NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/talk/environm/4747

Text File | 1992-11-24 | 1.7 KB | 36 lines

Newsgroups: talk.environment
Path: sparky!uunet!newsgate.watson.ibm.com!yktnews!admin!mothra6!andrewt
From: [e-mail] (Andrew Taylor)
Subject: Re: Animal Ethics?
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Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 05:21:26 GMT
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Graeme Montagu) writes:
> ... but I sincerely believe that hunting is justified.  It
> is a singularly major source of foreign investment in rural areas of
> sub-Saharan Africa.  Funds obtained from the trophy hunting of game is
> given back to the rural community of that area.  The animal carcass
> is also consumed by the locals.  In so doing, the continued existence
> of both endangered wildlife and local human community is ensured in
> co-existence.

Hunting is of limited value for species conservation. The habitats mainly used
for hunting (savannah, open woodland) tend to be adequately conserved for
other purposes (tourism, traditional pastoralists). The forests, large lakes
and fynbos are where most threatened species are found in sub-Saharan Africa.

Hunting is a useful source of foreign exchange for the countries that allow
it but, in countries like Zambia, I'm dubious that much money really reaches
the locals.

Hopefully one day all visitors will be able to look at a lion without
the urge to shoot it and drag its dismembered head home.

Andrew Taylor