Hunting Utilitarianism

The hunting of animals is often a debate in the circle of animal rights. Do animals in nature deserve moral rights? Can humans be justified in disrupting the integrity, stability, and beauty of a biotic community? Are humans a part of nature and should we consider ourselves better or equal to the animals we hunt for sport, sustenance, and the thrill of the hunt? I personally believe that hunting should not be considered morally unjust because of the thrill and pleasure of hunting, being one with nature, and the fact that we have already harmed the biotic community so all we’re doing is being a part of what we’ve created. We are not a part of nature, but we can be a part of the version of nature that we’ve created over the years. In fact, I believe that it is our moral duty to be a part of what we’ve created to make amends. In my paper, I will explain not only why I believe hunting is not immoral, but also how not hunting is immoral.

Most of my subjective opinion on hunting comes from the ethical tool of Utilitarianism or the idea that the moral worth of an action comes from its level of utility. Utility being how much good can come from doing something that could be considered immoral. We can be both utilitarians and hedonistic utilitarians out in the wilderness. I back up this opinion because we continue to hunt because of how much pleasure we get out of hunting and by saying that we can do some measurable good in nature nowadays after years of torturing Mother Nature to almost a sex change. We’ve killed off most of the predators in the wilderness and have unfortunately hurt the ecosystem to the point where animals need us to kill them. Letting them freeze to death and go to waste would not be very utilitarian or even Kantian meaning respecting the animals as ends rather than means. As for how humans greatly benefit from hunting, the consequences would be enormous if we were to stop. There would be rotting animal corpses in many more areas, we would have a much higher rate of car accidents, and the mere pleasure of being as one with nature as you can get these days would be lost. The consequences of not hunting for animals and humans plus the pleasure as a form of utility that people get from hunting seem to outweigh the idea that hunting is immoral because of how so much good can come from it and how much bad can be prevented.