Zimbabwe sells shooting rights for 500 elephants
The health crisis has brought tourism to a standstill in most parts of the world, and Zimbabwe is no exception. The situation is so dire that the country with the second-largest elephant population in the world may be forced to sacrifice many of its animals.
Zimbabwe plans to sell rights to shoot around 500 elephants for up to US$70,000 per animal in order to fund the maintenance of its national parks.
Corona temporarily halted trophy hunting
In Zimbabwe, the coronavirus pandemic had one positive effect: the government's plans to have hundreds of elephants shot by foreign tourists fell through in the face of international travel restrictions. Now, up to 500 elephants are set to be culled.
«How do we finance our operations?", said Tinashe Farawo, a spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. "Those who are against our management should instead give us the funds».
Animal welfare advocates condemn recreational hunting
«We strongly condemn trophy hunting, a practice that puts pressure on wild animals and exacerbates human-wildlife conflict", protests Simiso Mlevu, spokesperson for the Centre for Natural Resources Management.
The southern African country attracts most of its recreational hunters from the USA, Russia, Mexico, and the European Union.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
