Out here in Japan, I have not followed prior threads on this, but Jeffrey Goldberg's latest article on Mark and Delia Owens does not exactly paint them in a good light.

See "THE HUNTED
Did American conservationists in Africa go too far?" at http://www.newyorker.com/repor...0405fa_fact_goldberg

Frankly, I am rather appalled that a guy from Toledo, Ohio, my home town, could stir up so much trouble. Who appointed him the authority on African conservation or the right to have a private army?

I wonder about his impact on hunting. I well remember the stories from fellow hunters and PHs about the fellow from the Chicago area whose shooting from a helicopter got hunting banned in Kenya.

This is not exactly "on all fours" as the attorneys like to say regarding your topic, but my understanding of the Kenya ban is as follows:

Jomo Kenyatta's wife owned a trading company that dealt in ivory. All of the PH's were deputized wardens, and did a good job of controlling poaching, thereby suppressing the ivory supply. The easy answer was to get rid of the PH's by banning hunting. This may or may not be accurate, but there are readers here who can make any necessary corrections. (No extra charge for the "thereby".

quote:

Originally posted by Brice:
This is not exactly "on all fours" as the attorneys like to say regarding your topic, but my understanding of the Kenya ban is as follows:

Jomo Kenyatta's wife owned a trading company that dealt in ivory. All of the PH's were deputized wardens, and did a good job of controlling poaching, thereby suppressing the ivory supply. The easy answer was to get rid of the PH's by banning hunting. This may or may not be accurate, but there are readers here who can make any necessary corrections. (No extra charge for the "thereby".

Yes, I have heard that story too, and we both may be right.

There seems little question that Mama Kenyatta was involved in the ivory trade in the 1970s and possibly after the 1977 ban on all animal hunting. I believe that elephant hunting was banned several years earlier there, so her activity was likely illegal. Others on AR are much closer to that history than I am, and can comment with more accuracy.

I was told the story about the American hunter in the early 1980s. I remember it because I too lived in the Chicago area then and was getting ready to go on a hunt in Zambia. Reportedly he was from Oak Park or an adjacent Western suburb and I believe that he was a member of the SCI Chicago chapter. Lots of hunters there knew the story. Details are somewhat hazy now, since it came to me by word of mouth.