What are the practical differences between culling and hunting? I think there are some schools of thought where it is perceived that hunting is the ”sport” form – so animal/bird is gauranteed to be there/ numbers kept artificially high/ ‘hunter’ pays for the privilidge, wheras culling is the management form – marksman requires some skill to do his job/ efforts are to lower numbers/ hopefully bird/animal wont be there/ hunter paid to do job (or often keeps kills in lieu of work).
Though I do subscribe to this differentation I still use either word interchangably except on this ng, where it seems that some means of classification is required. Most people I’ve spoken to (the general public) don’t care that there is any difference in terminology, as in the nature conservation context it is obviously going to be the ‘culling’ dfeinition that will apply. I suppose the thinking behind it is that people do not often pay others for the privilege of doing a job for themselves, normally you pay someone elso to do a job -for- you.
That means that the person doing the culling does it as a job, so that’s supposedly ok, wheras in the case of ‘hunting’ where it is for sport, that isn’t ok (where poor defenceless animals are reared for the purposes of being killed…. and so on). If you haven’t already thought of it, you might like to consider that if ‘hunting’ as a business was stopped in the UK, then after 40 – 50 years the need for culling might also be reduced (although it would not go away completely until all muntjac, sika, japanese water deer, fallow had been eradicated).
In almost all cases culling and hunting amounts to the same thing but those in favour of killing wildlife find “culling” a more acceptable word to euphemise the killing of wildlife perpretrated by the same people who do so for fun, in the name of “sport”. Many, many people accept the need for culling and not the need for ‘sport’ hunting. To quote the League Against Cruel Sport: “In the absence of a state wildlife management system, the League does not oppose shooting for the purposes of pest control, the provision of food or population control – provided that such shooting is efficient and selective, and a more humane alternative is not reasonably available.
