Quote:
Originally Posted by Delahanty
Baloney. The same thing happens with elephants--betrayed by the natives who live among them.
These countries are filled with people who manage to eke out a living in other ways. When it comes to this odious practice, there's a special place in hell for the buyers and the providers.
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I tend to agree. Poaching is poaching and I HATE poachers. Their bad here in the US, but in African nations they are just disgusting in their methods. Elephants, rhinos, gazelle, wildebeast, they push into close areas and then hose them down with AKs. A storm of low powered slugs that does not kill quickly. Wire snares, spike pits, it's a war on wildlife.
One African nation used to have a system with the bush people to help manage the wildlife and stop poaching. They paid them gave them food and medical care, educated their children even armed them in trade for helping handle the poachers. It worked. Very well.
I watched a good documentary on this (it's been a while) about this nation and a neighboring one, they had interviews with the people in the bush villages and with game officers from these villages. I remember one well. He was a 6'5 plumb badass.
There was one method of dealing with poachers and he exemplified it. Kill on sight. His English was passable, and when they asked him about his job he just gave a big smile, nodded and said, "Yes, I like killing poachers."
Unfortunately African nations change governments ...rather frequently and unexpectedly, so these programs have stopped and the poachers are dancing. And back to slaughtering wholesale and cutting off heads in the bush villages if they won't spill where the animals are. The new governments weren't interested a bit in their wildlife and are probably getting a cut of the proceeds from poaching. Power and money are all that matters.
And the animals suffer.