Anti-hunting is a term which is (often informally) used to identify or describe persons or groups, generally in a political context, who stand in opposition to hunting

Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

. It is also used to describe efforts to prevent hunting through legislation

Legislation

Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...

 and other means which can include acts of civil disobedience

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...

 such as hunt sabotage

Hunt saboteur

Hunt sabotage is the direct action that animal rights or animal welfare activists undertake to interfere with hunting activity.Anti-hunting campaigners are divided into those who believe in direct intervention and those who watch the hunt to monitor for cruelty and report violations of animal...

. Anti-hunting laws such as the English Hunting Act 2004

Hunting Act 2004

The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The effect of the Act is to outlaw hunting with dogs in England and Wales from 18 February 2005...

 are generally distinguishable from conservation

Wildlife conservation

Wildlife conservation is the preservation, protection, or restoration of wildlife and their environment, especially in relation to endangered and vulnerable species. All living non-domesticated animals, even if bred, hatched or born in captivity, are considered wild animals. Wildlife represents all...

 legislation such as the American Marine Mammal Protection Act

Marine Mammal Protection Act

The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 was the first article of legislation to call specifically for an ecosystem approach to natural resource management and conservation. MMPA prohibits the taking of marine mammals, and enacts a moratorium on the import, export, and sale of any marine mammal,...

 by whether they seek to reduce or prevent hunting for perceived

Perception

Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...

 cruelty

Cruelty to animals

Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with...

 related reasons or to regulate hunting for conservation

Conservation movement

The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....

, although the boundaries of distinction are sometimes blurred in specific laws, for example when endangered animals

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 are hunted.

While anti-hunting does not appear to be pejorative

Pejorative

Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...

 so much as descriptive, the term is widely used by pro-hunting, and traditional hunting conservation sources.

Geographic differences

It is difficult to compare strength of anti-hunting sentiment in different countries, for example because the word 'hunting' carries different meanings in the UK and United States. Nonetheless, it is more possible to compare the strength of the anti-hunting movement in different countries, with some having stronger organization, such as in the UK, and some being nearly without it, such as New Zealand. However, as can be seen in the results table, opinions can vary widely on different surveys even within the same country, and as in all market research

Market research

Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...

, consideration must be given to the wording of the questions, which can influence results.

Roots of the movement

The Burns Inquiry analysis of the opposition to hunting in the UK included social class

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

, sometimes proposed as a differentiating factor between hunting in the UK and hunting in the United States, as one among many anti-hunting concerns. Furthermore, they showed the UK's anti-hunting movement was itself only part of a wider, grassroots

Grassroots

A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...

 opposition to hunting in the UK. The Burns Inquiry reported that:

"There are those who have a moral objection to hunting and who are fundamentally opposed to the idea of people gaining pleasure from what they regard as the causing of unnecessary suffering. There are also those who perceive hunting as representing a divisive social class system. Others, as we note below, resent the hunt trespassing on their land, especially when they have been told they are not welcome. They worry about the welfare of the pets and animals and the difficulty of moving around the roads where they live on hunt days. Finally there are those who are concerned about damage to the countryside and other animals, particularly badgers and otters."

Opposition to hunting is not new. Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 dramatist W. S. Gilbert

W. S. Gilbert

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...

 remarked, "Deer-stalking would be a very fine sport if only the deer had guns."

The UK government's response to the call for bans on hunting, notably rabbit and hare coursing

Hare coursing

Hare coursing is the pursuit of hares with greyhounds and other sighthounds, which chase the hare by sight and not by scent. It is a competitive sport, in which dogs are tested on their ability to run, overtake and turn a hare, rather than a form of hunting aiming at the capture of game. It has a...

, has historically been to show its support for the interests of farmers, according to political historian Michael Tichelar. As recently as 2005, one anti-hare coursing

Hare coursing

Hare coursing is the pursuit of hares with greyhounds and other sighthounds, which chase the hare by sight and not by scent. It is a competitive sport, in which dogs are tested on their ability to run, overtake and turn a hare, rather than a form of hunting aiming at the capture of game. It has a...

 organisation referred to coursing supporters as being made up of "10% Nobs and 90% Yobs".

