Conservative Treehouse: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday that permitting elephants from Zimbabwe and Zambia to be brought back as trophies will raise money for conservation programs in the region. President Trump has put that decision on hold:
No-one outside Africa wants to see elephants hunted. Local poachers are killing thousands of elephants. The goal of the Wildlife Service conservation effort is to increase the live value of elephants which are currently being killed by locals.
Elephants are endangered. In the aggregate current conservation approaches are not working, except in areas where they are viewed as having high value to the community.
If elephants are not valued as a financial commodity by the locals, they have no disposition/incentive not to kill them. The goal of conservation is to increase the value of individual elephants to the local community, more valuable than the poaching value, thereby protecting ALL OF THEM from human slaughter. read more
Not exactly a difficult target, I mean how could you miss.
Years ago I read a great book by Romain Gary titled “The Roots of Heaven” about the senseless slaughter of elephants in Africa. When that book was written, there were hundreds of thousands of elephants still alive all across Sub-Saharan Africa. The novel was later made into a movie by John Huston in 1958. The slaughter of these magnificent creatures has continued since then. Lifting this ban was a stupid decision, and I’m glad that it is under review. It was one of the few things that Obumbler did that I agreed with, and it was a mistake to lift the ban of importing elephant trophies from Africa.
Not a big fan of big game hunting. I was always taught to use what you kill. I know that the game meat in Africa is donated to local villages and such, but still, I couldn’t just shoot something if I was not going to personally use it. I know there is no effing way I could shoot an elephant just to claim it as a trophy. I just don’t have it in me.
I don’t believe in it but I do think the ban was lifted bc the countries really rely on the revenue it generates. It’s highly regulated and very few people participate. I don’t see how it’s that much different from wearing fur or leather and I would like to see people so outraged over this to blink an eye over dead aborted babies.
Nope,can’t do it. Ban it.
This a good ban to keep in effect. A game animal as large as an elephant is no challenge. A 500 yard shot at a twelve point is a challenge. I missed. I have come to the point that sniping at animals has lost its appeal. When I hunt now it is with a bow, and much more rewarding when successful.
But they might stampede and squish Obolo’s brother in his hut.
It’s difficult to complain about the Arabs and Chinese who create unlawful bounties for local tribesmen to slaughter rhino’s and elephants and then go permit basically the same thing. I’ve always found the killing of these animals as a shame, and the people that do it to be scum.
Just a few weeks ago some teen girl posted a picture with a giraffe she had shot. She must really be proud of that.
For all the experts in safari hunting here I might remind that where it is controlled and legal the population is allowed to grow to what the area can support. Where it has been made illegal the population has crashed from local predation and poaching to the point of extinction or on the verge of extinction.
As to the no challenge to hunt because of the large size it’s not done long range and you get up close and personal. The argument on this one gets nasty like gun control with many of us chiming in with opinion when we have no real knowledge. Like the dentist who arrowed the lion, most of what was reported was male bovine excrement. So trophy hunting is totally misrepresented from the safe places of our urban society.
If you want to take the time there might be something here regarding possible understanding, but then you might have to take it a bit further and actually research without prejudging and I’m not familiar with that concept.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/11/trump_steps_into_a_lions_den_by_ending_ban_on_elephant_trophyhunting_imports.html
Any Mouse: Every big game hunter I’ve ever heard or read about has made that conservation argument. Sort of sounds like this: “We had to kill off the animals in order to save them from overpopulation.” Managing wildlife might work in North America, but it isn’t working in the Dark Continent. Just look at the poaching that is going on in South Africa’s Krueger National Park since the natives started running the country down the toilet. The elephants are doomed to extinction unless economic pressure is kept up on the countries that allow the slaughter to continue.
Legal hunting funds anti-poaching efforts.
It also places a monetary value on the wildlife.
If an African is having his garden, farmland, domestic stock,
destroyed by wildlife; and taking away his family’s food and sustenance;
Do you think he really give a sh*t what some elitist Europeans think ? ? ?
He will destroy said animals the first chance he can . . . Or poach them.
On the other hand, if his family is receiving monetary value from the wildlife;
In the form of employment, and meat, for him and his fellow villagers;
That allows them to support their families and communities due to hunting;
They are going to be more forgiving of wildlife, and quite likely protective of it.
Everywhere elephants are hunted legally they are doing well.
Everywhere hunting is banned . . . Elephants and the habitat are endangered.