Looking at Venezuela its easy to see how fast a starving country can devour its animal population. The part to pay attention to is the fact that they had a higher animal to human ratio than the U.S. and despite being socialist are generally more self reliant than the average American.
I used to hunt a little, its a great past time and like religion around here but the reality is most hunters over value hunting as a skill in a grid down situation. This is not meant to be a flame war on hunters but more of a reality check, I see and hear too many hardcore hunters almost brag how they would be able to survive any shtf situation based soley on their hunting skills.
Heres a neat article that goes over some of the numbers.
Heres part of the article:
" – In the late 1800’s the population of the US was around 63 million.
– In the late 1800’s the Whitetail was almost hunted to extinction.
As man moved into the whitetail’s environment, he hunted them for food and more. Venison meat became popular and whitetails were almost hunted into extinction by the late 1800′s for their hides and meat. Venison was a delicacy and served in the finest restaurants from Chicago to New York. Refrigerated trains ran daily from the Midwest to these cites packed full of deer carcasses that had been harvested by professional hunters. People thought that the mid-western deer were an inexhaustible resource. They were wrong.
– Today the Whitetail Deer population is estimated to be at 20-25 million.
– There are around 12-14 million hunters over the age of 16 in the US.
– Currently hunters must follow strict sets of rules, usually set by their state, including (but not limited to): Hunting Season Dates, Baiting Laws, Bag Limits, Quotas, Weapon Restrictions, Controlled Area Hunts, not to mention the requirement to obtain the actual hunting license.
– In addition to those rules, hunters are bound by a set of ethics, awareness and sportsmanship.
– If T-SHTF, all of those rules, regulations and ethics go out the window .
– Remember in the late 1800’s the US population was around 63 million, it is now over 315 million.
– There are an estimated 88.8 guns per 100 people in the US, with 62% of Americans owning more than 1 gun.
– The obvious conclusion: A massive population (many of whom are armed) combined with a food shortage after T-SHTF will decimate the deer population (and other game) in short time. The typical rules which exist to help regulate hunting will be out the window which will enable novice hunters to bag game."