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About Hunting


	©iStockphoto
	She could easily lose her mother to a trophy hunter.

All animals—including those who live in the wild—have a right to live in a humane world where they will not be the victims of cruelty for sport. The HSUS Hunting Campaign works to end the most egregious forms of hunting that exist today. Our priority campaigns are outlined below, but the Hunting Campaign takes aim at unscrupulous hunting practices wherever they crop up. If you want to cry "foul" on something you've seen, please let us know.

Canned Hunting

A signature campaign and a top priority for The HSUS is banning canned hunts, where captive, often tame animals are shot within fenced enclosures at close range. They are often exotic animals like addax, blackbuck, and oryx, sometimes obtained from roadside circuses and zoos. Twenty states have banned canned hunts, and many others are working on legislation.

Internet Hunting

Internet hunting was quickly recognized as a bad idea when it was introduced in Texas a few years ago. Animals are confined in fenced enclosures, and "hunters"—perhaps a thousand miles away—aim a gun at an animal over the Internet and fire with the click of a mouse. Luckily, the practice was swiftly banned in its state of birth and has been preemptively banned in 33 other states.

Contest Kills

We campaign against contest kills, an activity where animals, usually coyotes or prairie dogs, are shot by contestants for prizes or money. The shooter who can shoot the most or heaviest animals is declared the winner. The Hunting Campaign intends to stop contest kills wherever they occur.

Live Pigeon Shoots

Pigeon shoots are contest kills—illegal in nearly every state—in which participants kill thousands of pigeons for prizes and cash. The birds are shot from 30 yards away, with most wounded rather than killed outright. The Hunting Campaign is working to ban the remaining few live pigeon shoots.

Pheasant Stocking

Nineteen state wildlife agencies are currently in the business of rearing non-native pheasants and releasing them for sport hunting. The pen-reared birds lack survival skills and have little chance to escape shooters or predators. We hope to challenge the wildlife management community to reevaluate its role in providing this inhumane and artificial hunting experience.

Polar Bears

Facing habitat loss and melting sea ice as the climate warms, polar bears are not only struggling to stay afloat—they’re dodging bullets. Unscrupulous trophy hunters trek to Canada to bring back the heads and pelts of these magnificent bears. Bringing sport-hunted trophies into the country was once prohibited, but in 1994 a new loophole in the Marine Mammal Protection Act allowed in more than 800 trophies.

Un-Bearable Practices

Like polar bears, black and brown bears are a popular target for hunters because of their large size. This also means that unsporting shortcuts like baiting bears with food and hunting them with hounds are common.

Targeting Children

The number of U.S. hunters is declining steadily, leaving the hunting industry scrambling for ways to keep this $20-billion-a-year industry profitable. Their solution is recruiting children by lowering or eliminating minimum hunting ages [PDF] and exempting children from hunter safety courses. We oppose such actions because they place children in unnecessary danger and teach them that animals are nothing more than live targets.

Read about our recent victories.

See the Video

Canned Hunts

Cape Fear

Can't Bear It

Internet Hunting: Killing for Couch Potatoes

Contest Kills

Pheasant Stocking

Un-Bearable Trophy Hunting