An Open Letter to Anti-Hunters

To all the anti-hunters,

 I hope you read what I am writing and please take it to heart. I don’t plan to change you with this letter. I have no plans to try and make you hunter or even an ally to hunters with this. I just hope you take the time to read this so you have the chance to see things from my point out of view.

      I would like to start out by saying I feel I relate to anti-hunters more so than they may think. I do not agree with all hunting and all forms. I do not agree with hunters who do not eat the meat or do not use every usable part of the animal. I do not support trophy hunters or just hunting for the thrill. With all this said, I will now get into my defense of hunting.

     I have spent my life in the outdoors for as long as I can remember. The majority of that time has been spent hiking, fishing, hunting, trapping, and fishing. I have hunted turkeys in the Finger Lakes region of New York. I have hiked through the San Juan National Park in Colorado. I’ve snorkeled through the coral reefs of the Florida Keys alongside barracudas and I’ve done a wealth on all the land in-between. I include all this to let you know that I am well versed on the land and wildlife issues in the United States because I have been there to witness it myself.

     I feel I should also include background on why I hunt. My family has hunted for generations because hunting was a cheap way to secure a large of amount of quality meat. This is no longer the case, my father got better work, now we could easily buy a half of a cow and have all our meat for the year. My father and I looked at it though, and we decided we did not like the conditions that farm animals spend their lives in. It seems to us that farm animals do not have a great life, and if we are going to end an animals life so that we may consume it, we would rather it be a wild animal that lives and wild free life, that has one bad day at the end.

      I go even deeper into this on my own end. I made my own personal decision, that if I do not go out and harvest my own free range meat, than I would become a vegan rather than eat meat raised on a farm. I also choose to do my hunts on public lands with challenging terrains. I choose these physically exerting hunts as I feel it is only fair, if I am to consume an animal, than it is only right that part of me is consumed as well.

     Now that I have defended my reasons to hunt, I would like to point out the good that hunters and hunting does on a larger scale. Hunters spend an enormous amount on conservation, whether it is through donations or purchasing tags and licenses. According to the rocky mountain elk foundation hunters in total give 1.6 billion dollars a year to conservation They also help stimulate the economy as hunters spend about 38 billion dollars a year on retail hunting equipment. Outside of money hunters also help make an impact by donating excess game meat to those in need. In 2019 2.8 million pounds of game meat was donated to people in need and this provided them with over 11 million meals.

      As I said before, my goal with this letter was not to change your mind, but to let you see from my perspective that hunting can be a force of good. I hope that reading this letter you were able to learn something and take away some good information about hunters and the hunting industry.

Yours Truly,

Jimmy Kuhn