Can the Hunting of Animals Be Justified?

The hunting of animals began, or so history tells us, when cavemen first learnt to make and use weapons of stone. At that time, men hunted animals for one reason, and only one reason alone: survival. He hunted down his preys, such as deer, for food and he hunted down fierce predators, such as lions and tigers, for self-preservation.

Later, with the advent of farms and the domestication of farm animals and poultry, and cultivation of crops, human beings began to have a stable source of food without having to rely on hunting any longer. But it seems old habits die hard and since the need to hunt for survival no longer existed, he began hunting for fun! And, believe it or not, the alarming rise in the number of endangered species in the world today is a testament of how mankind has directly caused the extinction of so many unfortunate species of land and marine life, not to mention birds!

It is my staunch opinion that hunting, as they say, for sport is cruel exercise, indeed. Every life has a right to live on this planet. The only hunting excusable is that for one's survival. No other life form in this 3 billion old planet of ours hunts for sport except man! As I mentioned earlier, hunting and killing of other life has always been for survival; food and self-preservation. All other species of the animal kingdom strictly adhere to this code of conduct instilled by nature - except man!

It is truly sad that the only life on earth that has the ability to think out and rationalise commits the greatest atrocities on our beloved planet. The so-called hunters hunt for their cruel vainglory; taking home the head of some innocent beast as a trophy to hang on their walls. How many bears and tigers and other noble beasts of the wild have been shot in the name of sport!

Then there are other kinds of hunters as well. The poachers. The decimation of elephants for their tusks to serve as ornaments, the slaughter of tigers for their hides, the killing of rhinoceroses for mythical aphrodisiac value of their horn or the capture of orangutans to be sold as pets are all only samples of cruel crimes against nature. These poachers hunt the animals mercilessly with little or no regard for the fact that they are wiping out entire species of life from the face of the world to satisfy their own material greed.

Having vented so far, I would also like to point out that there are still some forms of hunting that are quite necessary. But, here again, we go back to that great code of conduct of instilled by nature to all creatures great and small. To hunt for self-preservation and self-defense. For example, if a terrible predator like a man-eating shark is threatening our waters, or when a ferocious tiger is terrorizing our farms or villages, then, of course, we have to hunt down that predator for our own safety; for our very lives, in fact. Or, when some animals, like field rats, for example, infest our land and damage our crops and spread the plague, then we have to do something to get rid of them for our own survival.

And with this note, I would like to conclude with this verdict: the only justification for hunting and killing of animals can only be for survival; for food or self-preservation.