
“ Reasons to Kill Innocent Animals ” 
As a woman and animal lover, I could understand Joy William's feelings and motives in “The Killing Game”. Ms. William's believe that hunting or killing of animals is murder, murder, murder. In this essay she states point blank that she is completely against hunting of any kind and for any reason. I can sympathize with her love and appreciation of animals, as I am a true animal lover and enthusiast. I am also, however, a rancher who Ms. William's ridiculed in her essay. I firmly believe in hunting over-populated game and predators of our livestock. I feel that hunting is a necessary act to keep a balance in our ecosystem between the people and animals of our world. Ms. Williams makes many true and dramatic statements in her highly sarcastic essay, berating all hunting of any kind. Ms. William's does not offer any solutions to overpopulated animals or protecting people from dangerous animals. I do believe that hunting serves a valuable purpose in keeping balance in our environment and protecting our lands. 
I have never personally killed a creature, and I probably never will. I have a love of animals and enjoy seeing them in their natural habitat. Like Ms. Williams stated, I do not believe that animals exist to satisfy my wishes to kill them. I love to wake up on a cool winter morning and look out my bedroom window and see thousands of Canadian Geese nesting in my pastures behind my house, and I get great pleasure in driving into my ranch in the mountains and seeing a doe and fawn drinking water from the lake. Seeing the wild turkeys running around, strutting their stuff because it is breeding season is another favorite time of year. I enjoy the wildlife and nature and protect it more than most people could imagine. 
Being lucky enough to witness nature first hand an own a piece of nature, I have also seen the destruction and danger first hand. I have witnessed the damage an overpopulated herd of pigs can do to our pastures. I have come in contact on horseback with bears and mountain lions and feared for my life. I have seen the deer populations plummet because mountain lions have become overpopulated due to government regulation. Not only do they harm their own species by running out of food, water and environment, they disrupt the balance of the other species they cohabitate with. When the mountain lions are over populated; the deer soon are under-populated, as a result there aren’t enough deer to feed all the mountain lions and they start feeding off species they wouldn’t normally prey on. This is when most mountain lions venture toward people and homes. Balance is the key to a happy environment. 
On our ranch in the mountains, wild pigs are abundant. They tear up our land by rooting in every soft piece of pasture they can find. They also multiply like rabbits, or should I say pigs. They tend to have 5-10 piglets in each litter and have several litters per year. My brothers and friends hunt the wild pigs on a regular basis. We do have all the meat cut and wrapped, eat some of it, and donate some to less fortunate people. We feel a responsibility to eat what we take from the land. We are also keeping the populations in check and protecting our land from their abuse. There is no way we would or could ever eliminate the wild pigs, but we do what is necessary to keep it from getting out of hand. 
In her essay, Ms. William's offers no solutions to control animals becoming overpopulated or urban encroachment. While it is well and good to have a touchy feely view that no animal should be killed, it is unrealistic to think that we will just let the animals roam free and overpopulate. Nature is intended to have hunters and the hunted. In certain species, the only predator is the human. Without our help in controlling those populations, they will desecrate their prey populations and have to find a new prey. With urban encroachment and human population growth, we are going to have wildlife that is a danger to society. While it is nice to think we could trap and relocate these animals, the cost involved in that is ridiculously expensive compared to extermination. 
Ms. Williams has a very high and mighty attitude in her essay “The Killing Game”. She tries to blanket all hunting as bad and offers no right reason to hunt. While I agree there are hunters who spend far too much time and money wastefully killing animals, I do believe that hunting serves a valuable purpose in keeping balance in our environment and protecting our lands. Unlike Ms. Williams, I support hunting the over-populated wildlife in an effort to keep balance to our ecosystem and I also support hunting destructive and dangerous wildlife to protect our livestock, children and property.
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