Seventy percent of Americans approve of deer hunting—the highest rating of all game species. (Photo courtesy of Leupold)
March 12, 2024
The good news: more than three-quarters of Americans approve of hunting, fishing and recreational shooting. The bad news: that supermajority of supporters is declining, according to a survey of national attitudes about our field sports released last year. The slipping support comes after nearly 30 years of increasingly favorable attitudes toward hunting and fishing, and it has led some conservation leaders to suggest that we participants need to do a better job of showing the public benefits and personal joys of hunting and fishing to Americans who may not be familiar with the activities.
The “Americans’ Attitudes Toward Legal, Regulated Fishing, Target/Sport Shooting, Hunting and Trapping” survey was released in August by the Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation (OSCF), a non-profit organization that uses research to obtain new generation of what it calls “HATS.” That means hunters, fishermen, trappers and shooters.
The survey of more than 2,000 respondents from every region of the country and demographic group was conducted last spring. It’s the latest in a 30-year string of similar surveys—conducted roughly every three years—that track public attitudes toward regulated hunting, fishing and trapping, and recreational shooting. Taking into account the responses from the previous survey in 2019, public approval in the field of sports is down overall and for some activities the lowest registered by surveyors in 30 years.
Overall, public approval of legal hunting has declined by 4 percentage points over the past two years, from about 81 percent of Americans in 2021 to 77 percent of Americans in 2023. Approval on recreational shooting dropped 3 percentage points, and approval of recreational fishing also dropped 3 points, to 90 percent favorable.
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Respondents were asked not only whether they strongly or moderately approved of those activities, but also whether they strongly or moderately disapproved of them. The disapproval rating is also among the highest recorded in decades of surveys. Seventeen percent of Americans strongly or moderately disapprove of legal hunting, 18 percent disapprove of recreational shooting, and 5 percent disapprove of fishing.
The take-away, according to OSCF Executive Director Jim Curcuruto, is that we should not dismiss the survey results as an aberration.
“The results of this study make it clear that the outdoor community, from manufacturers and retailers to wildlife agencies, media and NGOs, has a lot of work to do,” said Curcuruto. “We need to put more money and effort into campaigns to increase cultural support for hunting. Some of it is obvious. If you’re posting on Facebook and talking about ‘kill-and- grill,’ you’re not helping the cause. When we’re talking about hunting and shooting, the words we use are incredibly important, and the way we present what and why we’re doing what’s important.”
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DRILLING IN RESULTS
Let’s get this out of the way: Public attitudes toward trapping are at an all-time low, with only about 54 percent of Americans approving of regulated trapping and 28 percent expressing disapproval of the activity. The latest survey reconfirmed that warm support. In contrast, public attitudes toward sport fishing are generally high, with about 90 percent of Americans in the 2023 survey saying they strongly or moderately approve of “legal recreational fishing.” But that’s a drop from 93 percent support in 2019.
When it comes to public support for hunting, it comes down almost every way and way. Hunting to protect people from harm or for wildlife management purposes had the highest approval ratings, at 78 and 77 percent, respectively. Hunting “for meat” has a 75 percent approval rating this year, down significantly from 84 percent in 2019. Surprisingly, hunting “to obtain locally sourced food” or “to obtain organic meat ” showed a big drop in approval, down 11 and 14 percentage points, respectively, from a similar question in 2019. With all the public attention on hunters’ ability to get wild, organic meat during the COVID-19 pandemic, this softening of approval surprised many conservation leaders.
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Regarding game species, deer and wild turkey hunting have the highest approval ratings, with 70 percent of Americans approving of deer hunting and 69 percent of Americans disapproving. turkey hunting will be approved. Hunting rabbits, ducks, squirrels, elk and alligators all have approval ratings above 55 percent. But when respondents were asked about the legal hunting of black bears, doves, grizzly bears, wolves and mountain lions, public disapproval exceeded approval.
Surveyors used US Census data to get a demographic cross-section of respondents, and that level of questioning revealed some interesting trends. While 77 percent of Americans strongly or moderately approve of legal hunting, only 65 percent of Black or African American residents approve of legal hunting. The group with the lowest approval of legal hunting—at 61 percent—is Hispanic or Latino Americans. In terms of age groups, while 81 percent of Americans 55 or older approved of hunting, only 69 percent of respondents from 18 to 34 years old approved.
Overall, the groups with the highest favorability of hunting—not surprisingly—were those who had hunted, shot recreationally or fished in the past three years; live in a rural area; is male; is white or Caucasian; is 35 years of age or older; live in the Midwest; and living in a small city or town. The groups with the lowest hunting approvals were those who had not fished or shot in the past three years; is female, is Black or African American, or Hispanic or Latino American; between 18 and 34 years of age; lives in the Pacific West; and living in a large city, urban area or suburban area.
IS IT OKAY FOR OTHER PEOPLE TO HUNT?
For more than two decades, surveyors have asked respondents whether they agree that others can hunt according to regulations. The idea is to get a feel for indirect support, even if the respondents themselves are not hunting.
This year, 86 percent of respondents strongly or moderately agreed that it’s OK for other people to hunt. That’s a big drop from 2011 and 2019, when 95 percent and 92 percent of Americans, respectively, said it’s OK for other people to hunt. It’s a question that could have implications for ballot initiatives or other electoral attempts to regulate hunting or wildlife management.
Mark Damian Duda, executive director of Responsive Management, which conducted the survey, said that this particular question is worth paying attention to, because it shows hardening attitudes about hunting.
“We’re definitely losing support among younger Americans. We [sportsmen and -women] doesn’t speak to the Black or Hispanic communities, and we need to do a better job of reaching urban people and women,” Duda said.
Curcuruto thinks that lack of communication and larger cultural divides influence Americans’ attitudes toward hunting, shooting and fishing.
“Now that people are increasingly picking sides, I think there’s a perception that if people belong [a certain] group do these things, then [those from the other side] automatically opposes it,” he said. “And of course, that’s accelerated when people don’t have personal, positive experiences with these traditional activities of hunting, fishing, trapping and shooting. The outdoor industry has created a poor job of promoting all the positive contributions that HATS makes to wildlife conservation, the economy and nature.With only one side of the story being told, it’s not hard to see why public acceptance is waning.
It’s up to us to help tell the other side of the story, but Curcuruto says communication—through social media, mainstream media and even individual conversations—must be careful not to alienate people who may not know the basic mechanics and motivations of killing animals to manage wildlife populations. That can be a complicated and nuanced conversation with people who don’t hunt or fish themselves, but it’s especially important that we get the details right.
