Are US hunters becoming an endangered species?
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM CASH Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting
December 2019

There is a demographic time bomb facing the US hunting industry as older hunters quit the sport at a faster rate than younger ones can replace them.

Originally published on BBC.com.

Bighorn Ram - image from Jim Robertson, Animals in the Wild

Fewer and fewer Americans are taking up hunting every year, prompting some advocates to express concern for the future of the pastime, as well as the wildlife and nature conservation that hunters’ fees support, writes Jonathan Berr.

Hunting has become a curiosity rather than a necessity for many people, says Mike Busch.

When he tells people that for more than a decade he’s only eaten meat from animals he’s hunted, the New Jersey resident is peppered with questions from people who think that his chosen diet is “cool” and from those who wonder what he has against supermarkets.

“It was a whole different world when I grew up hunting,” Busch tells the BBC. The 52-year-old activist has hunted for more than four decades.

“There was a whole lot of camaraderie among hunters. A lot more people ate what they killed.”

There is a demographic time bomb facing the US hunting industry as older hunters quit the sport at a faster rate than younger ones can replace them.

It’s a problem that is decades in the making and presents challenges for US wildlife conservation, which is funded by licence sales and taxes on hunting gear. 

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