The Failed Argument of Deer Hunting

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As the weather gets cold and the first snow begins to fall, many Wisconsinites have something else to look forward to along with Thanksgiving, deer hunting. The gun hunting season begins November 17 and gives hunters eight days of sport. Over these eight days, thousands of people will go out into the woods, get away from the stress of their jobs or school, bond with family or friends, and reconnect with nature in a way. Being someone who loves the outdoors, I experience a thrill when I am out in the woods, immersed in nature. Deer hunting is a tradition that gives many people this thrill, and I won’t argue that people shouldn’t be able to enjoy this. However, I will argue the common belief that hunting is necessary for a healthy deer population. Hunting is not an effective form of control over the deer population and does not decrease human/deer conflicts. Many hunters often claim that hunting effectively manages the deer population, preventing over-population and making sure there is a healthy population. Predators such as wolves and cougars naturally keep the deer population in check, but in places where these animals have left or died out hunters feel that they become the necessary predators. Regulating the deer population supposedly prevents human/deer conflicts such as car accidents caused by deer on the road. Deer hunters step into the natural food chain in an attempt to regulate the deer population in terms of the modern unnatural world. These premises might make sense if it weren’t for several crucial flaws. The first, and probably the most important, problem with this argument is that the general objective of hunters is to get a buck and not a doe. Besides the fact that there are limits on the number of does hunters can shoot, most hunters aim to get bucks because they are much more of a prize. Killing bucks isn’t effective in lowering the deer

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