Animal Writings

Hunting is a $21 billion-a-year business, and the number of hunters in America has been declining steadily for the past 30 years. Unless this trend can be reversed, the hunting industry, including the manufacturers and sellers of firearms and ammunition, is going to see its profits go into a tailspin.

The centerpiece of their campaign to put deer rifles - which can easily kill a human being a mile away - in the hands of small children is a legislative proposal that is being introduced in state capitals around the country. This hunting industry legislation would do away with any minimum hunting age for children.

The only requirement would be that a parent be within arm's length of the child. Cynically, the industry argues that parents know best when a child is mature enough to use a firearm, and the government has no business interfering in what should be a family matter.

This is rank insanity. In every state, a person has to be 21 before he or she can drink. No one argues that parents should decide when their children are old enough to drink because everyone knows that while some families would make responsible decisions, some would not and the potential consequences for the community are too great.

Nationwide, children have to be at least 15 and, in many cases, 16 before they can drive a car. No one would suggest that a child of 10 or 11 be allowed to drive as long as a parent was in the front passenger seat, within arm's length.

Hunters have to make snap decisions to shoot or not to shoot under conditions of extreme emotional pressure. When a deer breaks into a clearing or a bird flushes in a whir of wings, there is no time for a child to ask a parent what to do. There is no time for a parent to restrain a child who is unwittingly, in the heat of the moment, about to shoot a human being.

The Humane Society of the United States is opposed to all sport hunting because we believe that killing animals for fun has no place in a civilized and humane world. But this recent effort compounds animal exploitation with the exploitation of children.