When a Minnesota dentist killed a prized African lion named "Cecil," he received an onslaught of criticism and reignited the hunting debate. I'm going hunting. I've been hunting for years and I don't see anything wrong with it. The reasons I hunt are the meat, I think it tastes better than store bought and contains no additives, and the time I spend in the mountains. However, there are some people who are against hunting. The deer and elk population is growing at an alarming rate. According to Outdoor Life, “the white-tailed deer population has grown from 29.8 million in 1994 to 32.7 million today.” According to Garth Kidd, the solution to the problem of excessive growth is hunting. If we were to eliminate hunting, deer and elk populations would grow at an even faster rate and we would have a lot of problems. Opponents of hunting, such as Phyllis McRae, would say that "Hunting is cruel and unnecessary," and hurts animals instead of helping them ("CPHA?"). Sure, it doesn't seem fair that killing deer and elk helps them, but it actually does. Without hunting, deer and elk populations would grow so much that they would end up eating the entire food supply. Many of them would die and some would move to cities and towns in search of food. Motorists would collide with deer and elk more often and find themselves in close proximity to people who might attack them. Hunting is good because without it the deer and elk populations would be much larger and there would be more vehicles and animals destroyed. As it stands, “7.4 million deer are culled each year…[and] 1.8 killed by motorists” (Outdoor Life). And believe it or not, in a typical year, "Deer kill more people... than all businesses...... middle of paper ......ct. 2002. Deadly Bloody Serious .05 Dec 2002 .Lapierre, Mike. "Back Country Journal." 16 Dec 2002..Palczak, Scott "Antihunter Information Page." 12 Dec 2002. "THREE REASONS TO FILL OUT YOUR DOE TAG." .Vol 209: issue 8. p15: 1/8p 15EA0A62%2D1219%2D4E6B%2D8E95%2D47EC5E3170AD%40Sessionmgr6+11A2&_us=bs+caccia+db+0+dl%5B0+FT++Y+ds+caccia+hd+0 +hs+0+o+Data+ri+KAAACBIC00032871 +sm+DS+ss+SO+E861&rn=24>