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Don't Save the Elephants?
Efforts to protect Central African elephants from poachers are turning humans into an endangered species instead, the Los Angeles Times' Robyn Dixon reports. While the likable pachyderms are protected for their value in attracting tourism, local farmers in Zambia say the creatures are a constant danger, destroying crops and even killing locals by stamping their huts without warning. Villager Muyenga Katiba, 44, described one such attack in which an elephant charged at a young man and then ran over an elderly woman insider her hut, killing them both. "The boy didn't even scream," Katiba told the LA Times. "He just died quietly." Locals say they see little compensation in tourist revenue for their suffering. "When I see one of those animals, I just know it wants to kill me," said one retired railway worker who lost a house to an elephant attack.
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Kill em all
Who needs elephants anyway
Kill all the polar bears too
While you are at it,
Let's fish the oceans dry
With five mile X three mile
Drift nets
Gill nets
Let er rip
Ooo yes!
And let's unleash
Our mighty Navy
To deafen the Whales
With gigantic Sonar
And while we are at it,
Let's decimate the
Honey Bees
Then after these
Creatures are
All gone,
Let's drill for oil!
they are most likely killing to defend themselves or trying to scare the farmers away. ...but why?
Animals obviously think for themselves- or maybe God is telling them to take revenge. You never know what will happen if we lose our natural world, do you? Jump first and look later....
Try to keep your insanity under control, hmm?
Or they are trying to "defend their territory". It's not their territory anymore, however. ITs a bit of a sticky wicket to be able to curb poaching but defend yourself at the same time. If we had similar rules for bears in the united states alaska and other parts of the US would be in trouble.
Taking a page from socialworklady's book?
I wonder if the farmers ever considered MOVING to another location?
Africa is a very big place.
Is the land free for the taking in Africa?
you solved poverty! congratulations
A good poetic summation of human behavior.
Dear Hockey Dog,
With my compliments:
http://www.michaelslevinson.com/newworld.pdf
Very fine poem.
michaelslevinson.com
I'll check it out Ollie.
Maybe the humans need to not live in a area that the elephants inhabit.I do think the entire world is going insane.
There are way, way too many people.
And it is only getting worse.
So what are you doing about it? I trust you're not breeding...
Bingo.
Sadly, it seems, and has increasingly seemed so for the past century, humans will take over the planet to the detriment of a host of other fellow creatures (probably rats, roaches, mosquitoes and the like will fair best since they can manage to adapt to our splendidly contrived labyrinths and out wit them). As a human myself, I can only lament how our ascendancy has progressed, despite choruses from our slim "better nature", and fall back on a more generalized picture of myself as a being in reality. Of course this view can be contrasted with the needs of the moment for those therein, hence one can't fault those in circumstance, but none the less it is nothing to be proud of and some apparent inevitabilities will be one more sorrow of the world. Personally, as one who fantasizes the earth itself has some sense of consciousness, I can only hope the situation receives rectification in a broader scheme of things. Dem breed too much, hence need everyt'ing.
We're talking about peasant farmers and villages here, not "splendidly contrived labyrinths". These folks are living much like we did in the 1800's and are facing the same issues we did (on a larger scale). When we start saying no to suburban sprawl or no to anything that involves even a mild sacrifice, we might have some credentials.
thanks for reply. Just two things ...
1) "on a larger scale": I don't know population statistics for Zambia, but my not much traveled imagination envisions that it's somewhere in an exponential curve. I live exclusively with poor people in Jamaica and find them as good as anyone else, but unless some peoples decide to change their traditional large family ways or slack control/raising of their children, I do not see any hope of progress within civilization as it stands in our times on such matters.
2) "suburban sprawl": I don't personally distinguish between civilizations in regards to this issue, this is a shared state of affairs throughout the planet. I don't side specifically with man nor beast, this place or that, only suggest that the "forest is being lost for the trees" (metaphorically and in fact).
Forgot to mention, the "splendidly contrived labyrinths" are our planetary evolution over the past "long time".
