The other night i watched Loius Theroux’s African Hunting Party documentary where he goes to Africa and interviews Americans who pay big money to kill wild animals. Some of them endangered i believe. The money made from it goes into conservation to ensure these species are kept alive to keep the whole thing going.
I remember years ago there was a guy who killed a rhino on one of these hunts. People went mental about it. Turns out that rhino was killing baby rhinos and was itself depopulating the already small population of rhino. He paid $350,000 to do it too. Radiolab did a great episode on it here
I have been a vegetarian for the last 15 or so years. I doubt i will ever eat meat again and i most certainly will not eat factory farmed meat every again. In the film, the hunters ask the question “is this worst than buying meat from the supermarket?”. Honestly, i dont think it is, the virtually live in freedom untill they are killed. The conditions of factory farmed animals is much much worse. Im not likely to pick up a gun and start hunting myself anytime soon (unless its a pest) but i thought its an interesting conversation to have.
The way these things work, is that the people working in these places identify problem animals, like infertile males that prevent the herd, or pack or pride or what ever growing, unusually agressive animals, animals with genetic faults that could be hereditary etc etc. Basically anything that could hinder the the population of the endangered or vulnerable species. These animals are hard or impossible to relocate because most places dont want to take these problem animals in, because they generaly are bad where ever they are. I mean what zoo wants lion that kills anything they see or what animal sanctuary wants rhino that kills anything it can catch?
The park rangers could very easily kill the animals them self, but running these animal sanctuarys is very expensive so its better if they find some rich dude that is willing to pay ridicilous amount of money to do it for them.
The rich dude them self isint necessary a philantropist, but the money they spend goes to local economy and is often used for things like security against poachers, vetenarians and infrastructure.
Its easy to think that killing any exotic big game is always bad, but in reality the targets are always chosen carefully.
on the other hand, this small clique of billionaires who think that their money allows them to do whatever they want, including killing protected animals, regardless of ethics and laws, makes me really uncomfortable.
Yeah I totally agree with you. I’m just saying that problem is not specific to hunting animals. Wealth inequality finds its way into most parts of life. But yeah I’m with you
I find this discussion really interesting.
The other night i watched Loius Theroux’s African Hunting Party documentary where he goes to Africa and interviews Americans who pay big money to kill wild animals. Some of them endangered i believe. The money made from it goes into conservation to ensure these species are kept alive to keep the whole thing going.
I remember years ago there was a guy who killed a rhino on one of these hunts. People went mental about it. Turns out that rhino was killing baby rhinos and was itself depopulating the already small population of rhino. He paid $350,000 to do it too. Radiolab did a great episode on it here
I have been a vegetarian for the last 15 or so years. I doubt i will ever eat meat again and i most certainly will not eat factory farmed meat every again. In the film, the hunters ask the question “is this worst than buying meat from the supermarket?”. Honestly, i dont think it is, the virtually live in freedom untill they are killed. The conditions of factory farmed animals is much much worse. Im not likely to pick up a gun and start hunting myself anytime soon (unless its a pest) but i thought its an interesting conversation to have.
That rich dude could have hired a crew to capture and relocate the rhino to a wild life sanctuary instead and donated the money.
And you could volunteer at the homeles shelter.
The way these things work, is that the people working in these places identify problem animals, like infertile males that prevent the herd, or pack or pride or what ever growing, unusually agressive animals, animals with genetic faults that could be hereditary etc etc. Basically anything that could hinder the the population of the endangered or vulnerable species. These animals are hard or impossible to relocate because most places dont want to take these problem animals in, because they generaly are bad where ever they are. I mean what zoo wants lion that kills anything they see or what animal sanctuary wants rhino that kills anything it can catch?
The park rangers could very easily kill the animals them self, but running these animal sanctuarys is very expensive so its better if they find some rich dude that is willing to pay ridicilous amount of money to do it for them.
The rich dude them self isint necessary a philantropist, but the money they spend goes to local economy and is often used for things like security against poachers, vetenarians and infrastructure.
Its easy to think that killing any exotic big game is always bad, but in reality the targets are always chosen carefully.
As someone who eats meat every day and i agree, farm animals should not exist. Let them roam free, i can eat meat twice a week.
on the other hand, this small clique of billionaires who think that their money allows them to do whatever they want, including killing protected animals, regardless of ethics and laws, makes me really uncomfortable.
Yeah I totally agree with you. I’m just saying that problem is not specific to hunting animals. Wealth inequality finds its way into most parts of life. But yeah I’m with you