quote:

Originally posted by JohnHunt:
I have been trying to keep a balanced conversation going for the last couple of years on a facebook group called LionAid. This is an english charity that has turned increasingly anti-hunter. In any event the following was recently asked of me by a Dr. Peiter Kat. He has done some research in country on lions and appears to be successfully having some influence within the EU on lion hunting and imports. Any help in answering some of this would be appreciated.

Even better join the group and contribute. Warning though if you are too bent they will kick you.

http://www.facebook.com/Lionaid?sk=wall

Thanks,

John Hunt



John, you should read a book called "Prides - the Lions of Moremi". In the last chapter I was ambivalent about the contribution of sport hunting to lion conservation. Since then, the more I learned, the less I see of any convincing argument to support the hunting of lions. I'm really very open to being convinced, as my first priority is to arrive at a positive solution for the declining lion populations in Africa. Especially western and central Africa, where lions are down to critically low numbers, genetically different from other lions in Africa, and still being hunted in Cameroon and Burkina Faso.

What about preserving habitat for lions to live in outside of parks by giving worth to the hunting blocks. Hunting blocks are huge tracts of land that would be used for livestock if it did not have value for hunting. Hunting companies cannot survive with out the lion for income. Hunting companies also provide the best anti-poaching patrols.

You will say LionAid is unfairly targeting sport hunters, but I see no benefit to lions or African communities as to the supposed benefits sport hunting is providing. The profits are not translated into conservation or tolerance by communities.

Again...above.

You say sport hunting must remain, otherwise lions will not. My point is that, as currently practiced, lions will not remain because sport hunting does not contribute to their conservation.

There is some merit here and what we (LCTF) have been trying to get across.

You perhaps seek too simple answers to complicated questions (Kenya) as a knee-jerk reaction. You are actually too intelligent to believe that Kenya is a negative model for anti-hunting, as wildlife populations have declined there. But so have they in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, Cameroon, Nigeria, Congo, Chad, Central African Republic - and that is only half the list. Those are countries that have supported sport hunting of lions and other species for a long time now.

While wildlife numbers have declined there...there are still good wild populations in the hunting blocks which there are none of in Kenya. We all know the habitat loss and human encroachment is the real culprit in these declines. By having hunting blocks it slows the habitat loss and keeps the humans at bay.

We have always said that lion sport hunting is an additive mortality that cannot be tolerated given the many other sources of mortality. But it is a factor that can easily be removed, given that it is largely motivated by entertainment value and not conservation value.

Safari Club International and Conservation Force, as pro-hunting lobbies, always refer to the great benefit sport hunting has had financially. Past SCI president Larry Rudolph mentioned that $200 million is pumped into rural communities by trophy hunting. He is a fool to believe that, but perhaps wants to believe such drivel. He might actually be surprised what the actual figures are.

The Safari Club International Foundation and Conservation Force are not conserving lions. What they are conserving is the right to shoot lions by supporting quasi-scientists (paid by them) to come up with rosy reports about the status of lion populations. One recent report mentioned that lions occur in 92.4% of Tanzania. Give me a break.

You might see LionAid as being a bunch of airhead anti-hunting bunny hugging terrorist extremist activists. But I do believe there are ways through this. I have asked SCI to evaluate carefully their promotion of lion hunting given current practices. If SCI said no more for pending a careful and considered evaluation, this would do good.

Perhaps you could suggest it to them