My Philosophy on Hunting

On a beautiful spring day in 1991 I first became aware that anti-hunting was a growing situation that would negatively impact our ability to manage wildlife. I was attending the North American Wildlife and Natural Resource Conference in Washington D. C., having dinner with two colleagues. Dr. James Applegate was an old college chum from Penn State University. For the past thirty or so years he has been a leader in the wildlife program at Rutgers University. The second friend was also a wildlife biologist; Dr. Jack Ward Thomas, former student at West Virginia University (where I worked for 30 years). Jack has risen within the ranks of the U. S. Forest Service and most recently served our country as the Chief of that agency. Today he is a Professor at the University of Montana. These fine gentlemen have always been held in the highest regard by their peers, and both are keen thinkers. When they speak, it pays to listen and learn, and during our conversation, I did just that. Jim was discussing new research where his objective was to find how the citizens of New Jersey felt about deer hunting. The study showed that a growing number of people were opposed to deer hunting in New Jersey (a statistic that was to reverse itself in the late 80's). Jack Thomas confirmed what Jim said...society is changing. It is more urban, and people do not relate to the death of animals as they once did. Both agreed anti-hunting brought good news and bad news. The good news was that this growing area had the potential to improve the ethics of hunters. The bad news was that it would make the job of wildlife managers more difficult in the future and that wildlife might well suffer.

Until that time I assumed that most everyone supported deer hunting, especially in areas where there were too many deer. Boy was that naive. A few years later Jim and I bowhunted together in Colorado, and the anti-hunting topic came up again as we sat around a camp fire in the Rocky Mountains. These discussions caused me to read and study the topic, and it made me realize that the future of wildlife management was in doubt. If the anti-hunters got their way, all hunting might stop and we would then lose the source of funding that keeps wildlife management alive today. Since we are talking of losing $155 million each year in federal excise taxes on hunting equipment, plus another $420 million in hunting license fees---with all of these funds going to the management of wildlife---any loss of hunting would have serious ramifications.

There were several reasons I was upset at the thought of losing hunting. First, I was a bowhunter and loved being in the woods. I wasn’t compulsive about hunting, but next to my family and church, bowhunting was the most important thing in my life and losing the opportunity to bowhunt would be catastrophic for me. Second, I was Professor of wildlife and fisheries management, and losing hunting would mean a decline of most revenues that would pay the salaries of future wildlife professionals. Were there to be a total loss of hunting, then we would lose all revenues from license sales and hunting equipment excise taxes, almost three-quarters of the budget for most state wildlife agencies. Those agencies would face major lay-offs; biologists, managers, conservation law enforcement officers, etc. Wildlife management would creep to a standstill, wildlife would suffer.

Being an ethical hunter is perhaps the most important thing anyone can do to protect the future of hunting. While most hunters are ethical, honest citizens, a few do not care a twit about animals. The ethical hunter does not like to be painted with the same brush that portrays the poacher or unethical hunter. Anti-hunters are the same. Many...most...are opposed to terrorist tactics and do not want to be linked with them.

I want hunters to better appreciate opposing points of view, to understand the fundamental threats associated with the antihunting movement and, most important, to take action in a manner that will secure the future of hunting and wildlife management as we know it. As my close friend Steve Fausel said recently, “be passionate about your hunting, but do so in such a way as to convey nothing but positive values to non-hunters. Then, and only then, will the non-hunters support our position and give us their trust”.

"There is a new book that every hunter or hunting family must own. Nowhere has so much about the issue been so comprehensively and simply presented. It is easy reading. If you want to arm yourself with the facts and with a working understanding as well, then the book has finally been written. Dr. Samuel has done the hunting and wildlife community a great service." John Jackson, Chairman, Conservation Force