Hunting Declines in Urban West

In response to your article “Hunters: On the Vanishing Species List?” by Rich Tosches (Part I, May 19), wherein Dale Laschnitz of Colorado’s Division of Wildlife is quoted as saying, “The animal rights groups don’t see the big picture. They seemed to be more concerned with the individual rights of the animal than they are with the overall well-being of the species.” This is referring to the buffalo in Yellowstone Park that were shot to prevent their inevitable starvation because of lack of grazing land. The keywords are lack of “grazing land.” It is ironic that Laschnitz also does not see the big picture.

Before human intervention, animals in the wild seldom starved to death because predatory animals (i.e., mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, etc.) preyed on the weakest of the herd thereby reinforcing survival of the fittest. However, predatory animals have been killed by hunters and ranchers throughout the U.S. so that they are incapable of keeping the herds in balance.

Man’s justification now stands on the premise that without hunting animals they will starve to death. That may or may not be true but we must recognize that hunting and trapping is exactly what caused the imbalance to occur in the first place.

In addition, a key fact of the “big picture” which few of us can visualize, yet alone understand, is that our large appetite for meat, dairy products, and fast foods is the core of most of these problems. Over 56% of U.S. agricultural land available is used erroneously for livestock production. As a result there is not enough grazing land available for natural animals to live on. Second, ranchers unjustly kill natural animals and promote hunting of buffalo and deer so as not to compete with their herds.

We indirectly assault animal habitats with water and air pollution, removal of trees, building of roads and cities, etc. Until we recognize that what is good for animals is good for man and the planet, the killing of animals directly is more easily prevented than is the indirect killing of animals by pollution, cattle ranching, city expansion and our meat-centered diets.

“The difference between a hunter and a person who buys a steak is the degree of removal from the animal’s death. Hunters kill their own animals. The rest of the people pay someone else to do it for them,” Dr. Robert Thompson is quoted as saying. He is correct.

The appalling conditions in which our “animal machines” are raised and slaughtered in factory farms are actually far worse than hunting animals. However, both are wrong. Factory farming, slaughtering and eating animals for food is also wrong. No matter how you view it, personal choices such as a vegetarian diet, education, understanding and sports which promote nurturing rather than destruction should be affirmed.

MARK MACHUSZEK

Manhattan Beach