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Prefacing this with saying I've previously worked in wildlife conservation for years.
Limited hunting of big game in Africa is perfectly fine. Dipshits willing to pay $100K to shoot something fund entire villages, put kids through school, and define a value of the living animals that make it easier to define how much money anti-poaching efforts need, etc. Even if not well-managed, even with expected corruption, it ends up working out.
Absolutist conservation stances never take into account how ridiculously manipulated these ranges are already. There's not much still natural about an ecosystem in a reserve. Predator/prey relationships are weird, tourism focuses only on charismatic megafauna, and tourist sites bring staff and place humans close to wildlife anyway. Absolutist stances end up being horrible for animals long term because the ecosystems are so messed up, so populations boom, then crash. Why would anyone want to watch hundreds of animals starve to death as a way to "manage" a population when someone is willing to pay to do the same thing in a specifically managed situation?
In most species, the most useless thing there is, is an older male. Humans let them run their counties, which is stupid. Elephants, rhinos, lions and hippos run them off because they get violent and kill their own kind. Humans haven't recognized that's what ours do, too. But when a rich dipshit wants to pay $100K to be brought 30 meters from an old lion and shoot it before it kills 3 cubs from a rival... I'm very OK with that.
Poaching is the real threat, and most people are too ignorant of stupid to know the difference because of an abstract fear of firearms, rather than logically looking at the whole problem.
Thank you for this nuanced take. People get too caught up in ideas that they don’t think of the broader picture.
Like veganism, what happens to all the farm animals if we don’t farm them?
Is it better for an animal to have existed under good conditions and then to be slaughtered and used, or to never have existed? The existentialism of veganism, I guess
I agree but I still reserve the right to think the obnoxious, rich cunt posing with the beast that his African guide tracked for him (and probably loaded his gun and packed his lunch) is an insufferable twat and a leach on society.
That is the once nice thing about social media. All these insufferable idiots put their insufferable actions right there in public so we can identify them and ignore them. Nothing better than seeing someone's social media and going "ah, I'm not even gonna waste my time"
No argument from me there.
All I heard is that we should have a hunting season for leaders over 65.
This is refreshing to see. So many people are ignorant about conservation. These places like you said actually keep the population in check and the wildlife healthy, vs watching an old animal starve to death.. because nature. Animal lovers can be some of the dumbest and most ignorant people out there. A lot of them would literally put animals through years of agony because they are "rescuing" them.
Thanks, and in just glad I didn't get down voted into oblivion.
There's sociopaths on both sides. The insane animal people would rather suicide our species because they can't think any other way. Then there's definitely insane people on the hunting side that think being driven to shoot a sleeping lion is some fundamental human right to which they are entitled by virtue of penning a gun. Both are terrible.
O %100 agree with that. I ran a private rescue with my own money for over a decade, and I have seen shit that makes me think humanity is better off going extinct, but I have also seen the good side of it as well. It's the extremes that unfortunately ruin it. Euthanasia of an animal should always be an option vs trying to put something through hell for months only have it die anyways. We're supposed to their caretakers and guardians, yet so many will choose their own selfishness because they don't want to do the right thing and help the animal pass peacefully. Conservation at least does this and helps the animals..but a lot of people see just some rich dude killing a lion...not that they killed a lion that literally was going to starve in the next year, not that the 100k+ to hunt the animal paid for keeping the sanctuary running and pochers at bay, not that it helps a poverished village that exists on the reservation access to food and water...they just see some rich dentist posing on Facebook...
Ooooooh, wow. Thank you for your service. For real, I imagine the animals part was relatively easy compared to dealing with the humans.
Humans is what made me stop. A lot of people who own animals are terrible.
That makes sense to me. permitted hunting to cull invasive animals in many places of the world is still going. I don't see a problem with extending that to bug game hunting in Africa the way you described it. Like it or not humanity have changed ecosystems plenty of times in various scope and scale
Also, sometimes it's hilarious.
Mano a mano
I respect your take, but I don't think it's inconsequential enough to fit the question
It's inconsequential because nothing's ever going to change.