Big Game Hunting in Africa
By Charlotte Doogue
Q and A
What has Caused this issue?
Big game hunting dates back to pre cavemen times. Back then it was a necessity to survive but as we've evolved it has become a sport for those who want to expand their ego by praying on innocent animals and can afford it. The resources poured into regulating, advertising, producing materials, etc related to Big Game hunting could have been better spent on protecting and breeding endangered animals. "The Science is clear, animal populations decline where there is hunting." ~Dereck Joubert of the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative.
What are Two Different Points of View?
1. Animals are being hunted for no apparent reason bar human pleasure, is it humane to kill innocent animals to amuse us civilised animals. Animal deserve a human free natural life.
2. We are superior beings to all other animals and we should be free to do what we please for fun. The true african experience is hunting an animal and each year it adds an estimated $200,000,000 USD to the african economy annually.
How is your issue impacting on/ affecting people and/ or the environment?
Big game hunting is teaching future generations that taking another's life for fun is OK. One licence for hunting lions is $2500. A long story short, the life of a lion (on average) is valued at just over $100. (See "No, Big game hunting does not secretly help conservation efforts" by Nikki Ekstein for more info.) More and more people are getting into big game hunting reducing the amount of innocent animals left in the wild. This cannot go on because the consequences will be less/ no wild animals left for any purposes let alone hunting. (See graph below)
What is being done (or could be done) to solve this issue?
A lot of advocating is being done over the internet especially since Cecil the lion was killed on a legal hunt there are laws and regulations in place with limits on the number of animals and what animals you can legally kill but in truth there is so much more the world could be doing. We need to be educating tourists, children and the public about the horror that is big game hunting. We also should ban big gam hunting in Africa and impose more severe punishments on poachers.
Looking at this graph, one thing is certain- rhinos are in grave danger from poachers like many other wild species. You can tell that after 2005/ 2006 the amount of rhinos poached incresed and if we carry on poaching rhinos and other species for that matter there will be none left in the world for future generations to enjoy.
Graph by Mick Reily, Head of Conservation and Security, Big Games Parks, SwazilandThis Cartoon depicts big game hunters shooting a butterfly because other animal species are going extinct due to human pressure and lack of conservation measures. Cartoon by Chris Madden Cartoons
Biblioghraphy
https://intlrhinofoundation.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/portrait-of-a-rhino-poacher-part-iv/
http://www.chrismadden.co.uk/cartoon-gallery/big-game-hunters-cartoon-endangered-species-cartoon/
https://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-how-much-does-hunting-contribute-to-african-economies/