“When a child harms an animal for fun, we fear mental illness, but when an adult with
the capacity to reason does it, we call it sport.”
-Seth Macfarlane
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“When a hunter is in a tree stand with proper moral values and with the proper hunting
ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is twenty feet closer to God.”
-Fred Bear
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Hunting has been a core part of the human experience since our first spark of
consciousness on this planet awoke thousands of years ago, encompassing the natural
order of life and death among all species to date.
We can now ‘afford’ to take a moral stance, in an age of factory farming, lab-grown
meat, greenhouses, and other industrial means of feeding ourselves, in an age of
modern enlightenment and convenience, it is no longer necessary to struggle to survive
as hard as our ancestors did. Animal harm for human enjoyment (as was seen in the
Roman Coliseum) is now primitive and medieval. Many consider the modern form of this
to be Trophy Hunting. The process of some groups of hunters paying large amounts of
money to hunt exotic and endangered animals.
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This practice has been very divisive among the public, think back to June of 2017 when
an American hunter named Tess Thompson Talley hunted a giraffe in southern Africa
and posted a picture with herself proudly next to the fallen animal the photo sparked
outrage among the public for slaying an incredible animal of an endangered species but
the hunter defended her actions saying she was proud of her hunt and that she did eat
part of the giraffe. Was she in the right? Ultimately, that's for us as a society to decide.

Some would say that trophy hunting has no place in the modern world, and the knee-
jerk reaction is the excessive cruelty to animals. Including Cecil the lion, who was struck
by an arrow in a legal trophy hunt and wasn’t slain until 40 hours of agony later.
As one conservationist put it, “We should leave cruelty where it belongs, in the past. I
don't care if it’s been in your family for generations; it has been wrong for generations.”
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Though there is always a new perspective

In general, Trophy hunters are not the reason these species are dying out; trophy
hunters are few, and are regulated by the government, essentially, it’s legal work. Not
that, by default, it makes it ok. But, coming from the African Wildlife Foundation,
It is poachers, climate change, and massive deforestation that cause these species to
be threatened. Poachers bring down these animals en masse to sell their parts illegally.
Ivory in particular, the product of rhino horn and elephant tusk, is more valuable per
ounce than gold and is sold as a headache cure in China. Trophy hunters, however,
hunt ‘problematic’ animals. Animals that are known by locals to be unnecessarily
aggressive that were needed to be dealt with by wardens regardless. For example, the
giraffe Talley brought down had itself attacked other males in territorial disputes. It also
shouldn’t be forgotten that trophy hunting is the main source of revenue for wildlife
conservation groups that pay for the reserves, the land to be protected, and the guards
protecting it. These animals would not still be here if that money dried up. In the words
of one hunter, “the animal conservationist people should be on our side.”