Canned Hunting

Canned Hunting

Canned hunting is a form of hunting that many people, even hunters find objectionable and immoral. What canned hunting means, is that people pay a great sum of money to kill confined animals bred and born in captivity and who have never been out in the wild. Many of these animals have been sold by zoos or by circuses who find that these animals, many of whom are older, are nothing but a commodity that can be sold even if the sale results in a violent and senseless death. Trophy hunting is also a term used for canned hunting. Killing a normally “difficult to hunt” animal, is one of the major reasons why people canned hunt. Another reason is just the simplicity of a canned hunt, knowing full well a “kill” is ensured. Canned hunters are looked down upon and criticized by hunters, who hunt in the wild, because it violates their ethics of hunting. Many also believe canned hunters, canned hunt, for just the entertainment purposes, and not the patience and rewarding feeling that comes along with hunting in the wild. For these reasons canned hunting, is a subject of controversy, and debated on whether or not it should be made illegal, based on the overwhelming amounts of petitions, and many who completely oppose of this form of hunting. A few states have already banned canned hunting, because of already established laws in those states. (States that have banned canned hunting are California, Delaware, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. States that have canned hunting, banned, to a lower extent are New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin)
Zoos play a major role of the, somewhat success, of canned hunting. Zoos continuously breed “money making” baby animals, which result in overflowing amounts of a certain animal. Zoos sell their “excess” or older animals and make their small restitution. Zoos, in their defense, say that they do not know what happens to the animals they sell. However, some zoos are known to sell to canned hunting facilities on a regular basis, and some even have them as active members of the zoo with influence to how the zoo operates. (These zoos include, but are not limited to, San Antonio Zoo, San Francisco Zoo, Kansas City Zoo, Houston Zoo, and Great Adventure)

A great amount of controversy has come from the recent events from Dick Cheney, during his canned hunt of quails. The quails were bred specifically to be released en masse so that hunters, who paid a great deal of money, could use them as targets—like skeet shooting. During Dick Cheney’s Canned Hunt, he inadvertently shot one of his friends. This has created much ridicule in the media, because of the fact that there is no real danger during a canned hunt, especially quail hunting. Canned hunting is most commonly advertised in hunting magazines and prices for a kill vary from animal to animal.(Prices for axis deer go up to $1,350, $1,500 for auodad sheep, S1,350 for fallow deer, $3,500 for elk, $4,500 for red sheep, and for the “penny pinchers” $50 for a easy boar kill.) Many believe hunting is for the thrill and randomness the wild brings to the experience, and not for just the kill, which makes many feel that Canned Hunting is nothing, but a blood sport.

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