Hunters defend sport as good for Washington’s wildlife

While the outrage over the death of Cecil the Lion has since faded, some hunters, like David Boze on AM 770 KTTH, feel like they must defend themselves.

“There’s an effort that has been rejuvenated ever since the killing of Cecil the Lion to label hunting as this horrible thing that’s always bad, that it’s a detriment to wildlife,” Boze said.

It’s an issue that has cast a negative light on hunters, such as Boze.

“I noted and have seen at least a dozen depictions of hunters on the small screen, and every single one of them had something to do with being the villain,” he said.

But the depictions are far from reality, Boze claimed. And for those close to Washington’s hunting community, the truth is quite the opposite.

“You see that in movies too,” said Mark Pidgeon, president of Washingtonians for Wildlife Conservation. “It’s so far from the truth. It’s so far from what hunters actually do and the good things that we do.

“We are a non-partisan, non-political organization,” he said. “Our effort is to education the public on what the hunters do for the economy and for conservation.”

Pidgeon noted a few misconceptions about hunting:

“That hunting is detrimental to conservation. That because people hunt wildlife, populations go down,” Pidgeon said. “But if you look at the North American model of conservation, hunters are the reason why white-tailed deer populations recovered, elk recovered, wild turkey populations recovered, wood ducks too. The list goes on and on.”

Pidgeon cited government models of funding wildlife management, such as the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937, also known as the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act. It established hunting excise taxes to raise funds in order to restore habitats and populations that were on the decline. It has been in effect ever since.

Because of conversation approaches like that, Pidgeon said, Washington has a healthy wildlife management program. And the economy benefits as well.

“Hunters spent $300 plus million, annually, in Washington. About 219,000 people hunt in Washington, and of those, about 19,000 are from out of state,” he said. “The ripple effect from hunting is about $614 million. The Pittman-Robertson funds we pay go for conservation, the license and tag fees go for conservation. For 78 years, hunters have been paying to conserve. Wildlife exists because of hunting, not in spite of hunting.”

It’s quite a feat given that the majority of Americans do not hunt, according to Boze. Pidgeon claimed that the number of hunters are increasing, however.

Despite those numbers going up, Boze said that the negative impression of hunters remains, and he commonly has to defend his hobby.

“I was just asked the other day by a colleague, ‘Why do you hunt? Why do you do that?'” Boze said. “Because you feel a primal connection to your food and you feel a primal connection to nature. And besides, most years, if the past dozen years are any indicator, the safest place for an elk to be during hunting season is next to me. I have never ever harvested an elk.”