There are two sides, and
usually more, to every story. Getting people to see or to hear all sides of the
story is challenging. Consider the story of Cecil, Zimbabwe’s most celebrated lion.
Cecil was 13 years old and
the star of Hwange National Park. He was fitted with a tracking collar, was
studied by researchers and often sat out sunning in view of park visitors.
Cecil is skinned out now and
headed for a Minnesota dentist’s trophy wall. The dentist, a passionate trophy
hunter, shot him with a bow and arrow after paying somewhere around $50,000 for
a trophy hunt.
One of the storylines is
that the hunter and his guides lured Cecil beyond park boundaries, where
hunting is prohibited, and shot him on a private preserve. Another is that
Cecil wandered out on his own and the hunter shot him unaware that he was
collared and from the national park. Which story is true likely will not be
determined until the dust settles.
Cecil’s sad demise hit
social media like an atomic bomb. There were hundreds of thousands of messages and
comments of outrage. There were demands for an end to trophy hunting. Some
airlines, Air Canada among them, announced that they would no longer allow big
game animal trophies on their airplanes.
There were threats on the
lives of the dentist and his family. The Zimbabwean government has called for the dentist to be
extradited to face trial.
Tom
Bronkhorst, local safari operator and the professional hunter who guided the
Minnesota dentist, was charged
with failing to prevent an illegal hunt. He is in a court next month facing up
to 15 years in prison.
It seemed that the entire
world was infuriated at what was called the cruel and insane practice of
killing animals for trophies.
Not exactly. And that’s the
other side of this story.
Wildlife experts,
conservation groups and African governments generally support trophy hunting.
They say that when animals within government preserves become too numerous they
are sold to private game preserves.
Private game preserves pay a
lot more money for the animals than they would fetch for food or other purposes.
In turn, the private preserves bring in large amounts of money from trophy
hunters and other tourism enterprises, which is a help to the overall economy.
In some places, lions and
other animals are poisoned or trapped because of the threat they pose to
humans, livestock and crops. Locals tend to leave the animals alone if they are
realizing the economic benefits of trophy hunting.
Governments in Namibia and
South Africa spoke out against calls for a ban on trophy hunting.
“This will be the end of conservation
in Namibia,” Pohamba Shifeta, Namibia’s environment and tourism minister
was quoted as saying. If there was no trophy hunting, there would be no money
for conservation.
South Africa’s environment
ministry said trophy hunting helps to pay for its conservation efforts.
Bronkhorst called the
charges against him frivolous and added: “If we do not use wildlife sustainably, there
will be no wildlife.”
Hunting has been an
effective conservation tool, not only in Africa but in North America, when the
money it generates is put back into wildlife management and conservation
programs.
Critics say the money often
is diverted to other programs or into corrupt pockets.
They might be right.
Corruption exists wherever money is to be made. But that’s a different problem
and a different story.
I’ve been a hunter all my life
but never a hunter for trophies. However, I’ll reserve judgment on whether it
is a good or bad thing until I hear more facts.
The Internet and social
media have allowed our society to form instant opinions based on incomplete and
unchecked information. Critical thinking is a requirement of making intelligent
decisions. And critical thinking involves looking at all sides of the story.
Fortunately the Cecil story
is only about trophy hunting and not a topic in which instant outrage and
condemnation leads to people pushing buttons that launch intercontinental missiles.
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