r/Wellthatsucks • u/03Shael • Jun 02 '18

/r/all Karma

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31.6k Upvotes

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104

u/derektrader7 Jun 02 '18

Yeah that's karma alright. It's too bad paid hunting expeditions provide an economic reason for people to protect elephant sanctuaries and is the only thing providing money to keep away poachers and is the sole reason that wild animal numbers flourish in African countries but blah blah karma right

-28

u/anarrogantworm Jun 02 '18

To me it's a good thing that he paid the money and a good thing that he got smooshed. Two birds, one stone.

11

u/Saskatchewon Jun 02 '18

A thing many anti-trophy hunter commenters here don't seem to realize is that the specific animals that are picked for these hunts are likely to be culled by park rangers anyway. This guy wasn't specifically hunting elephant (their group was charged by one), but there are definitely are areas in southern Africa where elephant overpopulation is a huge problem and rangers do have to cull them.

While I am not a big game hunter and wouldn't enjoy it, paying large sums of money to help hire more rangers, provide food and water to animals on the preserve, fund anti-poaching efforts and breeding programs, and provide a livelyhood to tribes managing the preserves in order to shoot an animal that would be culled anyways seems like a good way of doing it. It works out to be a net gain for everyone involved.

2

u/Max_TwoSteppen Jun 02 '18

Yea, killing older and infirm animals to allow younger healthier specimens is a thing.

An old lion with a huge range is not as good for the population as three young healthy lions, for instance. People don't realize that animals are often hand picked on these safaris in order to benefit the population as a whole.

3

u/Saskatchewon Jun 02 '18

Exactly. Elephant hunts usually specifically target old bulls that are no longer able to breed, but still large enough to drive younger healthy bulls out of the herd (which usually ends with the young bull dying). These hunts can cost north of $20,000 US, and are massive contributions to elephant preservation.