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Campaign Against Canned Hunting (CACH)

Hunting = vanity, smugness, greed, arrogance

8/3/2015

17 Comments

 
Picture
Exposing the Safari Club International 
By Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd

Finally the time has come to drop kick the Big White Hunters out of Africa.

Dr. Walter Palmer has done something worthwhile after all.

His special combination of vanity, smugness, greed, arrogance and stupidity has taken something which happens all the time, usually out of sight and out of mind, and has elevated it to international recognition.

The slaughter of Africa’s wildlife is a crime against nature and humanity.

In 1978, I spent a few months in East Africa investigating and tracking poachers. I was gathering information to support the listing of the African elephant as endangered. I wrote an article in Defenders of Wildlife that got me into an argument with the editor when I predicted that within two decades the elephant population would be diminished by 30%. He accused me of being overly dramatic and cut my prediction from the story. It turned out that I was not being dramatic enough. By 1980, the diminishment was 50% despite the fact that the African elephant was listed as endangered by the United States in 1978.

From a population estimated at some 25 million 500 years ago, the African elephant was reduced to ten million by 1913. By 1979, there were an estimated 1.3 million elephants. Today, there are only a half a million remaining and the population is in serious decline with poaching now at unprecedented levels.

And Dr. Walter Palmer was intending to kill an elephant before leaving Africa after realizing the potential trouble he was in for killing Cecil.

Looking at lions. When I first went to Africa there were 250,000 lions in the late Seventies. Today that number has been reduced to about 25,000.

And yet the killing goes on. Lions, rhinos, giraffe, elephants and so many other species killed by poachers illegally and legally in most cases by White hunters.

Most poachers are Black so they can’t afford to do the paperwork to make their activities legal. The White hunters however have the cash to buy legality.

Dr. Walter Palmer claims his hunt was legal, but it was not. It could have been. He paid for it to be, but he got greedy. He wanted a celebrity lion and lured it out of a national park and illegally shot it with an arrow in such an unprofessional manner that the lion suffered for 40 hours before being killed with a bullet from Palmer’s guide.

He and his guide then stupidly tried to destroy the radio collar, and in an even more stupid move, they left the collar near the body allowing authorities to find the decomposing carcass of what had recently been the noblest and most beautiful lion in Zimbabwe.

But there is a positive outcome from all of this. It seems that Dr. Walter Palmer has the potential to be the catalyst to what can be a movement to end the trophy hunting in Africa for good.

It reminds me of the trial of David Curtiss "Steve" Stephenson, the Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) who was convicted of the abduction, rape and murder of a young woman in Illinois named Madge Oberholter in 1925.

The Klan at that time was extremely powerful and influential. Stephensen met with and advised among others, both the Governor of Illinois and the President of the United States. His last rally before his arrest drew over 100,000 supporters.

His arrogance led him to believe he was above the law and thanks to the bull-dog
determination of a young prosecutor, Stephensen was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1925 and the power of the Klan quickly unraveled when the trial revealed the extent of Klan corruption in political circles.

Palmer’s arrogance has caused the story of Cecil the lion to go viral. He picked the wrong lion, took the wrong actions and cowardly tossed his guides under the bus. The Safari Club International has already recognized the danger Palmer has placed them in. They in turn tossed him under the bus and cancelled his membership and since then have been preparing themselves to defend their vile and bloody enterprise from the wrath of the public.

Safari International has some 50,000 members, 150 chapters and collects $3.17 million in membership dues each year. It raises another 7 million from their annual convention.

But what is truly despicable about this organization is that it encourages slaughter through awards.

SCI’s record book system ranks the biggest tusks, horns, antlers, skulls and bodies of hunted animals. Hunters are rewarded with trophies for completing a “Grand Slam.”

