I've seen in the past the explanation that hunting as a sport under the excuse of 'controlling the population of prey animals' is bullshit because in a short time the Department of Fish and Wildlife actually begins stocking and raising more deer for hunters to hunt.

I'm looking to form a good collection of sources that can be cited when someone brings up "hunting as a necessary evil" and associated arguments.

  • merthyr1831 [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    You may not find direct sources but the social ecologist in me knows that the direct domination of human over the local ecology is unnecessary at the very least.

    Prey populations will rise inversely to the population of natural predators. Natural predators rise linearly to meet the food abundance.

    Its likely that the artificial predatory role humans are playing in hunting deer is therefore also artificially depressing the populations of natural predators, especially when we consider that humans often also hunt said predators out of "self defense".

    TLDR If deer population skyrockets, so will predators, and naturally these balance themselves out. Human impact on local ecology is creating its own problems can could be fixed by simply leaving said ecologies alone.