Also, I've lived in the "much like we did in the 1800s" Jamaica for long time (10 years until we built a modern house 10 years ago), which (Jamaica) is being overtaken by modern desires in the youth (of course they want what they see from the rest of the world), leaving mostly only the aging able to continue with traditional ways (e.g. my father in law a farmer at 91 years of age still "go a bush" [but slowly with donkey]): most of the young "no bother with dem ways, no money there" and until they really hungry, they not gonna go dig yam, etc. There are exceptions to this of course. So, for example, between all this "growth" and the lion fish, Jamaican waters are very depleted of fish. Done rambling on!
Where are you in Jamaica, Joe?
This story is putatively of interest because it pits one group liberals sympathize with (endangered animals) against another group liberals sympathize with (poor Africans).
I call shenanigans.
A decent observation but what you overlook in your rush to smoke out liberals is that it's not altogether bad to sympathize, in fact most would call it a virtue.
And then there's the third group who don't care whether our planet and its animals survive - we call them right-wingers.
Right wingers aren't against the planet, they're against the liberals who solution to everything of throwing money at it irresponsibly. You don't even bother to look back to see if it worked, you're off to the next project because the dirty work of actually solving the problem or addressing the unintended consequences doesn't give you that feel good about yourself buzz.
Throwing money at something irresponsibly isn't caring. It's self centered and reckless.
The programs that pay people for any livestock loss or property damages are great but they need to be monitored to make sure that the money gets to the people. Don't give money to organizations just based on the fact that you support the cause, make sure it's well managed and follow up to make sure it's accomplishing the goal.
I've been following the elephant news for some time, and it's not good. The tragedy is that these magnificent creatures are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They're losing their habitat in the wild and (not surprisingly) encroaching on ever-expanding human territory, leading to lethal encounters; African elephants are being slaughtered in large numbers for their ivory by ever-greedier poachers; or they're enslaved in zoos, circuses, and other show biz venues. They're also dying in the current African drought. If they're lucky, captive elephants get to go to a wonderful place like The Elephant Sanctuary or PAWS to live out their days in peace and quiet in a natural and spacious environment. But only a handful end up there. Wild elephants are finding it harder and harder just to survive. There's no clear answer to this except getting humans to limit their own numbers. As for ivory, it's been suggested that tusks be taken from elephants after they've died to satisfy that particular trade. At any rate, we've simply got to make more room for these wild animals or they'll be gone in a couple more decades. They have a right to life too, and the world would be much poorer without wild elephants.
Very well and sanely put, ardeth.
Ditto, Aranxa.
By the way, some of the posters here apparently are not aware that
African Male Elephants go into "musth" at around 18 years
of age, which is often the cause many of many of the rampages.
The people who live among these magnificent creatures cannot be
blamed for defending themselves from an attack, but it is indeed the
poachers who take the ivory and leave the carcass to rot who are
the ones decimating the population.
The common denominator seems to be humans' quest for the filthy
lucre. And, OldJoe is right, our flawed legacy as a species may ultimately be shameful.
ardeth-Thank you for your comments- I am always grateful for anothers' point of view. The wisdom of other is priceless and being able to share helpful information in this way is wonderful. My heart breaks for the people and the animals.
When last I checked, we weren't suffering from a shortage of humans. If the price of keeping elephants from going extinct is that they make pate de hominid out of a few of us, then I say so be it.
C'est la vie dans le monde, et comme toujours, couchez avec ta mere.
Wow.
"...stamping their huts without warning." Yes, the elephant really should have drawn up an eviction notice or something. Completely rude.
Why can't the Africans and Elephants just learn to get along?? sniff sniff
Darn, I thought this article was about Republicans and thought, Yes, let's not save them, then discovered it actually about real Elephants which definitely should be saved.
Oh no...Let's not even go there. The presence of elephants may offer some risk, but man is still the true menace. We've all but eliminated the gorgeous, wild species of this world - have made their survival a perilous one by poaching, illegal capture and selling as well as encroachment on their territory. It's not up to us to determine their right to exist. It's inherent.
Thank you.
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