Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2015/08/04/trophy-hunting-is-hunting.html
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Through my travels on our majestic planet I’ve met no more loathsome character than the “trophy hunter”. A truly despicable lowlife with zero regard for preserving / conserving any aspect of the Earth’s bounty.
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I open NY Times, a dead lion.
I open Wired, a dead lion.
I open BoingBoing, a dead lion.
I am hungry.
I am afraid to open the fridge.
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Is that original, or cribbed from Silverstein?
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A variant on an ancient political joke from the time when Brezhnev’s death coverage saturated the media.
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You do realize that on a real, legal sanctioned hunt:
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The money for permits goes to fund the conservation areas at the parks.
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The meat is given to local groups.
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Population controls have to be enacted because when the limited land on the parks becomes over crowed, the animals move out and run into local humans. Many lions are poisoned every year by local farmers when a lion kills their live stock.
Though in Kenya, at least, they are working on compensation programs to keep that from happening.
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If only the dentist had been from Florida this could have been a Carl Hiaasen novel.
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Sounds like the kind of outing a True Scotsman would enjoy.
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But are they hunting the smallest, weakest, oldest…?
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usually oldest because even though old lions become impotent they still prevent younger lions from breeding.
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Actually, it’s about ethics in trophy hunting
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The problem of course is that this recent “discussion” has been prompted by a non legally sanctioned hunt and the legally sanctioned ones are not going to be differentiated well on the inter webs. I am not a big fan of the legally sanctioned trophy hunts however it comes under a category of stuff i will not do myself but if the rules are valid and followed and you want to do it - that is your business.
Articles like the ones linked suggest that there is a problem with the validity of the rules:
“On average less than 3% of all monies spent decorating homes with animal parts, goes to any part of local or national conservation efforts.” If the average comes from the Kenyan style hunts you mention giving a high % to conservation and say a sanctioned Zimbabwe hunt giving Mugabe a new shiny thing and no conservation then maybe these differences need to be highlighted. (for all I know the Kenyan hunts give back .0000001% and Zimbabwe 99.5% but I doubt it)
We will have to see how this goes in the long term. Unfortunately I suspect we are going to see an outrage blip and little change to either legal or illegal trophy hunts.
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We already know how this goes in the long term. And as lions (and rhinos, and tigers, &c.) approach extinction, the rate of hunting will accelerate, because no good sociopath wants to miss out on getting a trophy for themselves before they’re all gone.
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Trophy hunting is “hunting” the way that [riding] Big Thunder Mountain
is a “train ride”is being certified as a railroad engineer.
FTFY
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Nothing says “I feel inadequate” like an animal head on your wall.
If you fight the ferocious animal (but why?) with your bare hands and win, then yeah, I respect your skill.
But still, if you have to prove your manhood, then you don’t really have any.
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I think the new masculine proof of virility should be pig wrestling. Sure you both get dirty, but I hear the pig likes it!
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A real man is humble about his abilities.
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I’m actually all for that. Make sport hunting completely legal.
You just have to do it unarmed and naked.
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Call me crazy, but I always thought if you really want to know what hunting dangerous game should
be like, you should hunt only animals that can kill you, and do so only with a large knife.
Because even swords would be cheating.
How does Predator fit into this? I have a feeling I’m channeling Predator.
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Yeah. The analogy didn’t really make sense before. Thunder Mountain may not be the most exciting roller coaster, but it is certainly more fun than riding a real train.
