Seeking Support

The most recent surveys of public attitudes toward regulated hunting in the United States indicate that more than 75 percent of those responding support this activity. Hunters seem to just accept this new information as one more inevitable and self-evident truth. It is this kind of reaction, however, that helps engender the great malaise in the hunting world: the belief that we have no need to reach out to the broad public, can keep representing ourselves to ourselves, and thus be continuously reinforced in the notion that all is well. Yet we know very well that not all is well. Participation in hunting is declining, state agency conservation programs are running out of money, privatization of wildlife and a host of other controversies are highly divisive in our own ranks, and getting more so.  While most of the general public supports hunting, we cannot expect this to continue without some work on our part.