What is hunting? Is it just killing animals for pleasure? Acttually it is not. In fact, hunting has always played an extremely important role in the life of humanity. It is the thing that helped people evolve and become who they are today. Moreover, hunting is the thing that keeps the wildlife, that is it helps to fund conservation.
Corey Knowlton
In 2014, Corey Knowlton paid a great amount of money for the right to hunt a black rhino in Namibia. To be more specific, he paid 350,000 dollars ("Radiolab Podcast Radio" n.p.). At the first sight it may seem unethical and non-humanly, but is it really so? My answer is ‘No, it is not’. From the podcast, I found out that Namibia’s government every year puts the right to hunt on their territory up for auction.
Speaking particularly about Namibia, it is a home to 1,750 rhinos; meanwhile there are only 5,000 black rhinos in the whole world. Moreover, their population in Namibia has increased recently, as it has suitable conservation for rhinos. Thus to sell the right to hunt seems quite a sound idea (Conniff n.p.).
Although after purchasing the right to hunt a black rhino in Namibia, Corey Knowlton received congratulations from people and could not realize what had happened, just in 24 hours he also got millions of threats referring to his his wife, his children and him personally. It is clear from the above mentioned that the public reaction was very controversial. However, if to go into the depth of the issue, the Namibian government sells the opportunity to kill the oldest male in order to be able to fund the existence of the remaining rhinos and to protect them from poachers. Corey Knowlton thinks not only about hunting animals, “but about preserving them and keeping them here” ("Radiolab Podcast Radio" n.p.). Actually, he did not gave up the idea to travel to Namibia and kill an endangered black rhino, because he had made a commitment to the conservatory, his family and his friends.
Controversial issues
In 2013, poachers killed a thousand rhinos in South Africa and only two rhinos in Namibia (Conniff n.p.). This is mainly because South African’s officials did nothing to prevent this situation, while Namibian government created a careful plan that really works. It encouraged the villagers, also hunters in the past, not only to manage the wildlife, but also to make profit from it. Moreover, the wildlife became a part of their community, thus they were interested in keeping it alive and far away from poachers.
Therefore, what seemed not morally defensible proved to have saved and prevented from killing by poachers a thousand of rhinos. Thus, sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice something small to preserve something enormous. That is how my position sounds. I am more than sure that not everybody will share my views, as there are many opponents of hunting in general, but I believe that I have the right to think so.
Coming back to Namibian government, it can sell the right to hunt five rhinos a year, but, as a rule, it stops at three. The fee, which the country gets from selling those rhinos, goes for supporting rhino conservation, for instance, implanting transmitters in the rhinos’ horns and taking measures against poaching. Thus, only one rhino may save all the rest (Conniff n.p.).
One more interesting thing is that the number of hunters has decreased recently in the United States of America. However, the remaining small number of hunters brought even greater revenue for the conservation. Jed Meunier thinks that hunting is not an economic activity, but a cultural and even social one (n.p.). There are different types of hunters’ motivation. There are hunting for meat, hunting for sport and recreation. Public support of hunting is directly linked with the hunters’ motivation.
For many people hunting is unacceptable because it involves killing. In this case, they should not eat meat, because it also involves killing. Tovar Cerulli was once a vegetarian, together with his wife. However, his health was weak and their doctor recommended eating animal-based food in order to improve his health. At first sight, it is such a small recommendation, but this small recommendation eventually led him to hunting by himself. It happened because he wanted to be involved in the process of getting food. Thus, he started with fishing and after that, he began to hunt in the forest. Now he cannot imagine his life without hunting, it became an integral part of Tovar (Cerulli n.p.).
Conclusion
For me, hunters are people who keep the wildlife alive, as opposed to poachers who unlawfully kill animals for the enrichment. The actions of the Namibian government seem sound for me, as they really yield results. Killing one rhino saves lives of others, bringing money that is used for protecting the remaining rhinos from poachers. Therefore, I am strongly convinced that hunting is completely ethical, and it helps to keep the wildlife in the globe.
Works Cited
Cerulli, Tovar. "On Hating Hunters and Becoming One". Center for Humans & Nature. Web. 30 May 2016.
Conniff, Richard. "A Trophy Hunt that’s Good for Rhinos". Nytimes.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 30 May 2016.
Meunier, Jed. "What Type of Hunter Am I?". Center for Humans & Nature. N.p., 2016. Web. 30 May 2016.
"Radiolab Podcast Radio". The Rhino Hunter. N.p., 2015. Web. 30 May 2016.
