Viewer Survey: Conservation and Hunting

Do you believe that hunting wild cats can actually aid in wild cat conservation?

Absolutely : 14%

Sometimes : 8%

Rarely : 10%

No : 59%

Not Sure : 9%

Total Votes : 1690

Many people are surprised to find out that hunting is already a widely accepted part of wildlife conservation, and yes this does already include the hunting of wild cats. Hunting proponents argue that taking a certain number of cats aids in conservation by raising money for conservation via hunting licenses and related services. The idea is that the cats have become useful, so they have earned their keep. Some hunting opponents claim that the taking of any cats further endangers the population because feline population levels are not really known - they are estimated, and the estimates tend to have large margins of error. Where law making is concerned, conservation issues often turn in to battles about human rights - the right to hunt and the right to make a living off of the land. So the question about hunting and conservation is really more about politics than wildlife management. Survey respondents who love cats and avoid politics probably answered with "no" or "rarely" because they have no compelling reason to allow for the killing of cats. Respondents who want to save the cats but have been engaged in the legal language of conservation would be more likely to answer with "yes" because they seek the compromise that will help to gain more widespread acceptance of wild cat conservation. Due to the difficulty of determining how many cats remain and the true causes of population fluctuations, we may never be able to prove one way or the other if this compromise has done any good.