Guy pays to hunt Black Rhinos, gets death threats

Cattle and sheep farmers done more damage to wolves and other predators than sport hunting ever dreamed of but that doesn't fit the hunting is bad argument.

 

We're talking about Yellowstone national park.

 

Not a lot of cattle or sheep farmers in Minnesota and Alaska. Yet it is the same story.

 

Not at all. When coyotes are 10 pounds and are dying off because they've eaten everything under the sun, you restore balance as best as you can. When flocks of turkeys disappear and you get coyotes breaking their necks to get a decoy, you've got problems. When they're eating small dogs and cats in neighborhoods, you thin them out.

I'd never want to eradicate a species, that's ignorant and short sighted.

 

If you live in Alaska you generally raise your own livestock. If a predator comes around you kill it.

 

Let them die off. That is how things get balanced. Shooting them down to a tiny population that then booms again because of the food supply being once again much greater than demand is not solving a problem. It is perpetuating it. Flocks of turkey disappear because of a lack of widespread old growth oak forests and the elimination of the Eastern Chestnut that used to be the primary food source for most game.

Keep thinning them out. This war on coyotes is 30 years old in the West. Spoiler: the coyotes win the more you fight.

 

Oh really? A lot of people raising their own livestock up in Alaska?

You've seen too many movies. Alaskans shoot anything and everything that moves and trap the rest. They don't have their own cows and sheep. They do it because they believe the same fairy tale stories people do in the lower 48. Alaskans can get away with that on the continent because there is so much open land and so few concentrated human populations. But they can wipe them out on islands, just like we have in much of the lower 48. These are just big canines. These aren't supernatural bogie men. But they're every bit as worth saving as tasty cervids and game birds.

Elephants and rhinos are considered nuisances in Africa. That is a big part of why people get rid of them, aside from the value of their ivory. It's bullshit there and it is bullshit here.

 

There are literally thousands of old oak trees that drop millions of acorns where I hunt. Coyotes and nest robbing raccoons and skunks beat them down.

Killing a coyote or two a year does nothing but keep them away from turkey calls

 

Yak, reindeer, cows, sheep, turkey, and chickens are all raised domestically in Alaska. I'm sure they just shoot wolves for shits and giggles and not to protect their livelihood and food source. Does it suck for the wolf population? Sure, but humans are the true apex predator and no amount of hippie like [itch bay]ing will ever change that.

 

I lived in Alaska. Most people do not have any animals. Some do have chickens, but those are always fenced in and have some sort of structure, if not in a structure entirely. They definitely shoot wolves for shits and giggles.

Right, humans are the apex predators as long as they use their tools. So let's quit pretending like this is all about conservation.

 

the non hunters preservationists are prone to pick and chose which species they like and do not as well.

 

Yup. Save the cute rabbits and Bambi but come get these awful coyotes and bears away from my family.

 

Tusk poaching is the biggest threat to rhino populations, but as long as there's a market, there's going to be someone to serve it. Maybe killing some of the top end buyers would help.

 

And they don't spend near the money to make it happen that hunters do.

 

More like save the furry things with cute babies, who cares about the muck suckers and bugs.

 

Hunters are all heart. So loyal to the land (as long as it doesn't contain any competition)

 

You're kidding yourself if you think that hunters and the money they bring are not helpful to the animal population. Poaching and hunting are completely different things and should not be compared.

 

Are they "helpful?" To some, but they aren't a solution in themselves. No, hunting and poaching are not the same. You know, unless a hunter poaches. Or a wealthy hunter uses his resources to circumvent the rules to make an animal that is protected available for hunting. Like with an old black rhino in need of culling, for instance. Or when an interest group forms that decides wolves are bad for Minnesota and gets them taken off the endangered species list, only to nearly wipe them out (again) in a few years, for another instance.

I'm cool with hunting. I have hunted. Pretending like hunting in itself is good ignores what makes hunting good- careful management. We aren't managing coyotes, wolves, and other predators. We are allowing them to be deemed threats because of house cats and poodles getting gobbled when off a leash and outside a fence with no owner in sight. We are allowing a black rhino to be shot by the highest bidder to "raise money," actually creating a market and value that is sure to lead to more poaching activity.

Restoring wetlands is good management. If duck hunters get a benefit from it, gravy. Just don't leave out large animals we don't eat.

 

Save them all

 

You are, quite simply, wrong. I do not know enough about tiger hunting to speak to it (although I suspect the people being eaten by tigers are more responsible for their demise than sport hunters with legitimate tags in their pockets,) but grizzly, black bear, and wolf populations are extremely healthy and, in fact, growing out of control in some areas where hunting does not curtail their population growth.

You've spouted a lot of garbage and called me a liar, but you haven't addressed the premise. Retired surgeons from Alabama spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on game tags help populations of the species they hunt because, by making them valuable, it causes people to take care of the species. The exact opposite has happened with the black rhino. Bans in hunting and the crackdown on legitimate horn trade has made it worthless to anyone with legal, legitimate interests, so poachers have eradicated the species unchecked. It is definitive proof that your view of conservationism sucks.