We need to talk about why trophy hunting is wrong

That combination of sport and subsistence is not unlike most hunting in America. I grew up in Alaska, where most people hunt something at some point in the year, mostly for food but also for recreation. As kids, my brothers and I had a hillbilly version of the royals’ pheasant hunt, which involved crashing through the woods to scare up and shoot as many spruce grouse as we could find. We always ate them, of course, but it was (and is) great fun to hunt them.

It’s the same for large game like moose and bear. Alaskans go to great lengths to find and shoot these animals, sometimes spending weeks in remote mountains and forests. If they’re successful, they might mount a moose rack or hang a bear hide on the wall, but the animals are almost always eaten. For moose in particular, subsistence is the primary reason for the hunt. For a family, bagging a moose can provide a year’s worth of red meat at a fraction of what it would cost to buy beef in the grocery store.

However, if the primary reason is merely to mount a rack or hang a hide, it would be difficult to justify taking these animals. Killing a wild animal for fun is no less ignoble than killing a pigeon or a feral cat for fun. It belies an imbalanced view of the world, and one’s self, and indulges a lust for violence that’s unhealthy.