Incase you are not familiar with this topic let me start by giving you some background information on it.

Kenya is one of the few African countries that does not practice sport hunting despite the fact that we have a wide variety of animals that would make any trophy hunter go gogo gaga…

The reason why we have never practiced it is because the law makers and the general population which grow up never knowing sport hunting have turned the issue into an emotional thing to an extent that any suggestion of the reintroduction of hunting is equated to extinction.

With that in mind I’m going to have to ask you to put your feelings aside because some of the things I’m about to say here might hurt those delicate feelings.
I know we all have sensitive issues and certain things that take over us emotionally and usually these can be traced to certain times in our lives or childhood.

Before I start sounding like your therapist allow me to jump straight into the topic but please remember that if you have strong emotional feelings towards this topic you need to put them a side long enough to hear my personal opinion on the issue.

I hope your judgment will not be based on a certain childhood experience of having to witness the neighbor’s son brutally murder a cat all in the name of hunting.

These kinds of experiences can be traumatizing.

Most people I’ve talked to don’t even understand what sport hunting is all about. In fact I’m putting it mildly they have no clue. They strongly feel that, and please note the word feel. Because feeling can overwhelm people to an extent that they fail to consider the facts.
So they strongly feel that hunting will diminish our wild animals, make them extinct or that if we legalize it, the whole village will go on a hunting expedition and before the government knows what’s up all the animals will be on the verge of extinction. If that’s your thinking please feel free to share with me where you base your argument from because chances are you could be using your active imagination.

Off course there are those who’ve said that hunting takes out the best of the species because hunters target fully grown animals that have been able to adapt best to their surroundings and that should be breeding to produce off springs that have a better chance of survival.

That argument is quite valid in fact it’s the only argument that holds water and would be the only disadvantage of hunting. Off course if you have a few of your own please share them but I doubt it.
To me the advantages of sport hunting out weigh the disadvantages.
Afteral isn’t it true that to truly sustain a project we have to attach an economical value to it.

Fact is the beautiful parks and game reserves that we have in Kenya would not really exist if we didn’t come up with a way to sustain it by making it a tourist attraction.

So if we are going to save our wildlife we must constantly find more ways of adding value to it.

Besides hunting even though its illegal is already going on in Kenya due to animal people conflict.

By that I mean that locals are sometimes forced to kill wildlife when they attack their livestock and threaten their livelihoods.

Did you know that even hunting puts conservation into consideration?
And that hunting when practiced properly ensures the survival of the species by maintaining the balance?

Moreover in countries like South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana sport hunting is being done successfully.For me the best way to conserve these animals would be to put a price tag to them. Then come up with a system that closely monitors and tracks the effects of hunting activities and ensures that the local communities benefit. But hey these are my own opinions I only wish others would also see the benefits.

[tags] sports hunting[/tags]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 11:39 am and is filed under Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.