Shortshot,
I have no issue with people disliking big game hunting, and no ethical stalker/hunter including myself would kill amy protected species, or want to see any species eradicated, that is not what I, we are all about. Yet some people on here have no problem with maybe shooting a Badger, which is protected?
The Elephant I culled had only half a trunk, having lost the other half in a poachers snare.Unable to feed properley as it had lost its prehensile tip it had lost weight and some condition and was very bad tempered. I paid no trophy fee, nor did I keep the ivory or skin, this was kept under guard after I had completed the job, and taken back to a government station. I believe it was sold and the money redistributed back to the local people, as it was tribal lands I was hunting on, which was under the camp fire scheme.
If I had not shot it someone else would have had to do the job, which would not have been a local person, you see contrary to what you have said you dont find may locals with a 375HH to do the job properly
It would have died a slow lingering death and could have killed someone. My one shot killed it instantly, and it suffered no more. And YES it fed a village of very hungry people, calling this TOSH!! is to my mind a stupid and arrogant thing to do!!, What experiance have you had of a similar situation ?
As PeterE has already pointed out, Africa's wildlife will not sustain itself through Eco tourism alone, and many ranchers are converting their barren cattle farms into game areas, not only for tourists but also for hunting. On tribal lands the wildlife dept carries out a cencus to estimate a cull (much the same as we all do in managing deer) and the local people take a share of the overall profit from the game culled, plus they are employed by the safari company, and also get most of the meat. This then stops poaching as the locals can see the wildlife that can conflict with their spartan farming is worth money and worth conserving and protecting.
Whilst i have no problem withyour point of view,(and I am not a wealthy millionaire) I find it rather odd that on the one hand you deplore trophy hunting, and also the payment for any stalking/hunting, and yet do we not all pay for our sport, in leases,or permission, if not in cash then favours or a share of the venison in some way or another, or perhaps you are a wealthy landowner with plenty of deer to shoot of your own?
Legal sustainable trophy hunting does no overall damage to any animal population, if managed correctly and ethically. It is usually the sign of a well managed game area that is capable of sustaining a cull of old males that are beyond breeding condition or are about to be. Your comment about even local people in Scotland being allowed to stalk/hunt their own animals is again an odd comment I feel, after all they do already! along with a number of people off this site who are not Scottish, including ME!! long may it reamain so.
