SPCH 1315 P01

Professor Fuentes
April 21, 2014
Hunting: Wildlife Management

Introduction
I. Show picture of me holding the Aoudad. This is an aoudad. It is a wild goat that lives in
mountainous, dry areas. According to The Encyclopedia Britannica (2014),
It is considered vulnerable to extinction in all its natural range, where only scattered,
small populations survive but in the United States and northern Mexico [where they
were brought mostly for trophy hunting purposes] it has established thriving populations
there, where it outcompetes indigenous ungulates such as desert bighorn sheep. I actually
didnt use this aoudad as a trophy mount, but instead I used it for the meant as venison
and made jerky, sausage, burgers and steaks. Although, I did keep the horns as my
personal trophy.
II. So, you might ask Why should I care about hunting? Well, if people didnt hunt, they
would actually be doing more harm than good.
III. I am qualified to speak on this topic because I am an avid hunter myself, and I have done
research on this topic both on the field and off the field.
IV. In this speech I will talk about the history of hunting, the problems that would arise if we
didnt hunt and how these problems are solved because we do hunt.
Before telling you the problems, I first need to explain to you the history about hunting.
According to the Points of View Reference Center (2013),
Hunting is the practice of pursuing and killing game animals for food or as a form of
sport. Different forms of hunting include, most commonly, big game hunting (for large,
exotic animals, such as bear, caribou, moose, and elk) and small game hunting (for birds
and smaller species, such as rabbits and raccoons). Unlike poaching, which is the illegal
trapping or killing of animals, hunting is a legal sport regulated by laws that vary from
state to state The origins of hunting predate even our species, Homo sapiens. Before
the development of agriculture, wild animals and plants were the only sources of food for
ancient hominid species. Scientific studies of ancient skeletons have shown that
Neanderthals were largely carnivorous and hunted regularly both for food and to obtain
warm skins.
Body
I. Problem: Imagine opening your front door and seeing a herd of deer in your front yard,
or a herd of hogs that is destroying your garden. Or even a huge flock of doves nesting all over
your house eating all of your crops. Many of you might say, Oh that surely wont happen

SPCH 1315 P01
Professor Fuentes
April 21, 2014
because I dont live near a ranch or a forest, so it doesnt affect me at all. Oh, how wrong you
are. First off, what would happen if we stopped hunting whitetail deer? For one, deer have little
to no predators, except for one: humans. If we werent allowed to hunt, the rest of the
environment would suffer because there would be an overpopulation of deer. And deer, no
matter how cute they may seem because you watched Bambi when you were a kid, can destroy
their habitat and make it impossible for other species to live. How? Well, deer can eat almost
anything when stressed, and without hunting they would be very stressed. They eat almost any
plant, and those plants are necessary for other animals survival. Where there are too many deer,
the habitat for every other animal will suffer because they will devastate forests and ranches and
destroy other animals food and homes. So in other words, more animals will die and in fact
more people will die too as a result of more car collisions with deer. In fact, according to
abcnews.com (2010),
State Farm, the auto insurance company, said that while the number of miles driven by
U.S. motorists over the past five years has increased just 2 percent, the number of deer-
vehicle collisions in this country during that time has grown by ten times that amount.
Using its claims data, State Farm estimated that 2.3 million collisions between deer and
vehicles occurred in the U.S. during the two-year period. That's 21.1 percent more than
five years earlier. To put it another way, during the time it takes [me] to read this
paragraph, a collision between a deer and vehicle will likely have taken place.
Also, what would happen with an overpopulation of hogs, or wild pigs? They too, have no
predator except for humans. They probably do more damage than deer because they literally
plow into the soil, destroy the eggs of ground nesting birds and virtually every plant and animal
in their path. According to Smithsonian.com (2011),
Wild hogs are among the most destructive invasive species in the United States today.
Two million to six million of the animals are wreaking havoc in at least 39 states and four
Canadian provinces; half are in Texas, where they do some $400 million in damages
annually. Texas allows hunters to kill wild hogs year-round without limits or capture
them alive to take to slaughterhouses to be processed Thousands more are shot from
helicopters. The goal is not eradication, which few believe possible, but control. Wild
hogs are opportunistic omnivores, meaning theyll eat most anything. Using their extra-
long snouts, flattened and strengthened on the end by a plate of cartilage, they can root as
deep as three feet. Theyll devour or destroy whole fieldsof sorghum, rice, wheat,
soybeans, potatoes, melons and other fruits, nuts, grass and hay. Farmers planting corn
have discovered that the hogs go methodically down the rows during the night, extracting
seeds one by one.
Another animal that would become a pest if not hunted would be the dove. Right now we do not
see them as a pest in Texas, but in other places they are. In Argentina doves are pests that can

SPCH 1315 P01
Professor Fuentes
April 21, 2014
cost farmers dearly. The doves eat up to one third of the crops each year before harvest, so the
farmers are glad to see hunters. More hunters means fewer birds, which help Argentinian
farmers reduce crop losses that are a direct result of bird depredations.
Not hunting would do more damage than hunting. Our forests and ranches would be destroyed,
more animals would die because of overpopulation of a certain species and it would also harm
our agricultural economy.
II. Solution: What can we do to prevent this? Go out and hunt. Bacon wrapped doves taste
pretty great, and so does venison cooked almost any way. Even if you dont like to eat wild
game, you can still go out and hunt without the meat going to waste. According to
Foodbankrgv.com (n.d.), Hunters for the Hungry is a program where hunters can donate venison
and certain wild game to Texas Dept. of Health licensed and approved meat processors for
distribution to local food banks. This food will then be distributed to hungry families served by
agencies within that food bank's service area. Also, hunting helps the economy because you have
to buy a hunting license, and you have to have a gun or bow and arrow, and you have to buy
ammunition. All of those small things come into play because the money you pay for your
license goes back to help the preservation of wildlife, and some of the money you pay for your
guns and ammo are also donated by the producers. And most important of all, you would be
helping the environment by preserving it and keeping the wildlife populations steady. Regulated
hunting hasnt killed wildlife, it has actually improved it.
Conclusion
I. So what have I told you today? I have explained to you what hunting is and a little about
its history, I have provided examples of what problems would arise if we didnt hunt, and how
those problems are solved by hunting.
II. For many hunting isnt a sport. It is a way to be intimate with nature, that intimacy that
provides us with wild unprocessed food free from pesticides and hormones and with the bonus
of having been produced without the addition of great quantities of fossil fuel. I think if you
love nature, you should go out and hunt that way you can get more in touch with the food that
you are eating and you can see how beautiful nature really is.






SPCH 1315 P01
Professor Fuentes
April 21, 2014
Works Cited
aoudad. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/29241/aoudad
Hunters For The Hungry (- Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley)
http://www.foodbankrgv.com/HowToHelp/donate_food/Hunters_For_The_Hungry.aspx
Lee, M. (2013). Hunting: An Overview. Points Of View: Hunting, 1
Morthland, J. (2011, January 1). A Plague of Pigs in Texas. Smithsonian .
Oh Deer: States With the Most Collisions (ABC News) By: Mayerowitz, Scott. Retrieved from
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/deer-car-collisions-state-hit-deer-driving/story?id=11826266