Content Warning: Graphic description of dead animals. Reader discretion is advised.
It has always seemed to me that hunting and conservation exist on opposite ends of the spectrum. How can you care about protecting a species while simultaneously seeking to kill it? Or do hunters only want to keep animals around for future sporting possibilities?
In learning about the organization Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society, at first I was completely appalled.
The organization exists as a forum for discussion, education and socialization for Bighorn sheep hunting enthusiasts in Colorado. Their photo galleries are filled with images of dead sheep post-hunt, and proud hunters holding their heads up to face the camera. The worst one showed a hunter with the head of a sheep he had just killed strapped to his backpack. The images are tragic and feel unnecessarily callous.
Despite the horror of the photos in their galleries and magazine editions, the mission of the organization seems quite tame.
“Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society is dedicated to the conservation and enhancement of bighorn sheep populations in Colorado and throughout the west. We promote scientific wildlife management and educate the public about the natural history and conservation needs of bighorn sheep,” per their website’s mission statement.
Upon further inspection, the RMBS actually works with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to raise money for Bighorn conservation efforts by auctioning off hunting permits and recording the success stories in their quarterly magazine.
Their website reports raising over three million dollars for Bighorn conservation, and CPW praises them on their website for their assistance in trapping and relocating Bighorn Sheep within the state to bolster the health of herds.
If they’ve done so much to benefit Bighorn sheep, do their motives really matter? Maybe in individual judgments of character, but as a whole the organization has done a lot of good for conservation.
Hunting for fun is not something I will ever be able to wrap my brain around, but the answer to this dilemma applies to the recent wolf issues too– humans and conservation need to find a balanced way to coexist. If the promise of a possibility of a hunt keeps Bighorn populations thriving on hunter donations, perhaps this isn’t an immoral system.
