Summary List
| Hunting Pros | Hunting Cons |
|---|---|
| You can spend time in nature | Strict legal restrictions related to hunting |
| You know where your meat comes from | You need plenty of time to learn |
| Hunting can enable you to avoid factory farming | Endangerment of species |
| Can make you grow up | Hunting can be expensive |
| You will learn about nature | Can be risky |
| Hunting can sharpen your senses | You need a hunting territory |
| Can help to control populations | Overhunting |
| Important income source for many people | Trophy hunting is a big problem |
| Reduction of accidents with wildlife | May conflict with the ethics of people |
| Can improve your fitness level | Not suitable for sensitive people |
Should You Go Hunting?
From the previous argumentation, it has become clear that there are many advantages and disadvantages of hunting.
In the end, you have to evaluate all the pros and cons of hunting by yourself so that you can make a profound decision about whether hunting is the right hobby for you or not.
If you come to the conclusion that hunting will be a great hobby for you, make sure to get some basic hunting equipment right now!
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting
https://www.outdoorlife.com/articles/hunting/2015/03/50-great-hunting-tips/
https://myfwc.com/hunting/new-hunter/hunting-tips/
About the author
My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.
As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.
After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.
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