What is going on here? Two posters are posting stuff based on emotion and not fact, IMO:
1. As pointed out, it is ONE and only one thing saving the elephants in several countries over there - hunting and the money that comes from it, from well-off foreign hunters. This money can compete with the money that comes from the corrupt .gov officials allowing their buddies to break the rules and poach them for ivory, in the countries that severly restrict sport hunting. When you have corrupt governments, as you do over there, then it's only a matter of who brings in more money (assuming sport hunting is allowed/controlled) - and thankfully in some countries, it's the hunters with more money than the prices fetched for the poachers.
2. Some parts of some countries over there are overrun with the animals, in my understanding, and very much need sport hunting (or poaching, granted), in order to control their numbers, or the elephants would completely strip out and kill all the vegetation there, greatly disrupting the ecosystems. They are voracious eaters (of course, look at them!), and are quite successful if the habitat is right; like most game, they need to be controlled, both for the good of the health of their own species, and more importantly, for the ecosystems as a whole.
3. If ever there was an animal that can and does fight back, it's the elephant, esp. when wounded. They can kill a man almost instantly, unlike a boar, by crushing him/her, which is how they do it. IIRC, there is only one animal among the Big 5 that kill more people than the elephants, and that is the hippo. Actually, I believe that crocs kill more people than even hippos, but they're not one of the Big 5, so crocs get overlooked in the stats. Elephants are many many times more dangerous than the meanest of wild boar.
4. I assume that the meat is eaten; of course it should be; if the meat is not eaten, the in my book, it is an unethical hunt. A slob hunter is a slob hunter is a slob hunter, regardless of continent or game pursued. Kill it AND grill it - as the Nuge(s) tell ya!
I agree, poachers should be shot. In the leg, and then strung up by their privates. That would be cool, wouldn't it? If the countries that allow sport hunting and actually crack down on poachers, were to declare a season on poachers in adjacent countries whose governments do not control them. No bag limit either!
