We love hunting for yummy vegan food, but hunting animals?! No way! Can you believe that some people kill animals as a hobby? Hunters use a lot of excuses to try to explain their actions, but when it comes down to it, killing animals is cowardly and cruel. Here’s a list of things that hunting isn’t:

It Isn’t a Sport

Football, basketball, and tennis are all sports because they require physical skill and a team or an individual competing against another willing team or individual. You know what’s not a sport? Hunting—because in sports, your opponent doesn’t die. That definitely doesn’t happen in little league games.

It Isn’t Teaching Kids the Right Lessons

Kids who are taught that hunting is OK are really being taught that it’s OK to kill animals for fun. It’s just as bad to kill a deer, duck, or turkey as it is to kill any other animal, because they also have families, feel pain, and are defenseless against rifles. Hunting isn’t just dangerous for animals, though: Having guns in the house could also be dangerous for kids. There are thousands of hunting injuries in the U.S. each year.

It Isn’t OK Just Because Our Ancestors Did It

We don’t live in the past, do we? Our ancestors did a lot of things that we don’t do now, like draw on cave walls. Most families don’t have to go out and hunt animals for food. We get our food from grocery stores. Today, killing an animal for food or for the “fun” of it is just cruel.

It Isn’t Keeping the Ecosystem in Balance

Natural predators help to keep the ecosystem in balance by killing the sickest and weakest animals, but hunters always want to kill the biggest and strongest ones so that they have a “trophy” to put up on their walls. In some places where hunting is popular, the duck and deer populations are even increased just so that hunters will have more animals to kill. Hunters try to call themselves “outdoor lovers,” but if they really loved nature and the outdoors, they wouldn’t try to kill the animals who share the outdoors with us.

Some species have even gone extinct because of hunting. The Tasmanian tiger and great auk are both extinct because of humans hunting them.

It Isn’t Kind

In 2015, when Cecil the lion was killed by a hunter, it caused worldwide outrage and sadness. If people are upset by the death of one animal, they should be just as sad for all the animals who are hunted each year.

Kind Ways to Enjoy the Outdoors

Here are some activities that you can do outdoors that won’t harm animals:

• Birdwatching
• Hiking
• Going to the beach
• Building a fire in your backyard with a parent’s help
• Camping
• Taking a list of animals native to your area outside and seeing how many you can spot
• Gathering leaves or flowers from the ground to make a leaf press

Be kind and never hunt!