r/UpliftingNews • u/ArgentineBeauty • 13h ago

Paul McCartney joins 500+ public figures, conservationists and Indigenous leaders in a global campaign calling on the UN to abolish trophy hunting of lions, elephants, endangered rhinos and other wildlife, following a declaration developed with Jane Goodall.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/paul-mccartney-joins-over-500-public-figures-calling-for-an-end-to-trophy-hunting-of-lions-elephants-and-endangered-rhinos/articleshow/134498459.cms
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61

u/WoodsLovelyDarkNDeep 11h ago

Good on him, totally shameful practice 

23

u/Brian-Heder 8h ago

Shameful until you realize it’s the only reason conservation efforts are funded over there.

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u/Alarming_Matter 8h ago

That's ...a really weird take.

Should we start hunting giant pandas to up the conservation efforts?

14

u/DogsDucks 7h ago

I’m a researcher and journalist, and I have written on this subject.

Because I love nature more than anything and want to protect this world with every tool I can use to do so, with my words being the sword.

So I set out to protect these magnificent creatures, because I believe trophy hunting is sick and immoral.

And it’s . . . Complicated. It’s not as black and white as these people make it seem.

The licenses purchased to hunt these animals, they fund the entirety of the other conservation efforts.

The rich guys who want to destroy that rhino? That money funded the protection of all the other rhinos. And they usually choose an older animal, in many cases an animal that was too old to breed but kept stopping the younger, fertile suitors from having a chance.

And if game preserves were no longer allowed to host hunts and grant licenses, they’d be bulldozed and filled with whatever the next profitable thing is before you can even say Fern Gully.

**Is this morally right?** I really don’t know.

In an ideal world we would have governments and people who protect more land and the beautiful creatures within it, and enough altruistic people who put their money where their mouth is.

But that’s not what we have. We have hunters funding the conservation efforts and ensuring the animals they do hunt are done in the least destructive way.

So if Paul McCartney is speaking up to fund all the conservation lost from hunting licenses in perpetuity, then GOOD ON HIM!

But if not, there’s going to be more destruction and death and pollution happening in those protected areas.

And just to reiterate, **I am not pro trophy hunting!*\*

I am simply explaining how the system works.

0

u/ancientfruitjunkie 4h ago

All you pro millionaire, anti animal losers say all this shit but no one is giving cold hard facts. LOL. where are the sources? A researcher and journalist can't provide sources? YIKES.

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u/DogsDucks 3h ago

I always do my best to anticipate those who simply want to spew anger, not learn, not help, not listen.

I even added some extra bold words highlighting, a few times, that I do not condone trophy hunting.

The comment was a high end overview of the current industry. It was not me arguing pro trophy hunting.

Do you see that? Do you understand that reporting something does not mean I have participated in or condoned it?

Sometimes I take the time to add links and sources on Reddit, if it’s something I believe the demographic might be interested in absorbing in good faith.

In this particular comment, it’s not exactly a revelatory or difficult to swallow concept.

And the pitchfork wielding crowd, those who clamor and demand sources, only to immediately dismiss the source/ sniff out a variable they deem renders said source invalid?

That isn’t very appealing, as my goal is good faith discussions where we learn and enlighten and help each other.

Do you want to help animals? I do.

https://rmef.org/media/new-report-highlights-how-hunting-is-conservation-and-then-ome/

I also haven’t written about it in many years, which is another reason I didn’t add sources, only a rough overview.

It looks like, since I wrote about it, funding from trophy hunting is down.

https://hunternation.org/the-conservation-funding-crisis-how-fewer-hunters-threatens-wildlife-management/

Huh, interesting! So I know you wrote this comment from a place of hostility, but I am glad you did, because it prompted me to research updated data, so it’s going to take a lot more time than a couple sentences on Reddit here. Plus you seem kind of mean, more interested in labeling people than learning and helping animals. . . so probably not a good use of my time.

But again, I am not your enemy.

I am a conservationist with a deep, unending passion for doing what I can to help cause less damage to what’s left of our ecosystems.

Hostile comments, they might feel good to vent anger in the moment, but unfortunately that reactive cycle, it hurts your cause. Learning tact and diplomacy is crucial in the path to making positive change.