Acta Scientiarum Polonorum
Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria

For the past few years hunting has become a topic of public debate in Poland, but the subject is often treated emotionally rather than objectively. The aim of the paper was to determine Polish people’s opinion on hunting as well as factors determining their (especially negative) perception of hunting. The article presents the results of a survey conducted in April 2017. The data were collected through an internet questionnaire and
2,569 completed questionnaires were received. It was found that the distribution of views – general opinions concerning hunting – was bimodal (relatively good or highly negative). Then further analysis was conducted to determine the profile of people who considered hunting as definitely bad. Despite significantly varied characteristics of the opponents of hunting, in the majority cases they were women living in cities. Regression
analysis showed that the profile of hunting opponents was in fact twofold: on one hand they were young, poorly educated, having nothing in common with nature, and declaring far left political position; on the other hand, there were middle-aged people with university education, with close ties to nature, and with centre-left political opinions.