URGENT call to ACTION - please leave a comment on the link - KQED - one of San Franciscos premier radio stations, featuring our friend Ronnie - the Black Rhino from Namibia. Leave a comment, email, tweet and better yet, call in (the number to call will be announced during the program and is also found below) (Sample note is provided, thanks to Steve Smith for his contribution to my note) In the USA (or internationally) You can tune in. Fri, Jan 24, 2014 -- 9:30 AM PST. Sample comment below. Leave a comment on the thread: SHARE and if you do, please make sure this preamble goes with it. Fri, Jan 24, 2014 -- 9:30 AM Phone: 866-SF-Forum 866-733-6786 Email: [email protected] Twitter: @KQEDForum kqed.org/a/forum/R201401240930 Sample Comment, please modify and personalize it. Or leave your own comment, SA activists can start now. ________________ BEGIN SAMPLE COMMENT ________________ From extensive reading on the topic, it appears that funding wildlife programs in Namibia (as well as South Africa) is the sole (nominal?) justification offered by African nations in offering TROPHY HUNTS featuring critically endangered animals to hunters in the USA and elsewhere. The assertion that science calls for the removal of the older male rhino is debatable and appears to be based on fuzzy logic; suppose one does give this fuzzy logic the benefit of the doubt; note with care that what is called for is the REMOVAL of the rhino, not KILLING it. Several sanctuaries have offered to host the problem rhino; however that option appears to be off the table because it does not bring in the revenue that killing an endangered species on the brink of extinction does. This brings us back to funding. Funding for extended wildlife reserves, wildlife corridors, funding to mitigate human-animal-conflict, funding to increase revenues through eco-tourism involving local communities and funding for aggressive action to mitigate and eradicate and poaching; very little of any of the above appears to be in place -effectively- in South Africa where a rhino is poached once every 9-11 hours; the situation in Namibia appears more nuanced, though several reports suggest that Namibian conservation practices, albeit more credible than their counterparts in South Africa - are still questionable. Having distilled the raison dêtre for the trophy hunt to an equation governed primarily by the need for funding, we must ask the question, arent there non-consumptive conservation methods, meaning no-kill conservation methods that can be employed provided the funding were available? if the answer to this question is in the affirmative, we must (the international community) with haste and vigor collaborate to find creative and imaginative ways to increase funding to sustain and grow Africas last, splendid and disappearing grandeur - its iconic wildlife. Killing a species to conserve it is a grotesque aberration of the best in our species, it demoralizes our species and demeans our character through a violent act, at the risk of employing a controversial analogy, surely we do not sacrifice the life of one child to abuse, to justify the garnering of funds from the exercise - to donate to the child protection services? We must ask ourselves why we dont and that must lead us to the ethical and moral equations which govern our relationship to the earth and all its creatures. What our are values and how do we proceed into the future with an intact and coherent conservation ethic devoid of dissonance? The non-human animal is not owned by us, it has a life of its own and a body and flesh of its own. When darwin gave the the world natural selection, he didnt factor high powered rifles, telescoping lenses, bullets and trophies on walls. Trophy hunting is a violent practice and an anachronism whose shelf life is passed. ____________________ END SAMPLE __________________
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 16:58:55 +0000