When it comes to rallying support for hunting, we each have a sphere of influence to effectively work within – family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances we meet through friends and total strangers met by chance. Each encounter provides an opportunity to register a point of persuasion in support of hunting or, alternately, reinforce any misconception or stereotype they might believe.
Perhaps I end up in these conversations more often than most just by the given nature of working for the Sportsmen’s Alliance. When people ask how work is going or what I do for a living, I give the canned response and overview of our advocacy work. Inevitably, their reply at some point in the conversation consists of “I support hunting when it’s for X, but not if it’s for Y.”
When I hear some iteration of this comment, I know there’s a chance to sway the perception of hunting in the mind and memory bank of a non-hunter (this goes for firearms, too). To be clear, I’m not trying to convince them to hunt, to argue about hunting or to completely change their mind. Rather, my goal is to reaffirm the positive beliefs or facts they currently know, and then to give them facts around any myths they believe to be true. It might or might not completely change their mind on that single point, but it’s something for their brain to digest that could prove persuasive down the road (like when a legislative issue or ballot initiative comes up).
Most of my myth busting, not surprisingly, comes from the least understood or accepted methods and concepts – “trophy” or “sport” hunting, bait, hounds and trapping. The support for hunting I most often hear centers around safety (attacks), overpopulation issues (starvation and disease) and food. My anecdotal experiences mesh closely with research conducted on the topic. All this is to say, if you want to help change the perception of hunting, find common ground with that non-hunting person you’re having a conversation with while gently dispelling any misconceptions they might harbor.
This article originally appeared in The Sportsmen’s Advocate, Summer 2023. Join now to receive our quarterly magazine.
According to research by both the federal government and the outdoor industry, the most supported reasons for hunting by the general public include food, wildlife management issues and human safety. Wildlife management issues, such as overpopulation, and human safety matters, while highly accepted, pull in many variables including habitat loss, suburban sprawl, trash removal and many other topics that can lead you down a rabbit hole of larger issues and points of contention with people whose background, experience and perception of hunting vary greatly from your own. As with most arguments in this country right now, perspective and perception muddle the conversation.
However, food is a universal topic that we all use as a center point when gathering with family, friends and community during the holidays, birthdays and nightly in our own homes – it’s a universal tradition we all understand. And, it is the easiest place to begin to find common ground with a non-hunter, build rapport and open the conversation to other points pertaining to hunting – including funding mechanisms and benefits, impact to our economy, international and endangered species funding, habitat work of conservation organizations and, if the conversation is going well, the least supported reasons for hunting.
In 2019, Responsive Management, an internationally recognized survey research firm specializing in attitudes toward natural resources and outdoor recreation issues, found that 84% of the public supports hunting for meat (61% strongly approve). Likewise, 2017 research from the National Institutes of Health bumps that number even higher, finding that 87% of the public supports hunting when it’s done for food.
The Research Management survey shows strongest support for game animals traditionally thought of as food sources: deer (78% approval), wild turkey (78%), duck (74%), rabbit (72%), elk (66%) and squirrel (65%).
Those species with the least hunting support were predators and African game that many people don’t see as a food source: black bear (44% approval), grizzly bear (40%), wolf (39%), mountain lion (38%), African lion (14%) and African elephant (7%).
The National Institutes of Health survey found a strong correlation between people who knew hunters or had participated in hunting-related activities with having a more favorable opinion on hunting or hunters. In fact, it found that acceptance for hunting to obtain food jumped to 91% approval if the person just knew a hunter and rose even higher to 95% approval if the person had eaten wild game meat obtained through hunting.
Clearly, there’s a path that each of us can take within our own little worlds that can help promote the acceptance of hunting. Talk about hunting to non-hunters, but do it in the context of food in the beginning (as opposed to the hunt, shot or size of its rack). Garner trust and common ground discussing the benefits of wild game, such as how it’s high in protein, the fat is lean and beneficial, the organic and clean nature of the meat compared to store bought, and the wild, free life the animal lived.
Discuss the various cuts of meat and why those muscle groups are more tender or get turned into burger. Dispel myths about predators like bears and mountain lions not being eaten by telling them how lions are a tender white meat akin to pork and fattier bear can make amazing sausage. Share preparation steps and recipes with them to demonstrate how you honor the animal from field to fork, which will further draw them in and provide a peek into an unknown world unknown.
Go the extra mile and bring a package of snack sticks or jerky to the bar, appetizers to a holiday party or give a package of steaks to a friend with instructions on preparation (including cooking it rare to medium rare to keep it moist and tender, as well as marinades or rubs to use and side dishes).
Exposing non-hunters to our world through food is an easy way to further the conversation and acceptance of hunting in general. As your foundation of common understanding strengthens, you can filter in more education in the form of facts, trivia or statistics. If you build enough rapport, you can then begin to address more controversial and less accepted subjects around hunting – that trust you’ve built up through food and facts will predispose the person to listening to what you’re saying with a more open mind.
That impression you leave might change their opinion of some form of hunting on the spot, or it might linger in their mind for days. It could percolate to consciousness and undermine the next negative hunting headline that hits the news cycle or when a legislative bill or ballot initiative comes up. Imagine the impact America’s 15 million hunters could have if they did this with just a handful of people they each knew or met. All of us can do it, it’s just a matter of trying.
Most to Least Compelling Arguments for Hunting
Successfully addressing hunting arguments with people requires an understanding of where you are in the matrix of topics. More importantly, it requires knowing where the non-hunter you’re talking to is at in that same matrix, and then meeting them there and explaining things from that point forward. It won’t do much good to try to explain trapping if the only reason they accept hunting is as a food source; they’re just not ready to hear it.
However, if they acknowledge safety issues with predators such as bears, lions or coyotes, or mention habitat degradation due to over browsing by deer and the resulting starvation or disease that comes with that, then you can reaffirm that belief and begin to talk about things like how hunting, through Pittman-Robertson funding or conservation organizations, enhances and expands habitat while also keeping herds in balance with that habitat. From there, it’s a short jump to translating the funding mechanisms in the U.S. to similar issues in Africa, which opens the door to dispelling myths around “trophy” hunting there and in North America.
About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