There are 15 “Grand Slams.” The ones that cover Africa are:

1. The African Big Five Club (African lion, African leopard, African elephant, African buffalo and an African rhinoceros.
2. “Dangerous Game of Africa” (requires a minimum of five from the African lion, African leopard, African elephant, African rhinoceros, African buffalo, Hippopotamus and Nile Crocodile)
3. “African 29” (African lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, and a small cat, eland, bongo,kudu, nyala, sitatunga, bushbuck, sable antelope, roan antelope, oryx/gemsbok, waterbuck,lechwe, kob or puku, reedbuck or rhebok, wildebeest, hartebeest, mamalisc, impala, gazelle, pygmy antelope, springbok, dik-dik, bush duiker, forest duiker, nubian ibex, aoudad, hippopotamus, and wild pig)
4. “Cats of the World” (minimum of four of: lion, leopard, cheetah, jaguar, cougar, lynx, cougar or puma, serval, carcal, African golden cat or bobcat)

There are dozens of other reward categories with members able to purchase special gold and bejewelled pins for the number of kills they rack up.

There is also the Global Hunting Award that requires the killer to have hunted 6 continents to receive a diamond award (a minimum of 17 native in Africa, 13 native or introduced in North America, 4 native or introduced in South America, 6 native or introduced in Europe, 6 native to Asia and 4 introduced in the South Pacific, for a total of 50 animals).

There is the Hunting Achievement Award that requires a minimum of 125 animals, or 60 if hunting with a bow.

And for women they have the Diana award, given to women who “have excelled in international big game hunting.”

And finally there is the obscenely named “World Conservation & Hunting Award,”
given to hunters who have killed on six continents tand have killed more than 300 species. This “esteemed” award goes to the killer who has taken all 14 Grand Slams, the 23 Inner Circles, Pinnacle of Achievement (fourth) and the Crowning Achievement Award.

It is this award system that is driving thousands of wealthy primarily white men and a few women to spend millions of dollars stalking animals around the world for the sole purpose of killing the in the name of vanity and self glorification.

The public for the most part is unaware of the sheer immensity of this global hobby of slaughter. Thanks to Dr. Walter Palmer however they are getting a glimpse of it.

Palmer may be the most hated man in the world for a few days because of his vicious crimes of vanity but he will not be forgotten by the Safari International.

Hopefully Cecil will not have died in vain and that his death will represent the thousands of animals so horrifically slaughtered every year.

Dr. Walter Palmer should have stuck to cleaning teeth. He has now been deservedly immortalized as the most vile and despicable hunter of all time but history may look on him a slight bit more favourably if his actions bring down the Safari International Club like Stephenson brought down the Klu Klux Klan.



17 Comments
Dorothy Armstrong link
8/2/2015 11:05:25 pm

I hope it does get banned it should have been banned years ago animals have a right to life with out being slaughtered or dragged from their own natural habitat

Reply
Wildlife Margrit link
8/3/2015 10:14:40 am

Great article Paul. As you, I hope that some good will come of this great loss. If trophy hunters can now be seen as the villians they truly are... and not as 'wildlife conservationists' (sheeesh!) then this can be the turning point as you envision.

Reply
natalia veronica diaz
8/3/2015 01:04:03 pm

Reply
Dr. Doug Olcott
8/11/2015 06:30:28 am

There is a woman near me in Monte Sereno, CA, who boasts of her big game hunting and has a house full of trophies, which she is offering for sale at $4 mil. How could we publicly shame her and her real estate agent for trying to cash in on this kind of activity?

Reply
rocco frangione
8/12/2015 01:01:47 am

hopefully she'll have a massive heart attack, before some idiot w/too much money & no brains buys it

Reply
joann miles
8/13/2015 03:04:48 am

Her head should be put on a mount. How can people think it's a big deal to kill an innocent animal which can'even fight back against a weapon? sick people out there!

