Trophy Hunting In a Changing Environment

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171128230410.htm

An article posted on the Science Daily website suggests that a changing environment along with trophy hunting is putting species at risk of extinction. The article suggests that trophy hunters typically look for specific traits in their hunt such as a large, full mane on a lion or strong, thick antlers on an antelope. Hunting these dominant males along with a changing environment in part due to climate change will most definitely cause endangered species to go extinct.

The article suggests that trophy hunting CAN help conservation so long as a better model for hunting is introduced. It suggests hunting the older males who have had the opportunity to reproduce and allowing the younger, stronger males to continue to reproduce to keep the species at a reasonable level. 

That's all fine and good but at the end of the day, the fact of the matter is that lions are currently listed as VULNERABLE meaning their populations are decreasing. Can someone please explain to me how hunting them in any way, shape, or form is somehow going to help with conservation?

Someone who is pro-hunting would suggest these statistics without doing their fact checking. Perhaps the people who wrote this article truly believe picking off the elderly males and allowing the younger males to continue to reproduce somehow helps the situation but frankly, you're killing off endangered animals. That's the reality here.

It's really quite a simple solution when you consider that humans are destroying the environment and taking away the animals' land, stop trophy hunting! Why in the hell is this even still being discussed? People are hunting animals that are widely recognized as being vulnerable or endangered and this somehow helps with conservation? 

It's time to put an end to trophy hunting altogether. It's an industry built around the luring and slaughtering of animals that are endangered. Blood money is a dangerous thing to get involved with and the fact that there are so many people willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to kill such beautiful creatures is most disturbing. I've seen trophies mounted on walls before and frankly, they don't make you look fierce or macho, they make me think that you're a disgusting pig who took a life for sport. That's what it boils down to, a sport that involves slaughter.

Enough is enough! The only animals that seem to be hunted for trophies are the ones who are teetering on becoming extinct. There is no conservation happening here! We need to get our heads out of our asses, it's a pretty simple solution. Stop slaughtering endangered animals! Stop trophy hunting!

HAPPY VEG

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