Never understood the appeal of canned shooting. It’s not hunting in the slightest takes little or no skill just gives rich Walt’s a story to tell.
An interesting piece. I am a hunter, and would count myself as a trophy hunter, though I have not hunted in Africa before.
The example he gives of ‘lions in South Africa have been commoditised to such a degree that a new, captive-bred species has in effect been created’ is an interesting and controversial one. As he points out, this is called ‘canned hunting’, to the point the vast majority of hunter would also not class this as hunting, due to the animals not being wild and there being no fair chase. These lions are bread in captivity like any other domestically raised animal, and killed for the commodity of its skin. I do not see this as hunting, but at the same time I do not see the difference between this and killing a cow for its meat and leather of its hide. It is an animal that is raised for due to its body parts having a value, but a lion has an emotional trigger attached to it that a cow, for the most of us, does not.
He then goes on to state that ‘it would be impossible to distinguish between a trophy from a wild lion versus one from a captive-bred lion. On that basis alone, surely scrapping the import of all trophies makes sense.’, which I 100% disagree with.
He admits himself that ‘Graham Boynton appears to suggest that a responsible hunting industry — and by extension the ability of hunters to bring trophies into the UK legally — can create employment opportunities in Africa.’ Gaham Boyton did not suggest, he stated it as fact, as it is a fact.
Hunting tourism, no matter how deplorable or immoral one may find it, pays for sustainable conservation. And when animals pay, they stay, as the adage goes. Actual managed and legal wild Lion hunting in sub-Saharan Africa, is an important tool for conservation:
How does a blanket ban on Trophy imports help with Lion conservation, or animal conservation in general? You take away the value of the animal, and it just becomes a cattle and occasional people killer that will be shot, poisoned and poached into non existence outside of national parks.
2 comments
Never understood the appeal of canned shooting. It’s not hunting in the slightest takes little or no skill just gives rich Walt’s a story to tell.
An interesting piece. I am a hunter, and would count myself as a trophy hunter, though I have not hunted in Africa before.
The example he gives of ‘lions in South Africa have been commoditised to such a degree that a new, captive-bred species has in effect been created’ is an interesting and controversial one. As he points out, this is called ‘canned hunting’, to the point the vast majority of hunter would also not class this as hunting, due to the animals not being wild and there being no fair chase. These lions are bread in captivity like any other domestically raised animal, and killed for the commodity of its skin. I do not see this as hunting, but at the same time I do not see the difference between this and killing a cow for its meat and leather of its hide. It is an animal that is raised for due to its body parts having a value, but a lion has an emotional trigger attached to it that a cow, for the most of us, does not.
He then goes on to state that ‘it would be impossible to distinguish between a trophy from a wild lion versus one from a captive-bred lion. On that basis alone, surely scrapping the import of all trophies makes sense.’, which I 100% disagree with.
He admits himself that ‘Graham Boynton appears to suggest that a responsible hunting industry — and by extension the ability of hunters to bring trophies into the UK legally — can create employment opportunities in Africa.’ Gaham Boyton did not suggest, he stated it as fact, as it is a fact.
Hunting tourism, no matter how deplorable or immoral one may find it, pays for sustainable conservation. And when animals pay, they stay, as the adage goes. Actual managed and legal wild Lion hunting in sub-Saharan Africa, is an important tool for conservation:
[https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0029332](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0029332)
[https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/trophy-hunting-and-lion-conservation-a-question-of-governance/5C7B42A9594CB8F93E398D3589412D7E](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/trophy-hunting-and-lion-conservation-a-question-of-governance/5C7B42A9594CB8F93E398D3589412D7E)
How does a blanket ban on Trophy imports help with Lion conservation, or animal conservation in general? You take away the value of the animal, and it just becomes a cattle and occasional people killer that will be shot, poisoned and poached into non existence outside of national parks.