Scientists - Banning Trophy Hunting Will be Bad for Animals

​www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49524189?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/clm1wxp533pt/animals&link_location=live-reporting-story

A group of 133 scientists have spoken out against a full on global ban of trophy hunting stating that they believe it will actually do more harm to the animals than good. Their study suggests that an immediate global ban would lead to mass illegal snaring, poisoning, and slaughtering and increase the black market activity for wild animal trophies. Among this, they also say that these places that rely on this income will have no other reason to conserve land for these animals and the land will go to other things leaving the animals in danger anyways.

Where do I start with this and why I think this is complete and utter nonsense? I'm going to start with the trophy hunting industry as a whole here before I go further into this. Trophy Hunting is a sport solely for rich people who pay exponential amounts of money to travel to these locations and shoot an animal for fun, usually keeping some kind of trophy from their bodies as a "reward" for their efforts. This money supposedly ends up being funneled into conservation efforts and communities where it is a necessary source of additional income. There are SO many things wrong with trophy hunting it's astounding anyone continues to see anything positive in it, but here's my outlook on the problems.

.First of all, trophy hunting as a whole is disgustingly exploitative in nature. Before we get to the animals, let's talk about the communities who take this money. Usually, these African nations are rather poor correct? So isn't there something especially sickening about a bunch of rich, upper class people paying them tens of thousands of dollars to travel their destinations in search of exotic wildlife solely for the sake of killing it? It screams exploitation to these communities; if these sick rich people want to help, donate your tens of thousands of dollars to helping community initiatives or development projects rather than using their desperation as a means to creep in flashing your money around to gain access to endangered animals. It's honestly just abhorrent right down to the core.

Secondly, the animals they are paying to shoot are fucking endangered, like, facing extinction. Doesn't that just make it even more cringy, despicable, and exploitative? These communities need this money, these animals NEED to be protected, and these perverse rich people see an opportunity to slither in and take advantage of a bad situation in every way. The animals being killed are in serious need of additional protection, not in need of being hunted and shot dead for sport. It's wrong.

The animals being hunted for sport are all facing their own dangers in the wild as it is. Habitat loss, illegal poaching, climate change, human conflict due to population growth and habitat loss etc., these animals have millions of other things working against their survival without the addition of a bunch of pompous rich folk who claim to have such a deep connection and respect for the animals they are putting bullets in to. It's complete hogwash, simple as that.

These scientists claim that by immediately banning trophy hunting, illegal poaching will become worse which will put the animals in further danger. They also claim that these nations will no longer have any reason to conserve their land and protect their habitat without the income generated from these trophy hunts. While I agree that this might initially become a problem, that's where government and international initiatives come in. 

It's ridiculous to say that because something might initially get worse, we mustn't do anything at all. It's this very lax attitude of this might make things worse so let's do nothing at all that is helping along the extinction of these beautiful animals. Rhinos, Giraffes, Lions, Leopards, Elephants, etc., the list goes on and on, by doing nothing, we are already helping this process of extinction along.

We must tackle trophy hunting with a plan in mind to compensate these people for what their communities will lose from the hunting. It's called planning ahead right? One cannot just ban something like this without expecting the outcome and already having several plans in mind. Consult these nations, find out how we can all work together to generate more income for them without the slaughter of endangered animals. If we come up with some concrete ideas, we can immediately put these plans in motion to help these nations generate income in other ways prior to the ban to ease the financial burden but c'mon, time is of the essence when it comes to extinction.

I couldn't be any more distressed about this report. As the report suggests, these animals are already facing several perils, all of which in my opinion are entirely human driven so it's important to start somewhere. Trophy hunting is a fucking novelty that we need to be done with, period.

What are your thoughts?

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