Trophy Hunting

[Klipspringer]

Eduardo and his Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting has done incredible work to expose this and other atrocities
Perhaps the UK will now forge ahead with a total ban on all trophy hunting imports in the United Kingdom and lead the way for a worldwide change

Never underestimate a clever campaign based on a good collection of mostly well known issues - it can bring about this change and others to come.

I think this a worldwide trend to come and support for trophy hunting is shrinking by the day.

Ironically - when the WWF (not the UK branch) was exposed for their support of human rights abuses, they did not do much of a policy change except launching an internal investigation.

Perhaps animal rights do matter more than human rights when it comes to campaign launching. And these big NGO's just follow the trends in public opinion which they have to do as they operate with donations.

[Lisbeth]

For an organization known for defending the animals, this is certainly a blow:

“WWF is in danger of being vastly and potentially disastrously out of step with public opinion on the issue. Its stance could seriously contaminate WWF’s brand and hit supporter income, and possibly that of the wider conservation and charitable sector.”

The charity’s record is examined in a new chapter, “Does WWF Support Trophy Hunting?”, in the latest edition of his book Killing Game: the Extinction Industry.

[JKuku]

Are people here are familiar of the Let Africa Live facebook page? Inclusive Conservation Group, a small group of American trophy hunters, uses it to influence African conservation policies and build grassroots support for trophy hunting and wildlife trade.

Safari Club International and Shikar-Safari Club International are the two main funding sources for the page (they spent millions in the last few years on this project). Inclusive Conservation groups states they take words from the SCI website and promote it on social media through a "native African" voice. You'll notice they post a lot about western NGO's controlling Africa's resources which is hilariously ironic considering their president is an orthodontist in Florida. They were also behind the campaign defending trophy hunter Britt Longoria and boasted about influencing Botswana's elite decision makers and rural communities to garner support for elephant trophy hunting in 2019.

I'm curious to hear what others think about what they're doing.

[Peter Betts]

Safari Club International together with Dalas Safari Club are PURE EVIL and have all the Southern AfricanGovts in their pockets

[Lisbeth]

Jkuku

Never even heard about it, but then I don't do social media, exactly for the reason that there are sites like that, who influence people, who are easy to influence or are void of personal opinion and far too easy to "feed" anything. I'll be sure to go and have a look though.

[Richprins]

Ultimately it is for the local officials to decide what is best for their situations, economically and conservation-wise? On the other hand the contributors (foreigners) have right to state their case, as they pay...so it is complex, Kuku!

[Klipspringer]

Trophy hunting organisations have been "infiltrating" the conservation NGO's for a long time by donations and propaganda. They are sponsors to many social media sites and conservation groups in the pro hunting and sustainable use camps.

Here an interesting read on their affiliation in the IUCN bodies

https://oxpeckers.org/2020/02/inside-the-iucn/

[Richprins]

The anti-hunters do plenty of infiltrating and invasive social media bullying, along with fundraising...trust me!

[JKuku]

Richpins: do you have evidence to back up those claims? It would be interesting to compare how each side coordinates attacks. So far I have only found this level of deceit on the pro-trophy hunting side.

I will say it is unnerving to see Safari Club International and Dallas Safari Club align themselves with climate change denial groups and the oil and gas industry in the United States. A lot of the covert operations they are doing are straight from the climate change denial book which does not seem to be a coincidence.

[Lisbeth]

I did have a look at the hunting website and all I want to say is, that when it comes to lies, they have learnt a lot from President Trump