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Game Hunter Trampled To Death By Elephant

Few people understand how big-game hunts work. That hunter probably paid well over $50,000 and possibly over $100,00 for the "hunt" and it was arranged because the herd was going to be thinned to avoid starvation. The money pays for the operation preserve, which usually is privately owned land. The alternative is to turn the land into farmland and eliminate the natural wildlife.

There are big game hunters - if can call it hunting - on waiting lists to "hunt" big game. When the number becomes too high for a particular species on the particular private preserve, and offer is made to buy the hunt of the specific animal. They tend to pick males because they consume a lot of food and space, but are not essential to maintaining the herd as that is the females.

Lower cost animals might be hippos, water buffalo and giraffes, though will still cost tens of thousands of dollars each for the right to shoot it. The goal of the hunter isn't the hunt, but the taxidermy afterwards for his home and as his vacation trip. End big game contract hunting and it would devastate certain species and the preserves would be shut down and converted to cleared farmland. The preserve owners also protect their land against poachers, which would not happen without the hunting fees income.

Even if not, the result would be starvation due to excessive population over grazing.

The elephant in all certainly has been killed as that likely was the goal in the first place.

You, too, can hunt tigers, lions, elephants etc - provided that you have a few hundred thousand dollars to spare. In doing so you are financing living space and protection for that species that otherwise wouldn't exist. The story doesn't tell that reality.

As soon as America converts its prairies back to natural prairies then you all have a right to fuss about what other countries do in relation to their large non-livestock animals. It tends to be city people who complain, when they personally are living themselves in a setting 100% adverse to animals. As it human nature, they want to complain about others for things they absolutely do not do themselves.
 
I am assuming then that you are a strict vegetarian and that you never wear any furs or leather?

That might be so for the OPer. If I remember correctly, in his opinion killing fire ants, mosquitoes, rats and cockroaches is wrong too.
 
That might be so for the OPer. If I remember correctly, in his opinion killing fire ants, mosquitoes, rats and cockroaches is wrong too.

What about dust mites?
 
Commercial hunting preserves in Africa (and elsewhere including the USA) are doing more to keep species from extinction than are all animal rights groups as all they do is bitch. The privately owned preserves actually maintain the land and the species. This is another example of it being profit thru free enterprise doing far more good than the so-called do-gooders.

Africans, just like Americans and Europeans and everyone else, are not going to agree to starve to death to keep their land natural. Large species that are not livestock are doomed everywhere UNLESS there is an economic motive to save them. It is zoos and for-profit preserves that have the best chance of preventing further extinctions. Sending $100 to an animal rights group won't make and maintain a 100,000 acre wildlife preserve. Selling hunting rights for herd excess at $25,000 to $100,000 a shot does.

That guy gave at least $50,000 and probably much more to save elephants in the wild. What have YOU done to save elephants in the wild? Talk and posting online is nothing.
 
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Elephants have very long memories so most have seen relatives killed by men so I expect that a lot of them are willing to kill men.

I would love to have a giant elephant tusk but I wouldn't kill an elephant to get one. I would rather buy an elephant and wait for it to die of old age but they live longer than I have left.

You can cut off the tusk of an elephant if you owned a bull, sometimes it is done to protect the women from being injured by the bull, it will grow back in time and it can be done painlessly. You just cannot trade it (as far as I am aware) but if you wanted a tusk you would not have to wait for his death, just as long as you weren't trading it I think it might be legal.
 
I feel sorry for the PH. Crappy way to die. And yes in general.. I value the life of a fellow human more than I value the life of another animal.
 
You can cut off the tusk of an elephant if you owned a bull, sometimes it is done to protect the women from being injured by the bull, it will grow back in time and it can be done painlessly. You just cannot trade it (as far as I am aware) but if you wanted a tusk you would not have to wait for his death, just as long as you weren't trading it I think it might be legal.

This is one thing that irks me about poachers.Killing an animal for something that grows back seems akin to cutting down a whole fruit tree for it's fruit.
 
When will this ridiculous pass time be banned?

I hope never... I like Elephants and I want them to remain on the planet with us.

banning elephant hunts is a fine way to help them on their way to extinction... one of the best ways, actually.

if you feel all warm and fuzzy about Elephants....support controlled hunts ( but oppose poaching)... it's a great way to ensure their survival, one of the best.

one of the best thing about these elephant hunts is that the most desirable animals to kill are the mature bulls... culling mature bulls from herds allows for herd population growth... it's a great conservation measure.
 
This is one thing that irks me about poachers.Killing an animal for something that grows back seems akin to cutting down a whole fruit tree for it's fruit.

poachers should be hunted down and beaten to death with their own weapons...
 
I feel sorry for the PH. Crappy way to die. And yes in general.. I value the life of a fellow human more than I value the life of another animal.

Free will...it's the name of the game. It was life or death. And he lost.
 
Free will...it's the name of the game. It was life or death. And he lost.

Sure.. it doesn't mean that one shouldn't feel sad when things like this happen.
 
This is one thing that irks me about poachers.Killing an animal for something that grows back seems akin to cutting down a whole fruit tree for it's fruit.

Just an aside...

