Another day, another rare animal trophy controversy. This time, including a black giraffe.
The images, taken in South Africa, show an American hunter proudly posing next to the slain wildlife animal.
The hunter, can be seen standing and then sitting beside the black giraffe, whose face is dug into the floor.
Africa Digest wrote on their Twitter account:
White American savage who is partly a neanderthal comes to Africa and shoot down a very rare black giraffe courtesy of South Africa stupidity. Her name is Tess Thompson Talley. Please share. [sic]
If our so called governments can’t care for our wildlife then its time we stand up and responsibility of our continent, lands, resources and wildlife….share share share! and lets have a united voice against pillage of Africa, it’s the only home we have [sic]
Obviously, not many people on social media were best pleased with the photo, but offered some interesting insights on the matter:
One commenter wrote:
If the government cannot care about its citizens my dear what makes you think they even give two flying doves about an animal. Until we see the value of what we have then we will never appreciate [sic]
Another said:
SA Gov needs to change the laws to ban canned hunting on private game farms and everywhere else.
There needs to be political will to protect our wildlife& natural resources over profit.Also find the private ownership of wild animals & nature, morally & ethically foul. [sic]
A third wrote, objecting to the term ‘White American’:
I really have to ask who the “neanderthal” is who made this about the AMERICAN’s colour/race as it is of no consequence considering how many black poachers kill elephants and rhino’s in South Africa?
Why not just say ‘savage American’ or is Africa Digest a bunch of racists [sic]
About. 1.7m trophies were traded in the 10-year period between 2004 and 2014, Discover Wildlife says. Of those, 200,000 – or roughly 20,000 a year – belonged to animals that are classifed as threatened by the IUCN.
The most traded species of all was the black bear – 44 per cent of all imported trophies (93,322) came from Ursus americanus.
Next in order were the mountain zebra (12,892 trophies), leopard (10,299), African elephant (10,294), Chacma baboon (9,504) and lion (8,231).
Theis website states:
Most of the traded black-bear trophies were hunted in Canada and exported to the US. The black bear is assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN and therefore not considered to be threatened with extinction.
The cost of trophy hunting varies greatly. According to research, the market rate for hunting Africa’s Big Five in South Africa is as follows: a white rhinoceros $125,000+ (£88,000), $25,000-60,000 for an elephant, $8,500-50,000 for a lion, $15,000-35,000 for a leopard and $12,500-$17,000 for a buffalo.
A number of countries have banned trophy hunting. Except for in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, all hunting of native species is prohibited in Brazil, as it is largely in India.
In Africa, both Kenya and Botswana have banned trophy hunting. Australia, France and the Netherlands have banned the importing of lion trophies, while the UK is considering one.
A contentious argument, for sure, with no immediate answer.
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