As far as I know (and I really haven’t given it any great thought or research), the individual states set their own requirements. A hunter can get a doe license if he or she wishes, or is only hunting for meat. Most hunters seem to want a trophy as well, so many more buck licenses are sold.
I’ve read every post here, and didn’t find an answer to DrMatrix’s question. The part about choosing to shoot a “sickly diseased animal”. I think it’s an interesting question.
Also, why do so many hunters choose to kill predators? Few are good to eat. Wolves, Coyotes, Mountain Lions and other predators do tend to kill the weaker animals.
I am not anti-hunter. It’s just that some hunters (a lot) are abusive of the concepts of hunting expressed here.
Peace,
mangeorge
Well Quicksilver how about we close all the hospitals and get rid of all the doctors? If we are going to apply your theory of wildlife management lets make it totally fair and include the human wildlife also.
The point is not to kill the ill, but make a smaller population to compete for limited resources. Your house is sitting where their dinner table used to be.
I’ve seen pictures of a straving herd in the 1920’s and it was terrible.
I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve heard that meat-eaters taste bad. And most meat-eaters will also eat carrion if it’s the only thing available.
For the record, I am 100% opposed to sport hunting.
I was going to ask another question here, but it’a too far from the OP. So I’ll start another thread,
Peace,
mangeorge
Population Control:
If the carnivores have been killed off, some force has to keep the deer population in check. That could be starvation, professional hunting or recreational hunting.
But this is puzzling. Does anyone have a cite to suggest that a variety of carnivores cannot sufficiently control the deer population? (And jeez, how much land does your dad own?)
This non-hunter thinks it’s great. If you grow crops, endangered carnivores can be a deadly nuisance. If Westerners (like myself) wants to preserve ecosystems in desperately poor countries, they have to give them some incentive to do so. My understanding is that photo/backpackers like myself tend to spend a small fraction of what big game hunters do. Keep paying those big bucks!
No, you don’t have to justify it (at least to me). But this non-hunter is still curious. Do you perceive fishing or fast driving as satisfying a “deep primal urge”? I figure if it was overwhelmingly primal there would be a lot more hunters.
I suspect this is not the case for most hunters, but I appreciate the comment: it is surely a motivation for some.
Keep those hyjacks coming. For those interested, in another thread http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=51403, Scylla penned a pretty good narative on why he likes hunting.
Kimstu indicated that we keep the deer population down because with the ‘natural way’, population can explode to a level where it is detrimental the rest of the environment (short sum-up, I’m too lazy to quote).
To further this line of thought, where I live (in Wisconsin), I have heard (if y’all need a cite, I will try to run one down) the deer population is larger than it was before Europeans arrived. This is due in part to removal of predator species, but due more to change in environment. Wisconsin has lost much of its forest cover and is now FILLED with farmland (and no, not just dairy farms). Your average corn farm can support a much larger deer population than the same acreage of forest. If we removed the major predator (which at this point is the human), the deer population would continue to increase until the environment could not sustain their numbers.
Any guesses on what most of this overly large population would turn to if when all of their ‘natural’ (non-human grown) food supplies are gone? They will continue to grow the population on cropland, to the detriment of the human population, which does depend on man grown crops for food.
In other words, yes, hunger would eventually lower the deer population if we took a hands off approach. Unfortunately, they would be munching on ‘our’ food while their population climbs. (As it stands, they do a decent amount of crop damage already, and I have heard farmers refer too deer as ‘tall rats’).
—And no, I am not a farmer either (lives in Wisconsin, does not farm or hunt, all you from the coasts must think I’m an aberration)….
I support hunting if the meat is used; I have issues with strictly “sport” hunting. Of course, then we get to the point of “what happens when hunting is again needed for population control in carnivores” and I haven’t thought it through that far, to be perfectly honest.
Besides, aren’t most leopard species endangered or on some kind of cautionary list?
Can you clarify what you mean? I’m a little confused.
Flow, my dad owns 365 acres in the beautiful UP of Michigan, a land covered with spreading stands of conifers…and swamps. 
40 acres of his land is old pasture, there is the original farm house that he’s rehabbed, plus some outbuildings (being a good Finn, we have a sauna too!).
Actually photography is an expensive hobby.
You can buy a used shotgun for as little as $85.00 or so. The gun,a box of shells and a hunting licence and you can be eating squirrel and or rabbit and or pheasant More licecnce and you can eat duck or goose. Even more licence and venison could be on your table.Then there is elk moose bear…
For the same money you could buy a used AE1 but no lenses,tripod film etc.
Have you ever taken a picture of a deer and when you got the pictures back you could only make out a dot.Well thats what you’ve got without a very good telephoto lense.
So far, the response to the OP seems to be (1) for meat and (2) for population control.
I’m not convinced. Admittedly, I don’t know many hunters, but the ones I’ve talked to seemed to do it for fun. They seemed to prefer a trophy over meat and they certainly weren’t discussing the current status of the deer population at the time.
I do live in the Northeast, where there is less wilderness and less of a hunter population, so I may be missing out on the overall hunter mindset. Deer meat is certainly not a big ticket item in this area.
And what about hunting animals other than deer? Is the squirrel and duck population suddenly getting to be too big? Are squirrels tasty?
I agree with DrMatrix’s question. If population control was the goal, then the sickly animals should be targeted, not the healthiest.
And then there’s bow hunting which seems to be an unnecessary cruelty given that the animal’s death is slower.
Overall, I see rationalization to cover-up the thrill of the kill. I can understand the fun of the hunt, but I agree with the OP that the kill is unnecessary in most cases.
