Every year, 126,000 animals from Africa are imported into the United States. Even within the United States, 42 states allow trophy hunting contests. ¹Why is this barbaric practice still allowed? What part of killing innocent animals for “pleasure” instead of food sounds legal? The rules are complicated as to what you can and cannot hunt and where you can hunt, but in short, it is not flat out banned. It is time to make a change and protect these beautiful creatures. 

Why is Trophy Hunting a Problem? 

The glaring problem of trophy hunting is the pure injustice of it. Animals have money placed on their heads to be killed, and their role in the ecosystem and rights are completely disregarded. An argument that can be made is “What if the hunters need money for their family to survive? What if trophy hunting is the only job left for them?” Perhaps this is true in some cases, but there are many jobs in the world that are very fulfilling. Additionally, trophy hunting is a form of bragging and abuse. They post pictures of their big catch and are proud of it. If you were hunting these animals for your family you would not be posing in front of it on Facebook. Besides the outright evil these animals face, it poses a large threat on ecosystems. One removed species can change the whole dynamic of an ecosystem. For example, if many elephants are shot, there is less food for predators such as hyenas to eat. So, these predators eat more of other animals, causing a shortage in them. With a shortage of animals like gazelles, the few that are left have plenty of food to eat so they overeat their food, like plants. The lack of plants causes erosion and less food for other animals, endangering them. The eroded land cannot support the trees, and with a lack of trees there is a lack of shade. With no shade and no grass, the sun bakes the earth, killing many animals. By poaching one animal, not just that animal dies, but the life around it as well. 

What is the Point of Trophy Hunting? 

The point of trophy hunting is to make big money. Thousands of dollars are paid for an animal’s head or a rhino’s horn. If we chose to leave innocent animals alone and spent the money on restoring ecosystems or ending fossil fuels, the difference in the environment would be colossal. Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives would be spared and ecosystems would remain healthy, the way they should be. 

How Can We Stop Trophy Hunting? 

Unless you yourself are a trophy hunter there is not much that we can do, but the one thing we can do is being aware of what we purchase. A nice coat might actually be a lion’s mane, and what looks to be a high-quality purse is actually be the scales off a crocodile’s back. Trophy hunting is one of the easiest issues to fix, because all you have to do is not hunt the animals. But for the general public, the first step to preventing it is watching what we buy and being aware of the problem. 

Image: Komada, Kentaro. “brown wooden animal skull wall decor.” Unsplash, 26 April 2021, https://unsplash.com/photos/XZlOiFduEL4

1. https://worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/wild-earth/params/post/1285570/trophy-hunting-money-egotism-over-wildlife-survival