05-23-2015, 04:06 AM
I was also surprised when I was living in Africa and found out about this a bit closer.
Take Kenya.
There was a time when it was about trophy hunting, a time when half of Hollywood and Hemmingway had their tents put up in the Mara or Tsavo. Those times Kenya was under British rule and all areas were designated to Hunters. Mainly white, but also one little Indian guy who at my time was quite ancient, and the only man I know who wrestled a Lion and killed him with a knife, thereby loosing half his butt, and who was thrown up in the air by a Buffalo and as he described it luckily landed right next to his rifle, so boom! He hunted with Burton.
Anyway, so each Hunter had his area, and what do proper Hunters do? They manage their area! Meaning taking care of poachers, making sure they get fucked up, and having a rather lucrative business by having well paying clientele from over seas paying large amounts of money for those animals chosen by the Hunter as they would have to go anyway, but provide nice trophies on top of it, i.e. the old Elephant Bull, Lion Male, etc. It's a natural process that would happen anyway and is just sped up. Main point being, the healthy stock of animals is being taken care off. Also as any farmer will tell you, a certain area of land can only accommodate that many animals. That's when "kulling" was introduced, first in South Africa I believe. If you just let a population of Elephants grow and they only have that many square kilometers, because humans also somehow managed to creep into their environment with their annoying huts and yummy corn fields, you are asking for unavoidable trouble. And that goes for Giraffes, Zebra's, pretty much any larger one of the animals.
So then the Hunters where told to fuck off, now it's the Government that takes care of all these animals. How many small tusks are being tried to be smuggled out of Kenya nowadays you think as they just kill any and everything? Poaching has taken over, and by now in South Africa you find Para Military style anti poaching groups trying to take care of that problem.
All those people who go "Boohooo, how dare they shoot that wonderful Giraffe, Eland or male Lion and even take a pic with it!!" have never been in Africa I believe. I don't think you will see pictures of female Lions, but even that has taken on another silly level in SA, where they keep male Lions nowadays on some farms and train them like Kittikats, so people come and shot them while the "Owner" calls them, money makes people do all sort of stupid stuff I guess, but proper hunting is nothing bad at all. The meat is going to the locals or if it is nice one, like Tommy, Eland, and especially Zebra, best meat of the lot, goes to the Restaurants around the area.
By now this "Don't touch the Wildlife!" is something utterly silly done by white people far away who have never been in a village that's been devastated by Elephants or especially Hippo's, I have seen large concrete walls that they just simply walked thru when they take off, and in the case of Kenya implemented by same, as the KWS (Kenyan Wildlife Service) is run by the Brits who so love the idea to preserve what they have fucking killed in their own country, but don't give a hoot if a black child is eaten by Crocodiles on a weekly basis along Tana River, but don't touch the Crocodiles, besides, those Blacks get 300US$ per killed family member, so they ain't too bad off really, are they old chap?!
Take Kenya.
There was a time when it was about trophy hunting, a time when half of Hollywood and Hemmingway had their tents put up in the Mara or Tsavo. Those times Kenya was under British rule and all areas were designated to Hunters. Mainly white, but also one little Indian guy who at my time was quite ancient, and the only man I know who wrestled a Lion and killed him with a knife, thereby loosing half his butt, and who was thrown up in the air by a Buffalo and as he described it luckily landed right next to his rifle, so boom! He hunted with Burton.
Anyway, so each Hunter had his area, and what do proper Hunters do? They manage their area! Meaning taking care of poachers, making sure they get fucked up, and having a rather lucrative business by having well paying clientele from over seas paying large amounts of money for those animals chosen by the Hunter as they would have to go anyway, but provide nice trophies on top of it, i.e. the old Elephant Bull, Lion Male, etc. It's a natural process that would happen anyway and is just sped up. Main point being, the healthy stock of animals is being taken care off. Also as any farmer will tell you, a certain area of land can only accommodate that many animals. That's when "kulling" was introduced, first in South Africa I believe. If you just let a population of Elephants grow and they only have that many square kilometers, because humans also somehow managed to creep into their environment with their annoying huts and yummy corn fields, you are asking for unavoidable trouble. And that goes for Giraffes, Zebra's, pretty much any larger one of the animals.
So then the Hunters where told to fuck off, now it's the Government that takes care of all these animals. How many small tusks are being tried to be smuggled out of Kenya nowadays you think as they just kill any and everything? Poaching has taken over, and by now in South Africa you find Para Military style anti poaching groups trying to take care of that problem.
All those people who go "Boohooo, how dare they shoot that wonderful Giraffe, Eland or male Lion and even take a pic with it!!" have never been in Africa I believe. I don't think you will see pictures of female Lions, but even that has taken on another silly level in SA, where they keep male Lions nowadays on some farms and train them like Kittikats, so people come and shot them while the "Owner" calls them, money makes people do all sort of stupid stuff I guess, but proper hunting is nothing bad at all. The meat is going to the locals or if it is nice one, like Tommy, Eland, and especially Zebra, best meat of the lot, goes to the Restaurants around the area.
By now this "Don't touch the Wildlife!" is something utterly silly done by white people far away who have never been in a village that's been devastated by Elephants or especially Hippo's, I have seen large concrete walls that they just simply walked thru when they take off, and in the case of Kenya implemented by same, as the KWS (Kenyan Wildlife Service) is run by the Brits who so love the idea to preserve what they have fucking killed in their own country, but don't give a hoot if a black child is eaten by Crocodiles on a weekly basis along Tana River, but don't touch the Crocodiles, besides, those Blacks get 300US$ per killed family member, so they ain't too bad off really, are they old chap?!