Squirrel meat is pretty tasty, but really, not worth the trouble. I have to admit that I’m a big coward. The very thought of shooting an animal fills me with dread, so I only eat animals that other people have killed. I can handle the sight of a dead and skinned squirrel/deer/whatever, but the thought of taking the life of said creature makes me want to cry.
I know, I should be a vegetarian rather than a hypocrite, but I’m not. Feel free to flame me.
As someone else said, it depends on the state and the time of year. There are also regulations about the type of weapon…guns, crossbows, etc. for different times of the year.
My husband went hunting over Thanksgiving weekend and was only allowed to go after bucks. I think they can get does at a different time of year. I’m not sure of the specifics here in MD, I just know he could only get a buck.
He enjoys the hunt…no, he is not one to spend all day in a tree stand. He will use one sometimes, but he would rather track a deer. More sportsmanlike, I guess.
We now have a freezer full of meat, and in fact I just took out some venison steaks this morning for dinner tonight.
I don’t know if anyone has noticed my post in snow etc etc but we have 18inches of snow on the ground right now.
It will be the death of most of the pheasant population.
Squirrels bury in the ground much of the food it stores for winter and is often seen hunting for corn in nearby corn fields in the middle of winter.
Rabbits are pretty hardy and will burrow into a snowbank for food if it can find any.
Deer founder in the deep snow and have a harder time than most if there is a crust of ice on the snow.
Coyotes have dificulty in the deep snow too.
All the wintering birds will have dificulty surviving.
Surviving.Thats what they do in the winter.
We can help them by relieving the over population pressure.
We haven’t had a bad winter for several years now and this looks to be one of the bad ones.Record snow and colder than normal -11 this morn. Normal is +32.
I hope you’re not in the medical profession.
dove hunting is popular here in texas. besides good eating, doves are a challenge to shoot. they fly very fast at different elevations and can twist and turn unpredictably. at a good location that attracts a lot of hunters, it’s also a challenge not to get shot yourself. the limit of 15 per day can feed 4 people. there’s a certain feeling of self-reliance that comes from hunting, cleaning, cooking, serving, and eating your own food. this is definitely not a type of hunting that can be substituted with photography.
You keep bringing up the “over population” thing.
Think it through. As others have stated here, nature deals with this problem by taking the weakest. This tends to strengthen the gene pool.
Hunters seek to harvest the prime specimens, which may weaken the gene pool.
I grew up with hunters. I’ve gotten drunk and stoned and had earnest conversations with these guys. I’ve been on a couple of hunts, and know that an instant kill is a rare thing indeed. I know that a lot of hunters feel at least a twinge of guilt, or remorse, when they kill an animal, and that these feelings are usually covered up with a lot of bluff and bravado.
So I guess my point is, if you don’t really like to kill, why not take photographs. All the fun of a hunt, but no bad dreams.
Peace,
mangeorge
Another Wisconsinite weighing in. I’m with the “don’t lie about population control” crowd, but with a slight bit of confusion (the OPs put me in quite the dither!). I understand that an overpopulated herd can cause quite a bit of damage, and all I can say is, “Stop shooting the damn wolves!!!” My hometown (near Eau Claire) had two large predators in the area–a brown bear and a timberwolf. Both were shot. Why? Largely, I suspect, due to farmer’s fears for their cattle. Unfortunately, bears and wolves probably don’t eat fenced-in, barned up cattle at night. But I digress.
I don’t understand sport killing or getting that trophy rack for your living room. My father hunts elk in CO every winter (much to our chagrin), but at least he brings home his portion of the meat. And we eat it. But not every hunter does–some only go for that trophy. My grandfather poached in CO to feed his family–he couldn’t afford to buy from the grocer’s. He would’ve been arrested if caught, yet some hunters only go for the stuffed head (or whatever) and nothing happens. This angers me.
Yet we are stuck–we’ve created the environment, now we’ve got to live with the ramifications of those changes. And try to fix them. However, WI’s deer herd this year was one of the largest on record, and hunting seasons have been extended all around. This in spite of all the previous hunting seasons we’ve had–our “control” does not seem to be working. And driving in October towards twilight is increasingly scary.
I guess I don’t know what the solution is–maybe education to farmers (and other assorted people, I don’t mean to pick on one group) that predators are not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe a year-round hunting season–would this decrease the “trophy hunters” salivating for hunting season to start and increase those who hunt for food? Or would this be too disasterous? I don’t know–ideas?
Snickers
As I have recently mentioned on another thread - I don’t see how shooting and eating a deer is less desireable than eating the meat of an animal that was born and bred (under rather miserale conditions, often.) That seems to be the case with most commercially-produced meats that you find in grocery stores. These animals do not have the relatively “normal” lives that wild game do. And, as has been mentioned before, they are often pumped full of hormones, etc. At least the deer was probably happy happy happy until one day, BAM! (if the hunter is good at their job) and it’s all over. I don’t think the same can be said for animals raised in factory farms, which apparently can be quite appalling sometimes.
I am a vegetarian, so I’m out of all of this. Don’t want to eat (or kill) a deer, a squirrel, or anything. It does not appeal to me. So pardon me if I do not see such a great distinction between someone eating the meat of a dead cow or chicken, or a dead deer. In the end, it’s still a dead animal on your plate. And no, I am not criticising or judging the meat-eater. (I don’t want to eat any meat - so that means more for you, OK?) But I don’t get it. Could someone explain, please?
Hunters might be able to correct me on this, but I think year-round hunting would be disastrous because you risk taking away the parents from the fawns.
To yosemitebabe:
You’re right. There is no difference between shooting it yourself or buying it from the store. A dead animal on your plate is still the result.