The following information disproves the many things proponents of hunting use.

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Hunters murder more than 130 million animals in the United States every year.

Commonly hunted species include: deer, bears, mountain lions, wolves, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, badgers, skunks, boar, moose, pronghorn antelopes, bobcats, ducks, turkeys, woodcocks, mourning doves, geese, grouse, swans, rabbits, hares, and squirrels.

Studies have shown that if a young person has not begun hunting prior to the age 18, it is unlikely they will ever hunt. With that said, the $21-billion-a-year hunting industry works with state wildlife agencies to recruit young men and women before they graduate from high school. A 1995 Fund for Animals survey revealed that three out of four states offered "hunter education" classes in public schools. These classes, which teach children how to kill animals in the name of so-called "sport," are often funded by the very state agencies mandated to conserve and protect our wildlife.

Most hunting today is done for "recreation - for the mere satisfaction of pursuing and killing an animal. Hunters generally target trophy animals; i.e. those with the largest racks (antlers), the biggest horns, etc. Often the prized parts are removed, while the rest of the body is left to rot in the field.

It is undeniable that humans have not only disrupted ecosystems across the globe, but have also contributed to the change of the natural controls that maintain wildlife populations.

Most state wildlife agencies are monitored by a non-elected commission (or council or board) whose members are usually appointed by the state governor. These commissions, vested with ultimate authority over wildlife management, are often comprised of hunters and trappers eager to ensure the perpetuation of their "sports."

Predators such as foxes, coyotes, and wolves are frequently killed so that more game animals, such as moose, deer, caribou, and birds, are available for hunters. The results of such mismanagement of wildlife can be disastrous, causing irreparable damage to the balance of local ecosystems.

Hunters often claim that hunting is a sport involving fair chase. However, a fair sport involves two individuals on equal ground who have a mutual agreement to participate in the activity. It is impossible to argue that an animal pursued by a hunter riding a snowmobile or off-road vehicle and equipped with high-powered firearms and electronic calling devices is a fair sport. Moreover, since hunting involves deliberate death, no mutual consent, and no outside judges, hunting can never be considered a "sport."

State wildlife agencies often state as opposing arguments, that our cities and rural lands would be overcrowded with wild animals if hunting wasnt allowed. However, the biological truth is that animals regulate their own populations, based upon available food and habitat. In nature, unaltered by humans, there is no such thing as a "surplus" animal.

Though our state wildlife agencies are required to protect wildlife and their habitats, their policies and regulations generally reflect a different agenda. The active promotion of sport hunting and the perpetuation of "game species" over the interests of non-hunters and "non-game species" clearly indicates whose interests these agencies serve.

A popular argument made by sport hunting groups is that hunters "live by their wits" and put food on the table through hard work, skill, and intelligence. A very small percentage of indigenous and rural hunters do kill animals as their main source of food. However, the vast majority of hunters do not. Licensed hunters spend $1.8 billion on hunting-related equipment in the U.S. and it is estimated that after license fees, equipment, and travel expenses, it costs an average of $20 per pound for a deer hunter to put venison on the table. This clearly disproves the argument that hunting your own food is more cost-saving and inexpensive.

Hunting has contributed to the extinction of animal species all over the world, including the Tasmanian tiger and the great auk.

Although less than 5 percent of the U.S. population hunts, it is permitted in many wildlife refuges, national forests and state parks, and other public lands. Forty percent of hunters kill animals on public land, which means that every year, on the half-billion acres of public land in the U.S., millions of animals who belong to the more than 95 percent of Americans who do not hunt are slaughtered and maimed by hunters, and by some estimates, poachers kill just as many illegally.

Even when unusual occurrences cause temporary animal-overpopulation problems, natural processes quickly stabilize the overpopulation problem. Starvation and disease are unfortunate, but they are natures way of ensuring that healthy, strong animals survive and maintain the strength of the entire herd or group. Shooting an animal because he or she might starve or become sick is capricious and harmful. It will do nothing to promote the balance of nature.

Sport hunting not only endangers natures balance, but also creates other problems. For example, the transfer of captive-bred deer and elk between states for the purpose of hunting is believed to have contributed to the epidemic spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD). As a result, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has given state wildlife agencies millions of dollars to manage deer and elk populations.

Ted Turner, who owns more land than any other landowner in the nation, operates 20 ranches where hunters pay thousands of dollars to kill bison, deer, African antelopes, and turkeys.

Most hunting occurs on private land, where laws that protect wildlife are often inapplicable or difficult to enforce. On private lands that are set up as for-profit hunting reserves or game ranches, hunters can pay to kill native and exotic species in canned hunts. These animals may be native to the area, raised elsewhere and brought in, or purchased from individuals who are trafficking unwanted or surplus animals from zoos and circuses. They are hunted and killed for the sole purpose of providing hunters with an exotic trophy.

Canned hunts are becoming big business; there are an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 game preserves in the U.S.

Animals on canned-hunting ranches are often familiar to humans and are usually incapable of escaping the enclosures, which range in size from just a few yards to thousands of acres across. Most of these ranches operate on a no kill, no pay policy, so it is in the owners best interests to ensure that clients get what they came for. Owners do this by offering guides who know the location and habits of the animals, permitting the use of dogs, and supplying feeding stations that lure unsuspecting animals to food while hunters lie in wait. This is planned and guaranteed death.

Several recent studies suggest that sterilization is an effective, long-term solution to overpopulation. A method called TNR (trap, neuter, and return) has been tried on deer in Ithaca, N.Y., and an experimental birth-control vaccine is being used on female deer in Princeton, N.J. One Georgia study suggested for 1,500 white-tailed deer on Cumberland Island concluded that herd size in closed populations can be regulated in the field relatively quickly if fertile and sterile animals can be identified and an appropriate sterilization schedule is generated.