Namibia: Trophy Photos – Ban for Recreational Hunters
Namibia's Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, announced in the capital Windhoek that it will be prohibited, under threat of penalty, for individuals to post photos with dead wildlife on social media.
Namibia's Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, announced in the capital Windhoek that it will be prohibited, under threat of penalty, for individuals to post photos with dead wildlife on social media.
He said the penalty would apply to everyone, particularly those holding hunting permits, as “especially those with hunting permits applaud themselves by posting pictures with dead animals on social media after recreational hunting.”
The minister said that trophy hunters’ social media photos misrepresent recreational hunting in Namibia. “Hunting is permitted under the Namibian constitution. However, it is morally incorrect to post such images. People may take pictures for private use only, but not for social media,” according to The Namibian.
Trophy Photos Spark Outrage
The minister is responding to the consistently negative reactions on social networks. Most recently, photos posted by American trophy hunter Tess Thompson Talley sparked angry comments. In the images, she poses in front of a very rare black giraffe she had shot in South Africa. Three years ago, when a dentist from Minnesota killed Cecil — a lion widely known throughout Zimbabwe — and shared photos of it online, he was even subjected to public calls for a lynching. Ingrid Newkirk, head of the animal rights organisation PETA, described trophy hunting at the time as “a disgusting pastime for wealthy, desensitised people seeking thrills.”
Hunting Tourism from German-Speaking Countries
Namibia is very popular among hunting tourists in German-speaking countries. In the former German colony, around 20’000 German-Namibians live whose mother tongue is German. Some of them attract visitors to German-language all-inclusive hunting holidays on their farms. Supervised recreational hunting, including accommodation and full board, costs around 200 euros per day. Additional costs include rental rifles and trophy fees for animals shot. At «Otjiruze Safaris», a shot baboon costs 100 euros. Anyone wishing to own a leopard trophy must pay 8’000 euros. Complete packages are also available. The beginner safari includes six hunting days, two rest days, and the shooting of an oryx antelope, a blue wildebeest, and a warthog boar — all for 3’690 euros.
Pohamba Shifeta further added that there is no law permitting the public to keep wild animals in captivity. People should refrain from doing so. More on Crime and recreational hunting.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
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.
