ANIMAL AND HUMAN INTERACTION IN THE MODERN WORLD
Table of Contents
I.Introduction
II.Reasons of Hunting
III.Types of Hunting
IV.Legislation
V.Anti-hunting Movement and Hunting Support
VI.Hunting and Environment
VII.Conclusion
References
Introduction
During all history, the humankind has been closely interacting with animals. People has been breeding animals as food source, keeping as assistant during hunting, using as means of transportation, or even as companions for entertainment. Though this interaction has been playing an important role in mankind live since the human origin, it has become an object of serious research only recently. The related science got a name anthrozoology and rose mainly from psychology, zoology, and anthropology. The sphere of this science interests include questions regarding animals protection, human attitudes toward them, as well as benefits and costs of human-animal bonds (Hecht, 2016). Hunting is one of the frequent topics of the anthrozoology studies. This paper is devoted to the forms and reasons of hunting in the modern world. The related legislation questions are discussed as well as an analysis of the hunting influence on the environment sustainability.
Reasons of Hunting
Humans are omnivorous, which means that we eat both plants and animal food. The early human ancestors – Australopithecines had tailored tools for hunting as far as 6 million years ago (Wood, 1997, p.2). Since that time hunting has remained the basic or additional food and closing source for various cultures (however, some scientists believe that the first people were scavengers, not hunters (Binford, 2009, p.311)). Moreover, hunting was an important part of human culture, something worse of art depicture.
On the other hand, hunting has become an entertainment. A thrill, which a person feels chasing an animal, attracts hunters as, perhaps, danger attracts extreme sports lovers. It’s hard to say since when people has started to hunt for pleasure, but it’s clear that traditionally hunting is associated with masculinity, courage and adventure. For instance, one of the most ancient hunting “ode” in our culture is Odyssey by Homer: the hunting episodes are frequent and help to reveal the bravery and skills of the heroes (Bates, 2013, p.1).In the modern world hunting for food has lost its role, therefore the legal hunting is a form of the sport. Pleasure and thrill are the main reasons of hunting. The different situation is when we talk about poaching, which is often a well-gained illegal business. For example, the cost of the rhino horns is about $65,000-$95,000 per kilogram (Burkhardt, 2016). R.M. Muth and J.F. Bowe Jr. (1998, p.13-17) suggest the following reasons of poaching: commercial gain, household consumption, recreation (illegality of the action often gives more thrill), trophy poaching (it’s different from household consumption, as a person hunting for trophy is mainly motivated by the pride and feeling of accomplishment), thrill killing (it’s not a “thrill of the hunt” when hunters enjoy the whole process of hunting, but enjoying of watching animals die, such hunters don’t take anything (meat or trophy) of killed animals). The other …
