• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Poachers for Dinner...

PhantomWolf said:
And BTW, it's not like poachers don't have options. Reserves are always looking for more Rangers to protect the animals, it just doesn't pay as well and poachers would rather get the bigger bounties off killing endangered animals than getting a wage and protecting them.
Click to expand...

Can you demonstrate this?
 
Giordano said:
The reasons that drive them into poaching may help us understand better how to prevent it, but they do not even slightly justify it. No more than justifying murdering people for their pocket change.
Click to expand...

East African pirate organizations promise poor locals wads of cash, give them automatic weapons and boats, and direct them to violently seize any shipping that passes within a few miles of the coast.

Ivory poachers are not desperate ragtag local individuals approached in their villages by mysterious Chinese businessmen. They are organized gangs with connections to organized suppliers; they travel extensively throughout southern and central Africa to find the animals they seek, and not all of them are African.
 
RolandRat said:
Yes it is. Actually getting pleasure out of people dying is not a good thing. You don't know why those people were poaching.
Click to expand...

They probably were to feed their families.

No, feeling pleasure from death of people is not good. However, we are only humans, and when people who make a living abusing Nature get a dose of their own concoction, one is allowed to smirk.

Hans
 
MRC_Hans said:
They probably were to feed their families.

No, feeling pleasure from death of people is not good. However, we are only humans, and when people who make a living abusing Nature get a dose of their own concoction, one is allowed to smirk.

Hans
Click to expand...



I'm really not sure they 'deserved' it - I have no idea of their circumstances (although others seem extremely sure). I think it's probably a bit sad that they died.

I still laughed, it's ironic and could be a scene from a bad African comedy movie. There is nothing on this earth that can't be funny.
 
PhantomWolf said:
Is it wrong of me for laughing?
Click to expand...

If you go to Hell for it, you'll have a lot of company on the same road.


It's not that I rejoice at their deaths, or that I think the deserve to die. It's just that there's a bit of poetic justice involved. Tragic Monkey alluded to it in his post about living by the sword and dying by the sword. They placed themselves above nature, figuring they had the right to slaughter endangered animals. They learned, or at least provided a lesson to those who could learn, that when man takes on nature, sometimes nature wins.
 
Last edited:
Think about all those poor Asian men that need enhanced virility. What's one dead rhino compared to hundreds of limp dicks. Priorities people!
 
TragicMonkey said:
I feel the same, but I also believe in "live by the sword, die by the sword": they took the fight to Nature and Nature fought back. So while it's unfortunate all around, the victims don't merit quite as much sympathy as they'd otherwise be entitled to.
Click to expand...
I also would rather in a way that they'd been caught, but would also point out that "unfortunate all around" depends on whether the lions get in trouble for acquiring a taste for people. If they don't, then they come out of it with little misfortune if the poachers were digestible.
 
Giordano said:
........poaching requires some money and some resources. But even if it were those who possessed absolutely nothing seeking only to feed their families, poaching is to me as unacceptable as would be murder............
Click to expand...

There are two sorts of poaching, and you are confusing them.

Poaching for high value items such as ivory or rhino horn is a very different thing from poaching for the pot. Let's look at them both.

The poaching chain for the high value items, sold abroad, is very much as described previously, with billions, literally being spent on it every year, and preying on the lowest in the human food chain to go out and do the dirty work. Sometimes these guys will be given the equipment they need, which is nothing more than a bike, a rifle, and a panga or axe. They get paid relatively peanuts compared with the value of the items they are providing, but it is life-changing money for someone who earns, say, $20 or $30 a week through subsistence farming plus.

The other sort of poaching. Poaching for bushmeat. Taking a buck every now and then for the pot. Let's look at it from the villager's point of view. For thousands of generations their ancestors took what they needed from the wild, and animal populations didn't suffer at all. Even in the mid 19th century there was were vast herds of herbivores wandering endlessly around Africa, including up to 4 million elephants depending on who you ask. Then the great white hunters arrived, and mass slaughter ensued. The villager watched the white man take animals by the ship-load, until there were only remnant populations left, at which stage the white man told the villager to stop killing those dozen antelope every year, and chucked him in gaol if he carried on. At the same time as taking the villager's source of meat, the white man took his best land. Suddenly, the locals were rather impoverished, often driven to starvation, and living on the marginal land. The villager was paying the price for white man's greed.

Now, tell me again who is the villain here? And who is the victim? Who ********** up, and who is paying the price?

As for the financial cost of poaching for the pot, this is almost always done using snares. The best anti-poaching practise is a continual sweep for wire snares. These are set by people who ride their bike to the game reserves, and push it back later in the dark with and impala slung across the cross bar. Those charities, BTW, which urge the donation of bikes to Africa, are fueling poaching. Anyone who thinks poaching is a simple matter hasn't thought about it enough.
 
Wolrab said:
Think about all those poor Asian men that need enhanced virility. What's one dead rhino compared to hundreds of limp dicks. Priorities people!
Click to expand...

Again, a huge misunderstanding of the situation. Rhino horn's current popularity is because of a claim of a cancer cure by some important Vietnamese person 6 or 8 years ago. It has little to do with virility, other than financial virility........"look at me, I'm so wealthy I can provide rhino horn for my dinner guests".
 
RolandRat said:
Yes it is. Actually getting pleasure out of people dying is not a good thing. You don't know why those people were poaching.
Click to expand...

I don't care why poachers poach in exactly the same way that I don't care why Somali pirates pirate, and this story gives me every bit as much pleasure as watching Russian ships blowing up pirates.

Wildlife poachers = scum
Somali pirates = scum

No loss to the planet or the species.
 
PhantomWolf said:
Actually it is about a year, used to be 6-8 weeks, but with it becoming more dangerous because poachers are quite willing to try and kill rangers if they get the chance. It's also 80% paid for by the governments and the other 20% can come from organisations or sponsorship.




http://wildlifecollege.org.za/
Click to expand...

Yep, there is nothing like a few facts to put the kabosh on unsupported bare assertions.
 
smartcooky said:
I don't care why poachers poach in exactly the same way that I don't care why Somali pirates pirate, and this story gives me every bit as much pleasure as watching Russian ships blowing up pirates.

Wildlife poachers = scum
Somali pirates = scum

No loss to the planet or the species.
Click to expand...
You should probably care a little bit about Somali pirates.
 
MikeG said:
Again, a huge misunderstanding of the situation. Rhino horn's current popularity is because of a claim of a cancer cure by some important Vietnamese person 6 or 8 years ago. It has little to do with virility, other than financial virility........"look at me, I'm so wealthy I can provide rhino horn for my dinner guests".
Click to expand...
Rhino Horn: Party Drug
Some conservation groups, however, don't think rhino horn's newfound popularity in Vietnam has much to do with the cancer cure-all rumor (pdf, p.2). The more likely reason, they say, is that the horn powder is increasingly seen as a cocaine-like party drug, virility enhancer and luxury item--"the alcoholic drink of millionaires," as a Vietnamese news site called it.
Click to expand...
https://www.theatlantic.com/busines...-thinks-it-cures-cancer-and-hangovers/275881/
I know it is not the main use but some do use it as a "virility enhancer".

As for the poachers, karma sucks. At least the lions use all of their kills.
 
MikeG said:
Poaching for high value items such as ivory or rhino horn is a very different thing from poaching for the pot.
Click to expand...


I think it's fairly obvious that the international news articles, and therefore we, deal with the former and not the latter; thus I think this digression tends to introduce rather than solve the conflation you are concerned about.
 
I am of the camp who smiled when reading about it. Is that the same as celebrating? If so, I guess I partied on. I just could not work up any sympathy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom