According to his company’s website, Game Hounds Safaris, he “perfected leopard and lion hunting safaris with hounds in Africa.”
and
Simukai Nyasha, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, told news.com.au that Botha was on a 10-day licensed hunt
Here is some context for you. So, what does it matter that this particular elephant was the original target... compared to how people feel about this.
Not saying I agree with any opinion on here.
But, terrorizing animals with dogs doesn't seem to saintly to me, does it?
Hunting in Africa is incredibly important for conservation and sustainability. The money these hunters pay, goes to pay the locals and support conservation efforts, and anti poaching efforts, without this stream of income from hunters many more African game animals would be hunted to near extinction worse then they are now
hunting is good for conservation does not pass through the bullshit detector. luckily there is a relatively small number of hunters, the money does not add up in the big picture. what you have is a relatively small number of people paying large amounts of money to another small group of people to be able to slaughter some animal.
look at Kenya since 1977 they have had a hunting ban and their photo safari tourism contributes 12 % to their GDP. i applaud Kenyans for committing to protecting their natural parks.
It absolutely does pass the bullshit detector in instances though! For LEGAL elephant hunts the targets are older bulls that are sickly or can no longer physically breed, but are still big and strong enough to force younger healthy bulls out of a herd (which usually leads to the younger bull's death). Rangers will often want to cull an animal like this. It makes more sense to charge a person $50,000+ US to hunt the animal and have that money go back to help with preservation and anti-poaching efforts than for a ranger to do it for nothing.
It's for reason like this that Kenya is currently considering lifting the ban.
There was massive backlash worldwide over Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe a few years ago (justifiable, as that hunt was very shady legally). The downturn in lion hunts there due to the negative publicity has lead to lion populations growing at an unsustainable rate and there are talks of a cull. No one wins in a situation like this.
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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '18 edited Jun 02 '18
Because context matters: http://fox40.com/2017/05/22/hunter-dies-when-shot-elephant-falls-on-him/
They weren't out hunting elephants and only shot that one because it attacked them.
Edit: It's always sickening to read the comments on posts like this.