Editorial: Deer torture demands response
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It can be hard for some to reconcile the idea of hunting and a love of animals.
There are groups who will never accept it. The activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, for example, calls it unnecessary and cruel.
“Hunting might have been necessary for human survival in prehistoric times, but today, most hunters stalk and kill animals merely for the thrill of it, not out of necessity,” the group states on its website.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, likewise, opposes sport hunting even if the quarry is eaten, supporting nonlethal wildlife management strategies.
But as human growth has edged out other predators, hunting has become a bedrock way to control animal populations. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls it “both a wildlife management tool and an outdoor tradition.”
“By respecting seasons and limits, hunters help ensure that wildlife populations are sustainable. Funds from licenses … and excise taxes on hunting equipment and ammunition help purchase and set aside millions of acres for wildlife,” the agency states.
It is also a major industry. According to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Pennsylvania’s hunting and fishing funnels $1.3 billion into the state’s economy, with hunting responsible for half the participants and almost three times the expenditures.
But those 780,000 hunters don’t support unnecessary cruelty. Both hunters and PETA are among those condemning the actions of two Brookville- area teenage boys who videoed their torture of an injured deer and shared it on social media on the first day of Pennsylvania’s hunting season last month.
“Some of the loudest and most passionate messages have been from hunters across Pennsylvania and beyond,” the state Game Commission tweeted.
Charges are expected in the case, as they should be.
There is a distinct difference between the humane harvesting of an animal in the course of a lawful, regulated, state-licensed hunt that can provide enough meat to feed a family for months and the savage, gleeful torment that was inflicted in the video.