re: Trump's elephant trophy decision has been placed on "hold"

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IF YOU DON'T LOVE JESUS AND ROOT FOR BAMA YOU'LL AU-BURN

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Is there a single conservative issue that liberals actually understand clearly?

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How is this a liberal vs conservative issue? It's not.

I'm not a liberal at all, and I was against this before Trump told me not to be.

I'm just not naive enough to believe that hardly any of this money goes back to locals or to conservation. These trophy hunting companies are by and large owned by Europeans and Americans and the money goes in their pockets.

I've been a hunter and a sportsman my whole life and I understand and believe in the science behind culling herds of whitetails and flocks of ducks, I get it. This is the first world, the developed world; again I'm not naive enough to believe that things are nearly as regulated in these developing countries in Africa. I've been to third world countries around the world and that's just not the way things work.

Advocates for African big game trophy hunting will tell you the only way to fund the survival of these species is to auction them off, but much more people travel to Africa and pay out the arse to photograph and view these animals. These people push an agenda for a sport they enjoy.

I wasn't raised to hunt out of blood thirst and the idea of shooting a creature as magnificent and intelligent as an Elephant is hard to wrap my mind around, I will admit. I was raised by a man who whipped my arse from one side of the house to other when I shot a duck with my sling shot out of season when I was a kid and that man is to this day a hardcore conservative and so am I, though not to the same degree. This is not a left vs right discussion simply because Trump has opined on it.

Africa has some real treasures that I wish they wouldn't just auction off to the highest bidder, that's an issue that has always plagued that continent.

I'm sure there are some outfitters that do a good job in their communities and are conservation minded, but there are other ways of protecting these great species without teaching the destitute locals that the best way to make money is to let foreigners hunt their elephants, lions, leopards, etc.

Perpetuating a market for ivory and elephant parts does nothing positive for the longterm future outlook of the species.

Sounds like you and I were raised in a similar household. Anything my brother and I shot, we were expected to eat and to do otherwise was tantamount to an affront to God's creation.

I think it's a mistake, however, to think that we can ensure the long-term survival of these species by legislating ourselves out of the ivory market. There is global demand for the product with Asian black markets being the driving factor; the key word there is "Black Markets" as the import of ivory is already regulated aka illegal. It's legality has done little to stem the bloodshed only driving the prices higher.

Hunters not only bear the title of the first conservationists, but have a long track record of saving endangered animals through those efforts. People wanting to take pictures of White Rhinos in South Africa didn't fund the efforts that brought them back from the brink of extinction, trophy hunters did. Now I can certainly understand the argument about the funds not making it to the local populace and to me, this is where I think the most headway can be made. However, it's again not something that we can legislate from the U.S. It's up to those African nations to create their own Pittman-Robertson act or some form of governance to ensure that money is going where it should be.

One Modest Proposal I would make is we open up Trophy hunting on Poachers. We'll bring the Most Dangerous game to life; I'd think even the staunchest of anti-hunters might be on-board with that.

Nat Geo: Trophy Hunting can Help African Elephants


Nat Geo: Elephant Poaching Census

It was you todd.

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I'm just not naive enough to believe that hardly any of this money goes back to locals or to conservation. These trophy hunting companies are by and large owned by Europeans and Americans and the money goes in their pockets.

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even if this is true

a. they employ locals in the reserves

b. the reserves protect the populations of these animals better than other reserves where poaching is rampant

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Advocates for African big game trophy hunting will tell you the only way to fund the survival of these species is to auction them off, but much more people travel to Africa and pay out the arse to photograph and view these animals. These people push an agenda for a sport they enjoy.

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tourism is a vibrant industry but it's saturated

regardless, even animals kept in areas reserved for tourism have to cull their herds

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Perpetuating a market for ivory and elephant parts does nothing positive for the longterm future outlook of the species.

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these hunts have nothing to do with ivory and other animal parts valued by Asians causing the extreme poaching

i don't even think you can import the ivory from an elephant hunt b/c that's banned (i could be wrong about that)

Well, hell, I wanted to get my umbrella stand shipped over.



Now don't go thinking I killed an elephant just to make an umbrella stand. I'm not that cruel.