Planned elephant cull in South Africa

Countless numbers of species have been wiped out of existence by man's actions, and thousands more are on the brink of extinction because of our stupidity and ignorance towards the environment.

NOW, someone please give me a good reason as to why they have reversed a ban on culling elephants in South Africa, and are now intent on killing some numbers of elephants again as they believe there are too many, and they threaten the welfare of the human population.

What gives one species the right to decide how many of another species there should be?

They are GEO-NAZIS!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7262951.stm

 

That is horrible. I have watched the elephant documentaries on public television where they track a herd of elephants, and they are so special and aware of a different range of emotions from love to mourning. How they justify the senseless killing of such beautiful animals, I will never understand. I cry today for those elephants.

 

They have tried relocation and hormone-induced birth control without good success. The elephants in this particular area are nearing overpopulation. They are becoming problematic for the people, and there is no surer way to increase poaching than for the people in the area to become fearful of the elephants. Simply put, population control is necessary. No one likes the idea of killing elephants, but it is perhaps the surest way to ensure the continued health of the rest of the heard. If nothing is done it will come at a cost to both people and the herds. If a few individuals are killed to cull the herd these problems can be largely avoided. While this is not a happy option, it is better than doing nothing which is bad for people AND elephants.

 

So with all the species on the planet in danger of extinction, here we have one on the increase, and man wants to kill them. Maybe there are too many people as well.

 

Crazy. Makes me angry as hell

 

why are we trying to reduce THEIR numbers? Why not leave them alone... they were here first

 

They need to free up the land for tobacco crops, or mangetout or something for the western market, probably in the interest of economic stability.

 

Ok guys, let's try things your way--let's do absolutely nothing and allow the elephant population to rise to a higher and unsustainable size for the locale. What will happen? Well, the elephants will be killed by increased incidence of disease, famine, and will be poached by people because they are destroying the crops and resources that those people need simply to prevent their own starvation. Of course the people will then learn that the elephants are a direct threat to their own survival, so they won't stop after reducing the population a bit. No, they'll kill back a great many elephants to prevent another such calamity. Elephants will become enemies, not cohabitants. The people will suffer as well from lost crops and property destruction.

So guys, your do-nothing approach causes harm ultimately to both elephants and people. Thank goodness wildlife managers are able to see and consider such things, or we'd really have a lot of disasters on our hands.

And for those that might argue that the people should just make way for the animals and to heck with the people: that argument doesn't fly until you yourself are willing to commit suicide and give up all your worldly possessions to go towards wildlife preservation. As long as you wish to remain alive and have possessions, don't you dare think of asking someone else (especially those that live on a few dollars a day) to give up the little that they have or worse yet die so that you can feel good about the wildlife where they live. We need to come to amicable resolutions on issues like this. Saying, "To hell with you" to the people that live next to organisms or ecosystems we want to protect is the best way to ensure that no protection is provided.

 

The sad truth of the matter is that this decision is not based on good science, since the South African government really has no idea how many elephants are in their country or the areas surrounding their borders.

The real problem is the fear perception of their human population who are on the receiving end of many elephants rage at their family members being killed/poached by low life humans, thereby destroying the elephants social/family structure in which they learn how to be an elephant. As a result, there are many rampaging elephants who are usually young bull males who are not only killing many more humans than in the past, but also many other elephants too.

The truth is that this is all simply a public relations attempt by a deceitful south african government trying to placate their rural population's fear which has been caused by the governments failure to stop poaching. Their government also wants to avoid a foreign tourist backlash regarding their barbaric and senseless decision to cull a nonexistent overpopulation of a mammal with an emotive intelligence equivalent or superior to us humans. The only difference between elephants and us is that we have the power of life and death over each other and every other air/sea/land animal of the world too.

It should be noted that only 300 years ago there were more than 10 million elephants roaming the southern half of the African continent and in the 19th and early 20th century we took them down to less than 10,000 and now that they are approaching a supposed 250,000 they are suddenly a problem--it simply makes no sense...

 

I the world hadn't had so many "wildlife managers" there might be a lot more wildlife around today.

 

Yup, and if there hadn't been so many "doctors" or so much "modern medicine" there might be a lot more people alive today.

Of course, it seems far, far more likely that the reverse is true.

 

History is littered with examples of man made species extinctions, whether you choose to accept it or not.

 

No kidding. I'm one of the most vocal people I know in working to ameliorate this problem. However, this has absolutely nothing to do with the posts above.

 

How do you know?

Most, if not all of these man made extinctions are examples of man's ignorance and lack of foresight to fully consider the consequences of his actions.

 

...and you work further away from the topic of the thread with every post you make.

 

I guess you better steer us both back on topic then.

 

Are you trying to tell me that "economic stability" is worth taking the life of even a single elephant? Or isnt that what you were getting at?

 

Disease in the elephant population would be a natural occurence and natures way of balancing the population if this needed to happen. Its not our place to do so, and saying "but if we dont killl them they may get ill!" is such a blatantly lame excuse

As for saying "if they arent killed by x people theyll be killed by x people"...what!? So that justifies it!? No-one should be killing. Thats the point were making

Oh, also, you do realise that elephants are an ENDANGERED SPECIES right. Overpopulation! Its a JOKE

Try looking at your own species

 

Exactly! It's like the old, Well if we hadn't sold guns to Sudan then someone else would have.

Every fucking species on the planet is endangered at the moment, to condone the killing of some numbers of another type of mammal is specist and GEO-fascist.

It's absolutely fucking outrageous, evolution and ecological systems DONOT REQUIRE MAN-AGEMENT DECISIONS!

 

Thank you

Weve done enough damage and its time to butt the hell out and start controlling our own population as were the ones blasting this place to bits

I cannot believe what a throwaway attititude people have developed towards other life forms! LIFE! Breathing, feeling, crying, thinking beings...And even elephants! Elephants have in many ways a superior memory to our own. They also grieve for lost relatives, have a very stable concept of the passing of time, show Love and compassion in ways many human beings never will in their lifetimes. I just cant believe people are still trying to justify murdering them, i really cant