How much would you pay to shoot dead an Elephant?

[Crimson Dynamo]

http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_large/hash/0a/2c/0a2c73aee886e6724716feb6b3e6443d.jpg?itok=7orEYSp-

Well for just over £20,000 you can shoot dead an elephant in South Africa

http://www.africanskyhunting.co.za/packages/10dayelephant.html

Only £6000 if you want to kill dead a Hippo

http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/01/Hippo-hunting-in-Mozambique-937x700.jpg

You can also kill dead a Lion or a Leopard



Anyone game?

[Kazanne]

I would never pay to kill an animal,I would never accept money to kill an animal,but some humans I would knock off for free.

[Kizzy]

I'm glad this sick practice is getting some exposure, I just hope that once the dust settles after Cecil it isn't forgotten about again. There's big money to be made it seems though some may be turning a blind eye for a cut.

[Calderyon]

They have have done nothing to me, so why would i kill them?

I would pay zero [insert currency].

[Livia]

So glad this disgusting practise (I refuse to call it a sport) is getting worldwide exposure at last. The vast majority of people think it's sick and that the people who do it are sick.

[Suze]

I would never pay to kill an animal,I would never accept money to kill an animal,but some humans I would knock off for free.

This :D

[Kizzy]

I'd pay to see who set the deals up... then turn the gun and laugh as they limped of to get help followed by some sharp toothed jungle friends.

It's the ciiiirrrrcle of liiiiiiiife :hehe:

[MTVN]

Yes it is worth remembering amid the outrage over Cecil that shooting lions and other big game is legal practice in many areas

Of course the reality is often more complicated than the surface with the role that hunting plays in conservation, local economies, and enabling countries to offer better protection to these species than they otherwise would do. An interesting article: http://www.panthera.org/node/1253

But that does not mean that all hunting is necessarily bad for lions. Just as strong, empirical science has shown that over-hunting is bad for lions, it also demonstrates that hunting can be sustainable. By setting very conservative quotas and raising age limits to ensure that older male lions are targeted, the worst effects of lion hunting can be mitigated (Packer et.al). There is scant evidence of the hunting industry embracing such measures on its own but the few exceptions- and they do exist- show that hunting does not inevitably come with costs to lion numbers.

Indeed, it even has the potential to benefit lions. In Africa, sport hunting is the main revenue earner for huge tracts of wilderness outside national parks and reserves. Many such areas are too remote, undeveloped or disease-ridden for the average tourist, precluding their use for photographic safaris. Hunting survives because hunters are usually more tolerant of hardship, and they pay extraordinary sums- up to US$125,000- to shoot a male lion. The business requires only a handful of rifle-toting visitors to prosper which, in principle, helps protect those areas. The presence of hunting provides African governments with the economic argument to leave safari blocks as wilderness. Without it, cattle and crops- and the almost complete loss of wildlife they bring- start looking pretty attractive.

Which is why I’m not happy about the ESA petition. If American hunters, by far the largest market for big game safaris in Africa, can no longer hunt, lions and other wildlife will probably lose out. As unpalatable as it may be, until we find alternative mechanisms to generate the hard cash required to protect wilderness in Africa, hunting remains the most convincing model for many wild areas.

[DemolitionRed]

All this 'big game' hunting and 'canned hunting' seems to attract the macho American. I watched a documentary on canned hunting a few years ago (I still have nightmares about it) and it said that nearly all their customers came from the US.

The mind set of these people are beyond anything I could ever comprehend. I really hope Cecil's killers get 15 years in a Zimbabwe jail. The only satisfaction I got out of that article is the hunters are now being hunted.

[DemolitionRed]

@MTVN

Whilst I can understand a cull for the species sake, shooting any animal with a crossbow and leaving it injured for 40 hours before finishing it off is sickening.

[MTVN]

@MTVN

Whilst I can understand a cull for the species sake, shooting any animal with a crossbow and leaving it injured for 40 hours before finishing it off is sickening.

Wouldn't argue with that

[armand.kay]

I wouldn't lol.

[rubymoo]

It's disgusting shooting/poaching/hurting an animal, we are supposed to be superior, we are supposed to be kind and look after our planet and all the animals on it, it makes me so sad to see what some humans are capable of and the only thing i can come up with is that these people who call themselves hunters are devolving.

[Kizzy]

'Lions have become extinct in 26 countries. Only seven countries – Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe – are believed to contain more than 1,000 lions each, according to the Panthera conservation group – which is not part of the coalition making the appeal.'

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/mar/01/african-lions-american-hunter-trophies

[Livia]

All this 'big game' hunting and 'canned hunting' seems to attract the macho American. I watched a documentary on canned hunting a few years ago (I still have nightmares about it) and it said that nearly all their customers came from the US.

The mind set of these people are beyond anything I could ever comprehend. I really hope Cecil's killers get 15 years in a Zimbabwe jail. The only satisfaction I got out of that article is the hunters are now being hunted.

I think I may have seen the same documentary. I won't go into details, but the sound the big cat made as the "hunters" tried to kill it haunts me to this day. It was dreadful to watch but only by seeing this stuff can people understand the barbarity of it. I'm so glad this topic is now a hot one all over the world.

[Liam-]

I could never kill a Dumbo, or any other animal.

[Livia]

@MTVN

Whilst I can understand a cull for the species sake, shooting any animal with a crossbow and leaving it injured for 40 hours before finishing it off is sickening.

Sickening... totally sickening.

I have no issue with real hunters who go for the clean kill and either eat what they take or do it for genuine culling reasons.

[Suze]

Proof yet again that many humans kill just for sport and/or fun, whereas a majority of the animal kingdom kill to survive.

[joeysteele]

Proof yet again that many humans kill just for sport and/or fun, whereas a majority of the animal kingdom kill to survive.

Absolutely. The people who do this really sicken me, legal or not.

[Moosething]

Nothing

[Anaesthesia]

Elephant killing is even more emotive than any other animal killing, for me. They cry. They grieve. They help each other within a community.

Take a look. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140221-elephants-poaching-empathy-grief-extinction-science/

[kirklancaster]

When an elephant suddenly acts the way that a lot of humans do and turns killer, they are immediately labelled; "Rogue Elephant" - that says it all.

Some humans are not fit to be called human and it is THEY who should be hunted to death for sport in my opinion - Now I'd pay to participate in that.

[Anaesthesia]

When an elephant suddenly acts the way that a lot of humans do and turns killer, they are immediately labelled; "Rogue Elephant" - that says it all.

Some humans are not fit to be called human and it is THEY who should be hunted to death for sport in my opinion - Now I'd pay to participate in that.

:clap1: