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Trying to scare away a herd of elephants from your vital food crop, needed to feed your family for another year. With nothing but a tin pot and a spoon, banging away. Takes bravery and desperation.

No wonder locals turn to poaching. Your food crop is destroyed. One of your family members, Father, Mother, Child, has been killed.

A reason sustainable sporting hunting is so important. Safari fees pay for employment of locals. Cash income they would otherwise not have, Game guards to protect the wildlife from poachers. Financial incentive to protect the animals. Importantly is income paid to local people. If the villagers receive a cash payment from the hunting outfitter. Poaching might mean the cash payment is jeopardised.

If families are compensated for killed family members, reducing hardship. That would be a plus. I doubt that actually happens though. It probably only happens with very good generous outfitters. Or where the concession is owned by the local community and the chief doesn't pocket it all. Or where govt has set up a community scheme, such as the CAMPFIRE scheme in Zimbabwe.

Outfitters in Tanzania who pay staff barely $1 a day, but expect clients to pay huge "tips" to pay the actual wages, aren't generous. The opposite.

Sporting hunting pays much larger fees than photo tourism. Even more importantly hunting tourism goes to more remote, difficult areas than general tourism will. Tanzania I'd an excellent example of the importance of sporting hunting safaris, trophy hunting. Only give parks in Tanzania can turn a profit in Tanzania. Poor countries can't afford to throw money at wildlife. But sporting hunting safaris pay a profit at only seventy parks, reserves, concessions. Do any general tourists journey down to the wildlife wonderland the Selous? All that wildlife not in the five parks would be at risk without trophy hunting, sportung hunting safaris.

Many people even foolish shooters, other hunters HATE trophy hunting. They claim only the trophy is taken, the animals meat wasted. Many of these people are actually motivated by envy. The ability to hunt exotically. Or the income to afford it. Especially prevalent in the UK, the later. Of course we know especially in Africa, all the meat is used. Elephant, long, leopard. Especially the delicious antelope. Crocodile. The black seven eat putrid rotten meat. It is simply bias or pure pig ignorance to believe trophy hunted animal meat is not used. In North America it is often the law, the meat must be used. In Europe struct requirements and traditions. In Australia due to masses of pest ferals, few laws, few traditions and a lot of ignorant lazy bogans, a lot of meat which could be used isn't. Including lovely venison, "it's just a ffffing deer, let it rot" one lazy bogan forum owner used to say.

Safari trophy hunters usually can't take the meat home. Even when they would like to do so. Legal, health, agricultural quarantine restrictions usually apply.

I like to eat some of the game when in camp. I'm not fussy about it being my animals. It's neat, from an eland, warthog, kudu, guinea fowl, elephant etc. While beef is often a better meat, it's disappointing to get beef in camp. When hunting game.

Hunting scrub bull, water buffalo, banteng etc in the Aussie Top End, I like to bring some meat back. It'd be wonderful to butcher the whole animal(s) and bring them back. But would require a chiller trailer. Four days on hot baking roads. The fuel cost would be horrendous. Would also need multiple friends with freezers to share the meat around with.

Btw Aboriginals don't seem that interested in getting the meat. On my first water buffalo hunt,bwe should a younger buffalo. Cut off its legs and dropped one each st each of the local Aborigines four families. They seemed not very interested,

A Lutheran Pastor I shot fox drives with hunted buffalo near where I did, elsewhere. He hunted with the local Abos, and they butchered two buffalo to take to eat at home. I was glad to hear that.

I've gone a bit off topic.

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John aka NitroX

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Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"