Some of you may recall a couple of posts last month in which several of us responded to an email message from a young lady named, Jessica.  For those who don’t recall, here’s a real quick background.

Jessica had seen my personal hunting website  while doing some research for a school paper.  After scanning the site, she sent me an email expressing her personal distaste for hunting, at the same time; she asked for information to support her thesis that hunting is dangerous to hunters and the environment. 

You can review the threads here, and here, to read the entire exchange.

Anyway, as she promised, Jessica has sent along her essay to be published here.  I want to thank her for sticking to her promise, and for allowing me to share this with you all.  But before I do, there are a couple of things I want to make clear.

First, Jessica is 15 years old.  Any comments or responses you make will be respectful of her age (and respectful of the other readers here for that matter) or they will be removed.  You may or may not agree with what she has to say, and feel free to speak up either way, but keep it clean and keep it pertinent. 

Also, I have chosen not to dissect this paper on grammatical or structural technicalities.  While reading it, I often had to swat down my training as an English teacher and resist the urge to take a red-pen to the document.  That’s not why she’s sharing this with us, and I’d appreciate if you could all exercise the same restraint.   Feel free to debate her logic and conclusions if you will, but let’s not turn this into a grammar excercise.  Her high school teacher can tend to that.

Finally, I promised to let her share this paper with you, the Hog Blog readers.  I will provide my own response to her essay in a moment, but for now be assured that her words represent her own opinion and the results of her own research.  They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the establishment.  She kept her promise by sending the essay, and I’m keeping mine by publishing it.   

OK, enough of that.  Here’s Jessica’s paper in its entirety.  The only changes I’ve made were to format it for the blog.

Dangers of Hunting!

There are many people that say that hunting is not dangerous, and that they are helping the environment. Although there is logical proof that hunting is dangerous, such as a report on Turkey hunting being most dangerous, and deer hunting being most deadly. Turkey hunters have higher rates of shooting – related injuries, than hunters hunting of other species. “ In fact, the study found that hunters’ chances of being shot depend both on what they’re hunting, and the hunters’ ages, with the highest injury rates reported in hunters under the age of 20,” says Gene Lengerich. In the article published by Penn State publishers, it stated that in March of 2005, there were 1, 345 hunting-related shooting incidents, that happened in Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1999. And that the incidents were categorized by the species hunted, which were: white- tailed deer, turkey (fall), pheasant, grouse, rabbit, squirrel, and turkey (spring).

Also stated in this report, is that there were 1,382 injuries, and 77 fatalities, accounting for nearly 92 percent of all hunting- related shooting injuries, and 93 percent of fatalities. Also, fall turkey hunters seem to account for the highest shooting-related injury rate of 7.5 per 100,000 hunters, and grouse hunters at the lowest at 1.9 per 100,000 hunters. And 10.3 percent of fatalities was highest for deer, and the lowest for pheasant at 1.3 percent. Also, written in the New York Times, there was an article about a dog who shot 37 year old James Harris, in Iowa . “ He took between 100 to 120 pellets in about a four-inch circle to his calf.” Mr. Harris was shot after putting his gun down to retrieve a bird that he had shot, and the dog stepped on the gun, and tripped the trigger, shooting Mr. Harris at a close range of about three feet away.
 
Another story retrieved was about Vice President Dick Cheney, who accidentally shot and wounded a prominent Austin, Texas, lawyer on Saturday February 12, 2006, at 5:30 p.m. While they were qual hunting in South Texas, vice president Cheney fired his shotgun at the man, while trying to aim for a bird. Mr. Whittington, 78, was taken by helicopter to Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition in the intensive care unit on Sunday, according to Michele Trevino, a hospital spokeswoman. Mrs. Katharine Armstrong says that Mr. Cheney, 65, fired his shotgun without realizing that Mr. Whittington had approached the group, hitting him on his right side, on his cheek, neck and chest. Afterwards Harry Whittington was happy to see that he was doing fine. And after getting out, during the Bush- Cheney re-election campaign, Mr. Whittington contributed two-thousand dollars. In previous information, a Science Daily report stated that, “ Compared to other hunters, turkey hunters had the highest injury rate, were typically older and fewer had a history of hunter education,” said Joseph L. Smith, study team member and former Penn State College of Medicine graduate student in health evaluation sciences.
   
