Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/653613
22 UCW MARCH 16-22, 2016 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Dear EarthTalk: How is it that big game hunting can actually be good for wildlife? — Ronnie Wilson, Ft. Myers, FL When Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer killed Cecil, a much-loved wild 13-year-old black-maned lion, with his bow and arrow in July 2015 outside a protected section of Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, animal advocates were outraged. The University of Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit team had been studying Cecil and his family — protected as long as they stayed within the invisible borders of the park — at the time. In response to the extensive media coverage and public fury following the incident, Delta, American and United airlines announced in August that they would no longer allow hunters to transport big game trophies, including buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion or rhino, on their flights. Cecil's death also helped draw attention to big game hunting and its effects on wildlife populations and their ecosystems. Globe-trotting big game hunters imported more than 1.26 million "trophies"— the part of the animal they keep for display — to the U.S. between 2005 and 2014, according to a new report by Humane Society International. That's an average of 126,000 trophy imports a year, or 345 a day. But hunting proponents found the sudden backlash over Cecil's death unsubstantiated. Dr. Alan Maki, conservation chair at the prominent hunting group, Safari Club International, argued that, considering that Africa's human population is projected to double to 2 billion in the next 25 years, more and more land will be needed to support this growth, resulting in lots of lost wildlife habitat. Safari hunting, a $200 million annual industry, provides substantial value to wildlife, he said, by paying for anti-poaching patrols, national park operations and conservation programs that support local communities. "We're too busy showing everyone what great hunters we are, and we're not doing enough to show what kind of conservationists we are," says Ivan Carter, an African hunting guide and host of Carter's W.A.R. on the Outdoor Channel. "We have to change the perception that we are just trophy killers and we've got to focus on the fact that we're conservationists, and we do that by having and sharing the right information and research, and taking the time to post properly on social media." Of course, not everyone agrees that trophy hunting is benign, let alone beneficial. HSI maintains that widespread corruption in some of Africa's most sought after big game destinations means that money raised from trophy hunting in places like Tanzania and Zimbabwe is more likely used to line officials' pockets than to help ailing wildlife populations. (This unavoidable corruption was part of the reason Kenya banned trophy hunting altogether within its borders some four decades ago.) HSI also points out that trophy hunting may be more about ego-stroking than conservation, with wealthy American hunters willing to pay top dollar to compete in contests to kill the most wildlife for awards (such as the "Africa Big Five" that includes lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards and Cape buffalo). HSI, which has published several reports detailing the negative effects of trophy hunting on wildlife populations, is working to get additional airlines to refuse passage to hunting trophies, and has helped introduce legislation to Congress calling for a ban on the importation of large animal trophies altogether. While it appears that the debate is not going to be settled anytime soon, animal advocates maintain that upholding laws protecting species does much more to protect animals than killing them ever can. CONTACTS: Oxford Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, www.wildcru. org; SCI, www.safariclub.org; Carter's W.A.R., www.outdoorchannel.com/ showvideos.aspx?show-id=33240; HSI, www.hsi.org. Wildlife activists were outraged when a Minnesota dentist shot Cecil, a 13-year-old black-maned lion who had wandered just out- side of a protected area in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park last summer. Credit: Vince O'Sullivan, FlickrCC If Hillary Clinton is elected president in November, her very first thank-you should go to Bernie Sanders. "What?" you ask. "How could she thank Sanders when his vigorous campaign took people away from her natural and expected support groups — progressive women, young African Americans and other liberals? "He is smearing her for the Clintons' ties to big banking and big business. And for her earlier support of international trade agreements that are so unpopular with some workers' groups. "And," you assert, "he is pushing her too far to the left on positions that will hurt her with moderate or swing voters in the fall." You may be right about these things. But Bernie Sanders is doing something for Hillary Clinton that greatly improves her chances for success in the fall. He is giving her a fight. And with that fight behind her, she will be much better equipped for the challenges in the general election. Eight years ago, during the primary battles between Clinton and Barack Obama, I wrote about the advantages of that struggle. Here is what I wrote back then, with a few minor revisions: I think the hard-fought primary campaigns, negative advertising and all, may be the Democrats' best possible preparation for the fall campaign. Conceding, of course, the downside in bitter feelings and lowered popularity of the ultimate candidate, I think the organizational process, the fundraising experience, and the challenges the candidates have faced, are good preparation for the ultimate Democratic nominee. An easy win for either would not have conditioned the winner for the political war that the nominee will have to fight this fall. Political coronations may encourage happiness and good feelings within a party, but the muted campaigns that lead up to them do not build the kind of experienced organizations that will be so valuable to the nominee in the general election. When the Democratic candidate goes to war this fall, the campaign's armies will have been battle-tested. The organization will know the terrain of the entire country, and the troops will have the confidence of hardened veterans who have already fought together and learned the strengths and weaknesses of their fellow soldiers. They know who can help in every part of the country, and, more importantly, they know the people who actually can be counted on to do the job. One caution: The hard knocks the Democratic candidates have exchanged this year so far are nothing compared to what the nominee will experience in the general election. In my earlier column, I quoted Time magazine columnist Joe Klein's discussion of the necessary qualities of a presidential candidate, "It helps to be a warrior, for one thing. It helps to be able to take a punch and deliver one —even, sometimes, a sucker punch." Those sucker punches are surely coming and the Democratic candidate will not have had as much practice in the primaries as the Republican in taking or delivering such punches. If Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, nothing in the Democratic primaries will have given Hillary (or Bernie) experience in responding to the punches he has shown us that he can deliver. Not just sucker punches, but underhanded, low, dirty and other sneaky ones as well. In the general election campaign, the Democratic candidate will have to respond to Trump with effective counter punches. Will the response be, like those of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, to jump in the mud with Trump and exchange childish insults? Hopefully not. It will be better if those counter punches will, like those between Clinton and Sanders, be sharp and pointed but not undignified. A good lesson from the Democratic primaries and one more reason for Clinton to be grateful to Sanders if she wins in November. Is Hunting Good for Wildlife? from The Editors of E - The Environmental Magazine She'll Be Thanking Him in November by D.G. MARTIN D.G. MARTIN, Host of UNCs Book Watch, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200 Bernie Sanders is doing something for Hillary Clinton that greatly improves her chances for success in the fall.