Opinion: America needs hunting but its popularity is falling

Photo by Raymond McCrea Jones, Redux via The Atlantic

Humans, the land and animals benefit from responsible hunting, but the practice has declined in popularity, with more Americans opposing it, writes Andrew Exum in his opinion for The Atlantic. “Public approval for all forms of hunting has declined in just the past two years, according to a new study by the Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation. More Americans disapprove of hunting today than they have at any point over the past two decades. And that’s a problem because America needs hunting more than most Americans realize.”

Why the change? “Americans favor hunting some species more than others. Americans are just fine with people hunting deer, for example, which are a menace in most northeastern suburbs and the cause of 2 million car accidents each year,” Exum writes. “They are less fine with people hunting bears and wolves. . . . As more Americans associate firearms with mass shootings and other violence, fewer Americans approve of any firearms-related activities, including hunting and sport shooting. . . . And this year’s survey registers a sharp increase of Americans who disapprove of all legal recreational shooting, including the kind of shotgun games you might see at the Olympics."

A decrease in hunters alters conservation efforts. “Even as approval for hunting declines, though, hunting remains an important part of the conservation model that has served America so well for more than 100 years. . . . [We] now rely on hunters to help manage wildlife populations under strict government regulation. . . It’s also ironic that many left-leaning Americans can be so ambivalent about some of the longest-running, most successful, and scientifically grounded government programs,” Exum reports. 

“Red-state conservatives. . . are silent about the fact that although conservation remains one of the few truly bipartisan issues. . . .They are likewise silent about decisions from the conservative judiciary that endanger wildlife habitat," Exum adds. “You very rarely hear Democrats talk about how hunting plays a role in the party’s conservation goals—even though that might help bridge some of the gap that now exists between a largely urban Democratic Party and the kind of rural voters necessary for it to maintain control of the Senate.”

“We tell our neighbors in our extremely left-leaning D.C. neighborhood that I hunt for the same reason we grow many of our own fruits and vegetables: We like being connected to our food chain, without supermarkets as intermediaries, and we like to consume our food in as conscientious and sustainable a way as possible,” Exum writes.