re: #343 HappyWarrior

Yep I agree with you guys too. I get hunting for food. But trophy hunting I find ghastly.

We-e-ellll…..

Consider this: We in the First World love elephants, and rightly so. They’re amazing creatures, intelligent, powerful, just generally awesome. We think it’s terrible if even one gets killed by a hunter.

However, elephants tend to live in poorer countries, where humans are expanding their range. Elephants are next to impossible to keep out of farms. Elephants eating the food you are growing to support your family are not awesome. They’re awful.

If you’re a poor country with limited revenues, limited economic opportunities, and substantial elephant/human space conflicts, you could spend your limited resources trying to relocate elephants. At the same time, there are people willing to pay money to, shall we say, address the situation. They’ll not only pay to shoot an elephant, they’ll pay for a guide, accomodations, etc.

If you hate trophy hunting - and I’m not defending the people who do it! - you need to find a way to make live elephants more valuable to poor countries than dead elephants.