What are the pros & cons of hunting?

While hunting may have been a necessity when humans were living as hunter-gatherers, seeking out and killing animals for pleasure is cruel and unethical and causes unnecessary suffering to animals and food chains. Studies on radio-collared white-tailed deer found that one in eight animals were injured but escaped as a result of hunting; the proportion of animals that suffer from ineffective hunters must therefore be much higher and leaving a large proportion of animals suffering before they die as a result of hunting. Likewise taking an animal out of a food chain may affect the numbers of predator and prey and unset the delicate ecological balance of the animal’s habitat causing further damage to animal groupings and possibly to whole species if the practice is left unchecked. Modern society has made life increasingly comfortable and ethical, to ignore this and seek out and kill animals is cruel and should be called out for the bloodlust that it actually is.

peta.org/issues/wildlife/wildlife-factsheets/sport-hunting-cruel-unnecessary wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/protectwildlife/index.html

Hunting is often a necessity for rural populations that need to deal with pest species, especially when rearing livestock hunting predator species may be necessary protective measure. Likewise some animals, for example introduced non-native species, may require population management as to not cause damage to a region, maintaining a healthy population of animals within an environment's ecological carrying capacity can stop habitat destruction from overpopulation. Viewing hunting as wholly negative is a naïve view, as the control of certain species may sometime be a necessity in helping to maintain populations and avoid over-grazing or over-predation of other species, in addition charging hunters fees often funds wildlife conservation.

phys.org/news/2018-05-animal-populations.html history.com/news/invasive-species-list-mammals-birds-aquatic thoughtco.com/hunting-and-the-environment-127856