There was nothing to be done for this poor young bull but end his suffering, which the warden duly did. One of the saddest sights I have encountered in nearly 40 years of working in conservation is that of an elephant in the grip of septicaemia, hobbling on a badly wounded leg. Why? Because I know that this Bill, which puts sentimentality before rationality, will actually lead to an increase in death and suffering for the very animals it is supposed to conserve and protect. Quite the opposite: I am an ecologist and conservationist, and have devoted my life to protecting all wildlife and their habitats in my home country, Zimbabwe, and elsewhere in Africa.Īs such, you might expect me to support the Bill being brought before the House of Commons today, which will prohibit hunters from bringing the heads and hides of the animals they’ve killed back to the UK. So insulated are these armchair activists from the reality of existence on the ground here in Africa, that they have come to prize the lives of animals - albeit ones as magnificent and beautiful as a six-tonne African elephant - above the lives and livelihoods of some of the poorest people on the planet.ĭon’t get me wrong, I am no hunter. Or whose wife has been trampled by an elephant when she went to fetch water? Or the village whose water system has been destroyed by a herd searching for food? What would you say to the man whose cattle, his only means of feeding his family, have been torn apart by lions? For those Western celebrities who advocate a ban on the import of hunting trophies, I have a question or two to ask.
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