Are Trophy Hunting Ethical Or Unethical?

Throughout history, human civilization has made its way to the pinnacle of the food pyramid, making them the apex predators of this planet. Currently, a multitude of people are exploiting the previously mentioned rank, not because of necessity, but for sport; an activity more commonly known as trophy hunting. It might have been justifiable to kill animals in an ancient time, as humans would have needed their meat to survive; however, now that the human race has evolved from nomads to settlers, hunting animals has become unnecessary. Therefore, trophy hunting is not essential to daily life, even to those who find chasing wild beasts amusing. This is an activity that has been deemed unethical by many, showing that it has a serious impact on

This creature’s habitat was a reserved sanctuary in Zimbabwe where hunting was illegal. However, Dr. Walter J. Palmer, an experienced hunter, managed to lure the lion out into the area where he was legally allowed to hunt it; he achieved this by leaving a dead animal on top of his car as prey, which would attract the lion. The head of Zimbabwe’s safari association argued that Walter’s actions were unethical, as they denied any chance of survival to the lion (Tampa Bay Times, 2015). Many others debated the ethics of this hunt. For instance, the President of the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe, Emmanuel Fundira, emphasizes that baiting an animal contradicts the basic foundation of ethics, as animals should be given a “fair chase” (Tampa Bay Times, 2015). This incident sparked many people to question the morality of trophy hunting. For example, Austrian film director Ulrich Seidl, recently created a documentary titled “Safari”, that showed the experience of trophy hunting. In an interview with the cable news network CNN, he commented that "looking at the bigger picture, we have to ask ourselves where humanity is and where are we standing, and how much more can we abuse nature” (Page, 2016). Like him, others agree that killing different types of animals as a form of entertainment is morally incorrect. Although some people might accept that trophy hunting is unethical,

According to journalist Norimitsu Onishi, since many trophy hunts occur in “communal lands”, villagers will get a percentage of the fees paid by hunters (Onishi, 2015). However, independent journalist Beenish Ahmed claims that since many of the regions trophy hunting is legal have corruption, the amount of earnings a village would receive becomes minimal or maybe even non existent (Ahmed, 2015). This becomes a significant issue, since many citizens are in serious need of this money. Hence, trophy hunting will probably not benefit any citizens of these countries, therefore it should be terminated, as it becomes insignificant to the citizens, and destructive for the animals. Additionally, he emphasized that a dead animal loses a lot of profitable potential. To demonstrate this, he commented that the ivory of a poached elephant can earn about $21,000 on the black market, however, throughout its life, it can earn up to $1.6 millions through ecotourism, which is a form of tourism directed towards exotic animals; examples of this can be photography and sightseeing. Many would consider this to be an alternative to trophy hunting, as it does not harm any animals, and it earns very high levels of