Why Do You Want To Kill Me?

Killing wildlife for trophy or sport is wrong.

 The argument is often made by defenders of the status quo that, without hunting, wildlife populations would grow unchecked and run amok, but this is not supported by science. Leaving aside the question of what happened millions of years before modern humans appeared, there is ample evidence that carnivores, such as wolves, mountain lions, bears, and coyotes, regulate their numbers. They do this by defending territories, limiting reproduction to alpha individuals within a group, investing in lengthy parental care, and infanticide. Hunting is unnecessary to keep populations of top predators in check; indeed, it has the opposite effect because it disrupts the social interactions through which self-regulation is achieved.

It is sometimes said that hunting is conservation. The idea is expressed in various ways—hunters pay for conservation, hunters are the true conservationists, and hunting is needed to manage wildlife—but they all suggest that hunters and hunting are indispensable to the continued survival of wildlife in America. This myth is not necessarily true, except that some wildlife populations need to be controlled, but very few need to be. So, who are these hunters who hunt for sport and trophies?

As published in Psychology Today, it has been shown that trophy hunters possess the personality characteristics of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.

Narcissists have an inflated sense of self and crave positive attention. To maintain this inflated level of self-esteem, they must engage in strategies to maintain and develop their self-image, like posing with a bear or coyote they’ve just killed. Like the carefully managed social media images, Machiavellians often manipulate social situations for their ends. At the same time, psychopaths are usually callous and lack empathy – they do not experience the same level of emotion about the suffering of others, whether human or animal. So, animals can be used as props to maintain their self-image of superiority without guilt or conscience.

Researchers found that animal cruelty is an indicator of violent antisocial behavior. They also found that less positive attitudes towards animals were associated with higher levels of all three of the traits and that higher levels of psychopathy were associated with actual behavior, for example, “having intentionally killed a stray or wild animal for no good reason.”

Psychology may be the key to understanding trophy hunting, why it still flourishes, and, ultimately, what can be done about it. After all, human beings can self-reflect and develop insight into their actions; sometimes, that may be enough to promote some degree of change. But this all depends on these other factors that we need to identify, analyze, and deconstruct that hold the behavior in place in the first place. This process of identification and, it must be said, analysis at multiple levels has only just begun.