re: Isa 10/29/10

This is a response to Isa's question," Do you think that our nature as humans has grown into something that may be uncontrollable if not regulated?"

In Isa's post and comment in class yesterday, she talked about the status of owning diamonds and pearls is like the status of owning a buck head on your wall. The words "power, money, and status" all come to mind when talking about trophy hunting (a whole new meaning to 'PMS'). When it comes to killing animals and mounting them on the wall or making rugs out of them that is power. I killed this animal and I am going to show it off. I wouldn't call this status, because the person is showing pride in the fact that they dominate the animal they killed. Wearing a fur coat, or a mink boa is a symbol of having money just like owning diamonds and pearls. Your status is determined by how much money and power you have. I think that it is in our nature to want to obtain the highest status possible.
It's not our nature as individual humans but our nature as a society that has made us believe in this appeal to vanity. Since owning a fur coat and the like are not things that everyone can afford, the amount you own does not need to be regulated. The amount of deers that are hunted, or any other animal that is, needs to be regulated because the population will be at risk for the hunted species.
There is an up side to a small amount of hunting though. When deers are over populated there are a lot of car accidents where they die and cars get completely totaled. I've heard several first hand account stories from friends and relatives. When a deer dies from a car accident, I'm pretty sure that in this country, it doesn't get eaten. I'm not saying that we might as well hunt them because they a going to die anyways from cars, I'm just pointing out that there are less car accidents when the population is under control.

Questions: What are other countries traditions for road kill? How does this compare with America's? What should change about our system or other countries?