An element of class is absent from the hunting debate in the United States where there are not many obvious class

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

 differences in hunting habits. Instead the differences in anti-hunting sentiment relates to urban sprawl

Urbanization

Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....

 and increasing population density. Because of the abundance of public land

Public land

In all modern states, some land is held by central or local governments. This is called public land. The system of tenure of public land, and the terminology used, varies between countries...

 in the United States, as high as 75% of the land in some states, one need not be wealthy to have access to huntable land in less densely populated areas.

The democratic perspective on hunting in the United States started as a result of the reaction against English laws restricting game to the crown. This is one of the aspects of American culture which formed as a result of that nation's original high number of refugees from the UK and Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

.(see Enclosure movement

Enclosure

Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...

) A further difference between the context of debate on hunting in the UK and US is that US hunting is often licensed by Government, providing licence fee income to the state. In contrast to this, hunting in the UK has broadly required only the permission of the landowner or the owner of sporting rights over the land.

Opinion polls

Country	Polling Firm	Question	Date of polling	Source	Pro hunting	Anti hunting	Don't know/ no opinion
United Kingdom	MORI MORI Ipsos MORI is the second largest market research organisation in the United Kingdom, formed by a merger of Ipsos UK and MORI, two of the Britain's leading survey companies in October 2005...  for League Against Cruel Sports League Against Cruel Sports The League Against Cruel Sports are an animal welfare organisation that campaigns against all blood sports including bull fighting, fox hunting and hare coursing. It also campaigns to ban the manufacture, sale and use of snares, for the regulation of greyhound racing and for an end to commercial...  (n=2,032)	Do you think fox hunting should be made legal again?	5–11 September 2008	http://www.ipsos-mori.com/content/polls-08/public-opinion-on-hunting-with-dogs.ashx	16	75	9
United Kingdom	MORI for BBC BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...  (n=2,234)	To what extent do you support or oppose a ban on hunting with dogs?	Feb 2005	http://www.ipsos-mori.com/polls/2005/bbc-countryfile.shtml	26%	47%	27%
United Kingdom	MORI for RSPCA / IFAW (n=1,983)	Do you support the ban [on hunting with dogs] staying in place / being scrapped?	2–8 February 2007	http://www.ipsos-mori.com/polls/2007/ifaw.shtml	17	58	24
United States	Responsive Management	Do you approve or disapprove of legal hunting?	September 2006	http://www.responsivemanagement.com/download/news/newsrls_09_06.pdf	78	16	6
Northern Ireland	Millward Brown Millward Brown Millward Brown is a global company focused on brands, media and communications. It is part of Kantar Group, the insights arm of WPP plc, and the world’s second largest market research organization after Nielsen Company.-Leadership:...	Is fox hunting cruel?	20–27 March 2006	http://www.league.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_394.doc	11	79	10
United States	Responsive Management	Do you approve or disapprove of legal hunting?	1995	http://www.responsivemanagement.com/download/news/newsrls_09_06.pdf	73	22	5

See also

Animal rights Animal rights Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings... Animal welfare Animal welfare Animal welfare is the physical and psychological well-being of animals.The term animal welfare can also mean human concern for animal welfare or a position in a debate on animal ethics and animal rights... Bambi effect Bambi Effect "The Bambi effect" is a term used anecdotally or in editorial media that refers to objections against the killing of animals that are perceived as "cute" or "adorable", such as deer or dolphins, while there may be little or no objection to the suffering of organisms that are perceived as somehow...

Class struggle Class struggle Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle".... Conservation biology Conservation biology Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction... Conservation movement Conservation movement The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....

Hunt sabotage Hunting Hunting Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law... Hunting law

External links

• The Science and Sociology of Hunting: Shifting Practices and Perceptions in the United States and Great Britain from The State of the Animals II: 2003 ISBN 0-9658942-7-4
• American Hunt Saboteurs Association
• Bath and Bristol Hunt Sabs
• League Against Cruel Sports, anti-hunting page
• The Hunt Saboteurs Association
• http://www.helpinganimals.com/Factsheet/files/FactsheetDisplay.asp?ID=53Why Sport Hunting Is Cruel and Unnecessary – PETA
  Peta
  Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
  
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