If I may, I would like to present a different view on this. I don't know if Kendall has done this for publicity and if she has, that is her deal. To me it makes no difference at all why she posted them up, the act of posting them up and generating this sort of publicity gives us hunters an incredible opportunity to open dialogue to be able to educate people who don't know the facts of the matter.
There is this massive misconception that the species she hunted are endangered. As a whole they are not, in some areas they are extinct and in others endangered while in others, there are many surplus animals that need hunting to keep their numbers in check in addition to all the other functions hunting performs in furthering conservation efforts in the areas hunting takes place. All of the major conservation organisations recognise the incredible value hunting represents to the conservation effort and if we can point people in the right direction and educate them, more people will turn around and start to ask questions of PETA and the like, of their true contributions, their real motives and the negative effects they are having on conservation.
The problem is that our efforts to turn around the decimation of Africas' Elephant populations in the 80's and more recently the threat to Rhino and Lion is that people hang onto those ideas for decades and they don't realise that it is an ever changing situation that cannot be simplified. Anti hunting organisations have latched onto this and run with it, simplifying the problem and painting the whole of Africa and the various populations of game animals with one brush, claiming everything is endangered in their quest for support, publicity and donations. The same is taking place with the recent canned hunting scandals, it will be a weapon in the anti hunters armoury for years to come, continuing to claim as they do now that almost every lion is killed in canned hunts which could not be further from the truth! But we can hit back and educate those who don't know that it is illegal and it is relegated to the past for the most part.
As far as I can tell, the more these stories rear their heads, the more news media is heading toward a more balanced stance on reporting on the outcry. One network invited Craig Boddington onto their show to put his side across and more are looking at both sides of the story which is great. It educates the layman that the conservation problems we face in Africa are complex and most governments are listening to sound conservation ecologists advice when allocating permits. People are beginning to realise it is a regulated industry that is not a threat to the existence of any species when it is correctly managed like it has been in South Africa.
It is up to each and every one of us to educate ourselves, arm ourselves with the facts as hunters so that we may be able to refute false claims and answer questions and educate those who confront, challenge or question what we do, whatever their motives. Tell them that hunting funds the conversion from farmland to game ranches of 5000km2 every year in South Africa and that as a result more private individuals benefiting from hunting own and manage more natural habitat than the government does and the population of animals on this land is almost as large as in government operated National Parks. Tell them that hunting contributed $122 million in 2010 in trophy fees and accommodation alone, more than South Africas' entire National Parks budget and that much of this added income went to conservation, feeding local communities and combating poaching through various means. Tell them that since the late 1970's, since Kenya banned hunting in favour of photo safaris, their wildlife population has fallen by 85% while right next door, Tanzania has increased their population through hunting. Over the same time period, South Africa has increased it's wildlife population from 475000 animals to 19 million thanks in no small part to breeding programs and game ranches that are funded through hunting. Inform them that live disease free buffalo are being sold into breeding programs for up to $2 million per animal now and this is all driven by trophy hunting and the fact that it gives these animals value and a reason for private investors to protect them.
The more we do this, the better off the entire industry will be! If anyone wants links to documents and web pages that cite scientific papers on conservation and hunting, let me know and I will send you a long list of links so that you may educate yourselves and those around you.