Do understand the conditions that domesticated elephants usually face? I think that's the irony of your post. Hunting a wild animal in a fair chase hunt.. where the animal.. as demonstrated, has a chance. And that animal has lived his life till a ripe old age out in the wild... and then he falls to a clean kill from a hunters bullet?

That's way more human than the conditions that domesticated elephants face.
 
If he was hunting that elephant than I am not really sure that I am sorry that he lost his life, it all depends on the particulars about what he was doing at the time of his death. I am sorry for his loved ones but if he was hunting that animal and it turned and killed him before he got the chance to kill it then good for the elephant and tough luck for his would be killer.

If you hunt large animals than you have to accept the chance that it will kill you. Man already has most of the best tools needed for killing a large animal with little or no risk to themselves but in the rare times the animal strikes back then I am not that sad for the person who died.

Hunting to prevent a wild animal from hurting people or being a trouble animal that must be eliminated is one thing, hunting big game for ivory or pleasure is something that I disapprove of and if this guy was doing that and got killed in the process then tough luck for him.

Yes, there are various probabilities one must accept when engaging in dangerous activities, and potential for death or injury is certainly there. But to feel nothing for the loss of human life? That's a bit sick, IMO.
 
Anyone hunting elephants for ivory in this day and age deserves everything bad that happens to them. No sympathy here.
 
Anyone hunting elephants for ivory in this day and age deserves everything bad that happens to them. No sympathy here.

I'm not 100% sure they were illegally poaching.
 
I'm not 100% sure they were illegally poaching.

Stepping back from the poaching aspect of this then. I don't really get this. Why would anyone proactively want to kill an elephant or a giraffe ?

'Canned hunting': the lions bred for slaughter | Environment | The Guardian

On TV recently I saw one rich American hunter in South Africa having a gazelle staked out between two trees so it couldn't escape, in order to get his 11 year old daughter to shoot it. He then got annoyed with her when she got upset about being forced to do it ! He claimed he was teaching her to hunt ! A whole sick market has sprung up to cater for some very disturbed individuals in my view. :(
 
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Stepping back from the poaching aspect of this then. I don't really get this. Why would anyone proactively want to kill an elephant or a giraffe ?

'Canned hunting': the lions bred for slaughter | Environment | The Guardian

On TV recently I saw one rich American hunter in South Africa having a gazelle staked out between two trees so it couldn't escape, in order to get his 11 year old daughter to shoot it. He then got annoyed with her when she got upset about being forced to do it ! He claimed he was teaching her to hunt ! A whole sick market has sprung up to cater for some very disturbed individuals in my view. :(

People do all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps some like to hunt, perhaps others want bragging rights to something. I'm sure there are things you like to do that I wouldn't really get either. It's not to say you shouldn't be allowed to do it though, just that different people have different ideals and desires. If it's legal, then that's really what matters most.

I'm not sure this was an illegal hunt, it sounds like everything was very much in line with law. It's sad that a man died, though the risks were known, but it's not a good thing to celebrate the deaths of humans, even if one is not sympathetic to actions taken by the individual while alive.
 
People do all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps some like to hunt, perhaps others want bragging rights to something. I'm sure there are things you like to do that I wouldn't really get either. It's not to say you shouldn't be allowed to do it though, just that different people have different ideals and desires. If it's legal, then that's really what matters most.

Hunting for food (when its necessary to do so for survival) I can understand its hunting for sport I find morally repugnant :(
 
Hunting for food (when its necessary to do so for survival) I can understand. Hunting for sport I find morally questionable :(

And you can, it's fine. But if this was a legal hunt, then it was a legal hunt. And regardless, cheering the death of humans is something I find morally questionable, or repulsive. But c'est la vie.
 
And you can, it's fine. But if this was a legal hunt, then it was a legal hunt. And regardless, cheering the death of humans is something I find morally questionable, or repulsive. But c'est la vie.

The humans chose to be a part of this the animals didn't
 
Stepping back from the poaching aspect of this then. I don't really get this. Why would anyone proactively want to kill an elephant or a giraffe ?

'Canned hunting': the lions bred for slaughter | Environment | The Guardian

On TV recently I saw one rich American hunter in South Africa having a gazelle staked out between two trees so it couldn't escape, in order to get his 11 year old daughter to shoot it. He then got annoyed with her when she got upset about being forced to do it ! He claimed he was teaching her to hunt ! A whole sick market has sprung up to cater for some very disturbed individuals in my view. :(

Men (or women) who participate in canned hunts, anywhere, including here in the US (big in TX) are the biggest ******s on the planet.
 
People do all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps some like to hunt, perhaps others want bragging rights to something. I'm sure there are things you like to do that I wouldn't really get either. It's not to say you shouldn't be allowed to do it though, just that different people have different ideals and desires. If it's legal, then that's really what matters most.

:shock:
 
It's Big Game Hunting, people, and Big Game Hunting in freaking Africa at that. Of course it's dangerous.

That's the whole point. :lol:

It really just goes to show that these animals aren't exactly the defenseless cuddle bunnies so many of the "bleeding heart" brigade like to paint them as. They actually manage to kill quite a few hunters every year.
 
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