And in 1995, the regulations for hunters to wear fluorescent orange were relaxed, and hunters were able to remove their fluorescent orange if they had 100 square inches of fluorescent orange material, within 15 feet of their calling position. And the number of multiple-party, poor judgement injuries increased.
  
Given those facts, there are several different dangers in hunting, although the most common is being shot accidentally  by a partner whom you are hunting with. In conclusion there are  for sure many dangers in hunting, although it never stops hunters to go out and hunt again, most being very careful and cautious, and many others ending up getting hurt.    
 
Works Cited
 
Penn State. “ Turkey Hunting Most Dangerous, Deer Hunting Most Deadly, According to Report.” Science Daily. 15 March 2005. 10 November 2007
 
The Associated Press. “ Iowa : Dog Shoots Hunter.” The New York Times. 31 October 2007. 15 November 2007
 
Kornbult E., Anne. “ Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Mishap on a Texas Ranch.” The New York Times. 13 Feb.2007. 18 November 2007

 
Penn State (2005, March 15). Turkey Hunting Most Dangerous, Deer Hutning Most Deadly, According to Report.
Science Daily. Retrieved November 10, 2007, from
 
Environment News Service. “ Turkey Hunting Most Dangerous.” Mywire. 10 March 2005. 15 November 2007

There’s a handful there to deal with and think about, and before jumping right in with a response, that’s exactly what I’ve done… thought about it.  I’d encourage you all to do the same. 
Jessica,

When I first started reading this paper, I think I was sort of expecting an over-arching condemnation of hunting.  Given your openly negative opinion of hunting, that’s probably an excusable preconception. 

But really, what is written here is nothing of the sort.   What you set out to show, that hunting can be dangerous is essentially right.  But of course, no one would argue that hunting can be dangerous.  There are firearms, bows and arrows, and sharp knives involved in this sort.  These are dangerous tools, and people are subject to get hurt using them.

I think you made a pretty good start with your quotes from the Penn State article.  Research definitely supports the point there, that certain types of hunting are more dangerous than others.  That’s a pretty good catch right there. 

Your anecdotes, regarding James Harris and Dick Cheney are also somewhat valid, in that they do show that unsafe gun handling (laying a loaded gun  on the ground, and not making sure of a target before shooting) definitely is a leading cause of accidents.  These are both topics that get pounded over and over in hunter safety education. 

But since people already know that there are dangers inherent in hunting, what your paper doesn’t explore is how that relates to other activities.  Sure, there is danger in hunting.  But isn’t there danger in every daily activity?  Let’s say I’m interested in hunting, but I wonder how safe it will be for me. 

Well, your numbers indicate that turkey hunters have the highest injury rate of any others… a rate of about 7.5 injuries for every 100,000 hunters.  I suck at math, but basically that means you’re looking at about a .0075 percent chance of being injured if you go turkey hunting.  Now that doesn’t sound all that bad, but what can I compare it to?

Well, there are stairs in my house.  According to the National Safety Council (NSC), my odds of being killed (not injured, killed) by falling down the stairs are about 1 in 179,278 (.006%).  Now let’s compare that to the NSC’s estimate of being injured by an accidental firearms discharge (this includes all accidental shootings, not just hunting).  According to the NSC I stand a 1 in 452,476 (.002%) chance of being accidentally killed by a firearm. 

Statistically speaking, then, hunting is significantly safer (almost three times) than walking up or down the stairs. 

To conclude, and at risk of triteness, let me say this…  Living is dangerous. 

Everything we do has an element of danger, from getting out of bed in the morning to sleeping in our beds at night.  The real question to ask is, “what are we doing about it?” 

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