Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

Wildlife professionals fear the public is becoming less tolerant of wildlife overpopulation issues.
Development has caused loss of habitat in many areas, so wildlife is forced to interact with people more frequently, setting the stage for conflict.
Without hunting and trapping economic damage caused by wildlife would skyrocket from its current level of $22 billion to $70 billion.
When wildlife populations exceed human tolerance limits, people tend to label wildlife as pests, and this is not good news for wildlife. According to a recent survey of wildlife professionals by the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, 75.7 percent of the states reported they fear their public is becoming less tolerant of wildlife overpopulation issues.
Furthermore, wildlife habitat is increasingly lost to development. The loss of habitat due to development has forced wildlife with no place else to live into our backyards, setting the stage for conflict.
Hunting and trapping are the most effective and cost-efficient methods relied on by professional biologists to keep wildlife populations from expanding beyond their habitat.
According to the same survey, current levels of economic damage caused by wild animals including deer, beaver and bear are estimated at $22 billion, but could skyrocket to over $70 billion without regulated hunting and trapping. Local and state government budgets cannot be increased sufficiently to cover this cost.

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