Reply
Susan Campisi link
8/12/2015 02:18:32 am

Dear Dr. Olcott, I'm a wildlife activist in Los Angeles very active on Facebook. I could help generate some buzz on Facebook about these people. Has she advertised the sale online? Can you post any links? Can you post her name here? Do you have photos? Do you have the realtor's name and company? Also, to get local attention you could write a letter to the editor of a local paper. If you'd rather provide info privately, please send an email to March.For.Elephants.Rhinos.LA@gmail.com. Thanks so much for your interest in exposing the shameful trophy hunters and collectors.... I'm happy to help in any way I can! -Susan

Reply
Julia maegetts
5/25/2019 02:24:23 am

I am so embarrassed. I live in RSA and thought that canned lion hunting was banned years ago. I went to a lion sanctuary yesterday in Plettenberg Bay who had rescued some lions. All I can see on this site are comments from 2015. Do you know any more recent news. Also many people are still buying exotic pets then can’t cope with them. They then end up in monkey land sanctuary. Shocking. Where do we go from here what can we do? And what happened to that pathetic woman who wanted to sell her trophies?? She’s the one who should be shot

Reply
Chris Mercer
5/25/2019 09:48:53 am

Julia go through the blog archives on the right hand side of this blog page to see how much has been done since 2015.

Nicole
8/14/2015 02:30:05 am

This is so disgusting to see how these "hunters" or actually murderers adorn themselves with awards because they are COWARDS and sucker punch these amazing animals and kill them for their mantles and then spread their propaganda how they are conservationists. Instead of awards for the biggest tusks, horns, heads, manes, etc, they should have awards for the best photographic picture of these beautiful animals. It is so sad that they pride themselves on how much they can murder and kill istead of preserving and enjoying these majestic animals in their environments and honor them with pictures and videos, That is courage to be in the wildlife together with these animals and observe and adore them. That is what should be honored.. showing them live their lives, not their deaths. These are not hunters. This is sickening to see how they behave. This has got to STOP!! I have signed every petition, shared everything on FB with very little support from my fbf and I want to make a difference, any advice on what else we can do?

Reply
Nicole
8/14/2015 01:10:41 pm

This is so disgusting to see how these "hunters" or actually murderers adorn themselves with awards because they are COWARDS and sucker punch these amazing animals and kill them for their mantles and then spread their propaganda how they are conservationists. Instead of awards for the biggest tusks, horns, heads, manes, etc, they should have awards for the best photographic picture of these beautiful animals. It is so sad that they pride themselves on how much they can murder and kill istead of preserving and enjoying these majestic animals in their environments and honor them with pictures and videos, That is courage to be in the wildlife together with these animals and observe and adore them. That is what should be honored.. showing them live their lives, not their deaths. These are not hunters. This is sickening to see how they behave. This has got to STOP!! I have signed every petition, shared everything on FB with very little support from my fbf and I want to make a difference, any advice on what else we can do?

Reply
Bryson link
10/16/2015 09:24:58 am

This is something that never should have happened. I am doing a research project and will never understand how important this would be because I'm only in middle school. I hope that the next person to be INHUMANE will understand the consequences for his animal cruelty crimes, this is coming from an animal lover and to think the guy who did this only lost his membership for hunting. If it were me I would've had him executed without any prosecution.

Reply
deborah russo
10/24/2015 03:28:38 pm

A magnificent animal killed for what it needs to stop every living creature has the right to life humans dont have the right to take any life. Humans are the worst species of all, shameful. Cecil n all animals killed breaks my heart and leaves me with no faith in mankind

Reply
Valerie South
12/9/2015 01:29:34 pm

How low can South Africa go to allow such a cruel inhumane practice for profit to go on? What can be done about it? How can we help?

Reply
Chris link
12/10/2015 04:52:37 am

Hi Val you can start by raising awareness via social media and your own contacts. Perhaps subscribe to our free monthly newsletter/updates which will bring you much pertinent info.

Reply
Wendy King
1/29/2016 11:58:59 am

Brilliant Article Paul, well said! Praying Sick "Trophy Hunting" aka Murder of Innocent Wildlife, will go into the Annals of Gruesome History! . . . Soon . . .

Reply
Jody Firneno
7/28/2016 06:21:08 am

Thank you for your tireless effort to fight the good fight. You are commendable for your time and work in bringing awareness to the slaughtering of these exotic animals for selfish gains. Canned hunting is one of the most despicable, cowardly acts of these so-called humans. I wish they would all die. I know they will pay for their sins in the fire pit of hell one day.

Reply



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