In the past couple of months we’ve seen allot of anti hunting protests and extreme outrage on social media platforms towards hunters. Everyone climbs on the band wagon and supports a cause they don’t know anything about, but instead of helping the African Wildlife they actually create a vicious circle without realising what they are doing. By banning legal hunting you actually opening up a bigger industry that is uncontrollable if the hunters are taken out of the picture, yes I’m talking about poaching!
Without the hunters and Safari companies on the ground spending millions of dollars to ensure the well being of their concession and animals there would be nothing left. The poachers would just kill any animal they see to feed the “black market” as the demand grows every day.
Look how big the Rhino horn poaching epidemic is, has banning hunting done any good for this?
Well here is just another example of how vicious this circle can be when the hunter is removed from the picture. (Taken from numerous news reports)
Bodies of dozens of elephants found poisoned in Zimbabwe
Rangers in Zimbabwe’s Hwange national park have discovered the carcasses of 26 elephants at two locations, dead of cyanide poisoning along with 14 other elephants that was found last week.
Patrolling rangers discovered the carcasses on Tuesday, according to the Bhejane Trust and the National Parks and wildlife Management Authority. The Bhejane Trust undertakes joint animal monitoring and welfare work with the parks agency.
A parks spokeswoman, Caroline Washaya Moyo, said 14 tusks had been recovered from these elephants but the others had not been recovered. She said rangers had found 16 of the elephants in the Lupande area and 10 others in Chakabvi.
Washaya-Moyo said no arrests have been made and investigations were in progress. Rangers recovered 1kg (2.2lb) of cyanide and are increasing patrols in the park, she said. Cyanide is widely used in Zimbabwe’s mining industry and is easy to obtain.
“The poachers were probably disturbed by rangers on patrol, which is why some of the tusks were recovered. Cyanide poisoning is becoming a huge problem here and we are struggling to contain it,” said Trevor Lane, a founder of the Bhejane Trust and a leading wildlife conservationist.
Last week, the parks agency reported that 14 elephants had been poisoned by cyanide in three separate incidents. In 2013, as many as 300 elephants died in Hwange park after poachers laced salt pans with cyanide.
On Monday, the environment, water and climate minister, Oppah Muchinguri, blamed the increase in poaching on a US ban on hunting Zimbabwean elephants for sport.
“All this poaching is because of American policies. They are banning sport hunting. An elephant would cost $120,000 in sport hunting but a tourist pays only $10 to view the same elephant,” she said, adding that money from sport hunting was crucial in conservation efforts.
I fear the future is bleak for the African Wildlife if people are not educated to support the right causes.
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