Re: The giraffe hunters who pay 10k to shoot the gentle giants with guns & bows for s
I was pointing out the Oprah show quality to this thread. "Let's find something to be offended about."
It's just as likely that some of us (namely me) didn't know anything about this until the thread was posted. I didn't know that dogs were raised for food in some parts of China, until I saw a story on it years ago. I didn't know that it was a religious ritual to slice off girls' clits in some Muslim cultures, until I saw a story about it years ago. I didn't know that in Afghanistan if you borrow money from a syndicate to grow opium poppies and the crop fails or is destroyed by the government, it is common to make the borrower give up one or more daughters (to be used as prostitutes), until I saw a documentary on it just a few weeks ago.
Sometimes we hear about things and get pissed off about them because we had no idea (prior to hearing the news) that they were even going on.
As for what's done with the giraffe meat, I have no idea. Maybe some of it does go to the local population. Maybe it doesn't. I don't know. But having hunted for most of my adult life and having been raised on a farm, I do know that meat goes bad pretty quickly on a 90 degree day. So do these Afrikaner guides (talk about an immoral, unethical culture) run through their asses to field dress these huge animals and pack the meat in ice to get it however many miles to a storage facility, so the locals can have the meat before it spoils? I sorta doubt it. But like I said, I don't know one way or the other. I've always either eaten or given away everything I've ever killed (outside of varmints). I don't hang out with trophy hunter types, but I doubt that they care what happens to the meat. They're out for a head... plain & simple. And since I see lions on that price list, I'm doubting that anybody makes a practice of eating lion meat.
As for poachers, I've let people hunt on my land... sometimes out of season. If a person is sincere and has mouths to feed, the way I see it, my land, my deer, my rules. And if they get caught by the game warden, that's on them. But I've also caught some abusing the privilege and only taking the head and the tender loins. And yes, those people have been a small minority. Most (real) hunters really are good stewards of the land. But like I said before, I don't see sport or especially trophy hunters as real hunters. That episode of the Sarah P@lin show, where she had been touting herself as some kind of wilderness sharp shooter, yet she didn't know a .243 from a .300 WinMag, and it took her I don't know how many shots to scare to death some baby deer, comes to mind. A monkey can hold a rifle and fire it. But only a good hunter can make an ethical kill.
So if these giraffe hunters feel like manly men, doing what they're doing, good for them. But if I met one of them and he bragged about it, I'd say exactly what I've said here.
