Today, very few hunters are hunting out of a need to survive. Instead, hunting has become more of a "sport". As a result, it has remained popular and many, many species have been wiped out.
In Britain, the killing of animals has been taken in several forms: farmers with guns shoot at pheasants to keep them from eating their crops; a group of teenage lads going out at night to catch rabbits to sell; and the rich charging around the countryside on horses with dogs chasing a fox in the name of sport.
In other countries hunting seems to be more widespread amongst the rural population. In southern Europe groups of men head out into the country, at certain times of the year specified by law, often in combat gear, to shoot at anything that moves. As in Britain, they have to pay for the privilege, and very often the animals have to be brought in especially for the purpose from somewhere else! What they kill they often take home, however, so that the dead animal at least finds its way onto the dinner table. Even here, it is essentially a sport or hobby, even if those involved might imagine they are engaged in some life or death test of man against nature.
In some cases, hunting may be necessary because of the population of one species, however, there are other ways of controlling the amount of a species such as securing animals in national parks to live freely in an environment they can live in, but in an enclosed area.
In other cases, hunting is not necessary. These cases include endangered species, where there is a low population of a certain species. Is it fair that one species doesn’t deserve to survive but all the other species of the world do?
Since the Second World War, however, modern farming techniques can satisfy the developed world’s food needs, and so hunting has become an anachronism. And the more we find out about animals, their DNA, their social hierarchies and their capacity to feel pain, the more we have to recognise that they are more closely related to us than we ever thought. How much longer can we continue to see them as simply dumb beasts that we can kill and mistreat at our will?
But, what about men’s need for sport, their aggression or their need to feel powerful? Well face it, these days there are hundreds and thousands, millions of ways to satisfy such desires, from martial arts to paintball to skydiving to politics. Why should people still be running around the countryside looking for blood?