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Originally Posted by Doodlebug  This is really disturbing to see the actual numbers. It makes me so angry that these people have to get their thrills from needlessly killing these beautiful animals. What is wrong with people? |
It all boils down to greed and corruption. The hunting fraternity will throw out all kinds of justifications for their "passion". They even claim that the huge fees they pay go towards "conservation". I was born in Africa and lived there for 45 years and I am absolutely certain that any fees being paid by these "big tough men" are conserving only the bank balances of the corrupt officials who "legalise" the process. It's a stinking, foul business through and through. And don't believe for a minute that the Zimbabwean authorities (such as they are) care one hoot about Cecil or any other wild animal in their sad country. They don't... As a child, we used to travel from Zambia through Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) on our way to Mocambique (Beira) for seaside holidays. We'd have to cross the Zambezi river - usually at a place called Chirundu. The river runs through a very wide "valley" - about 25 miles wide each side, and back in the mid 1960's it was a "natural" game reserve. As kids, we would look forward to this part of the journey with excitement and, in the course of a few hours, would see scores - if not hundreds - of different animals - usually including what are known as the "Big 5" - Elephant, Buffalo, Lion, Rhino and Leopard.
Today, the valley is practically bare of all these large animals - 95% of them have been poached. Much of the forest has been chopped down to make charcoal.
First-world "hunters" (and this includes guys in the UK, who also go shooting big game) would never have seen Africa like I did as a child - literally FULL of animals. So when they go there, they cannot make a comparison of what it used to be like, compared to today, when hardly any animals roam about in purely natural surroundings. The tiny handful of big wild animals that are left are now in little more than "enclosures" (the game parks), and even here their numbers are dwindling.
It is a tragedy that these guys who hunt rare game - and who each fork out hundreds of thousands of dollars/pounds to kill an animal, could be doing so much more if they put that money DIRECTLY into species preservation.
I cry for Africa - its animals and its people... Cecil is just the tip of a very large iceberg.