THEMA: Zimbabwe's starving people skin an Elephant...
13 Mär 2010 21:48 #133269
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14 Mär 2010 00:31 #133278
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  • Miss Ellie am 14 Mär 2010 00:31
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that exectly the raison why i think we shouldnt go to visit simbabwe.. all will just play into the arms of the gouvernement. horrible.. just disgusting and horrible
[b]"eine der blamabelsten Angelegenheiten der menschlichen Entwicklung ist es, dass das Wort Tierschutz ueberhaupt geschaffen werden musste" theodor heuss [/b]
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14 Mär 2010 10:38 #133290
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  • Crazy Zebra am 14 Mär 2010 10:38
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Wenn ich den Elefanten vor dem geistigen Auge ausblende sehe ich

Hunger, Verzweiflung und Elend.

Gruss Kurt
www.Kurt-und-Heidi.ch Reiseberichte - Bilder und noch mehr wir freuen uns über jeden Besuch
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15 Mär 2010 08:03 #133393
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  • DaktariSabine am 15 Mär 2010 08:03
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Good morning everybody, guten Morgen an alle,
after reading this article yesterday, I turned to my friends and business partners in Zimbabwe for advice as to how to reply to this posting. I have much experience of travelling in the country but none of living there, thus I am leaving it up to more qualified people to reply here. Many friends replied to my email, giving me two most probable explanations for what happened here. 1) it was a hunt in the context of the CAMPFIRE project, where the community profits from guests who come to hunt big game in accordance with the legal quota in that the people of the community receive the trophy fee and the meat. 2) The animal was shot as a so-called "problem animal" that has once tasted maize or sugar cane on the fields of the local population and returns again and again to cause damage and danger to the local community. These animals are shot only after several legal processes have been adhered to. Again, it is normal that the meat is put to use. Here is a very detailed and passionate reply from one of my friends who knows the area where the photos were taken very well:


This is unfortunate and selective reporting. The elephant looks in his prime condition to me and is unlikely to have died of natural causes, few animals in Africa do.

However, these pictures are very similar all over Africa. If a large animals becomes available for food it is dissected in this fashion in the rural areas, but is on its own not a sign of starvation. What I am saying is that we should not look at the provision of meat for the African household through European eyes, this is Africa after all and this is how it is done here. Do we want to hand out knives and forks or do we want to respect their traditional way of harvesting meat?

As to starvation, there is no doubt in my own experience that the population is starving. I live with my game reserve and these difficulties every day. The country will produce about 25% of their grain and serial needs this year due to poor rains, total mismanagement of agriculture by the Ministry etc. the Minister in charge if from the old guard and the Prime Minister from the MDC has little influence at this stage. My assumption is that at least some 5 million people are or will be starving this year.

The EU together with us from private Wildlife Conservation have been involved in what is known as the EU / PARCEL food security problem. We as Conservancy have committed to supplying meat to the project and help supervise that the 1,000 hectare irrigation farming project is managed correctly. However, having fences around our Conservancy we are confronted also with having to cull excess animals. This applies in particular to elephants which have broken through the fence and are destroying local communal farming efforts. Elephants are thus shot on the land of the local indigenous farmers and the meat harvested in the fashion described in the publication stated. Starvation or not, this is how a carcass is cut up and delivered to the villages in the traditional way.

As to supporting the Regime:

1. We have now a Government of Unity with good and bad politicians. It has been modestly successful and placing a blanket ban on visiting or supporting wildlife in Zimbabwe would undermine if not destroy the huge efforts of the moderate and progressive forces at work.
2. Visiting Zimbabwe does not in any way support the Mugabe regime part. It you come to our Save Valley Conservancy, none, absolutely none of the revenue goes to Government, not even in taxes. We all have lost money for many years, some like me have never made any profit ever. Hence, it will be a long time to pay taxes if we make a cash flow break even. Most of the the wildlife owners / investors do not record a a positive cash flow as it is and we all hang in.
3. Private wildlife is often managed to the best wildlife management experts recommend. Not visiting and supporting these Conservancies will:
* destroy well managed wildlife sanctuaries
* destroy the breeding nucleolus of wildlife serving to rebuild National Parks’ decimated herds. (we are currently working to relocate 1,700 animals to restock Gonarezhou National Parks with German assistance)
* it will play into the hands of local politicians who want nothing more then to take over such private enterprises. Receiving clients and tourists will allow us to continue stopping such advances

We should take note that owning and running a Wildlife Conservancy is not a financially rewarding investment. One needs passion for wildlife and capital to fund the losses incurred. Not supporting us, not visiting Zimbabwe will play fully into the hands of those the author of the article is trying to hurt. His well intended warning has the unintended effect of undermining everything he wants to protect.
Note that if the current new Government fails, and lack of visiting tourists and hunters are part of such failure, the old guard will take over again and surely that is not what anyone can wants
Also note that every single Ambassador in Harare I know would agree with what I have said above.


Have a good day and a successful week,

Sabine
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15 Mär 2010 08:51 #133400
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  • schoelink am 13 Mär 2010 21:48
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Thanks for your post Sabine.I hope to visit Zimbabwe in Oktober ;)

Gruss, Hans
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16 Mär 2010 11:07 #133585
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Thank you for your confidence in Zimbabwe, Hans, and for your support. I hope it will be a good trip for you. I attach another response that I received from a friend and colleague in Zimbabwe to this news article. Many of the questions he asks would have been my questions, too.

1. Having gone through the pictures I notice the pictures are Copyright controlled to David Chancellor he is renowned sport journalists, was he part of the hunt to be so up-close and personnel on this tour or discovery of the corpse of the elephant, he has the pictures of the elephant (1) before the crowd came done (2) had pictures of the crowd coming to the carcass, he has all the pictures, if he had said the boy on the bicycle took the pictures we would all believe in his story. Where was he from the discovery of the carcass all the way to the slaughtering, my hunch this was a hunt he was part of and saw an opportunity to get famous for, he has very close picture of the struck down elephant with not even a single villager in sight??????. The shot of the villagers coming to the elephant is of interest too, he takes the short in the direction the people are going towards the photographer which simply means my guess is as good as yours, standing besides the kill. Obvious after such a hunt you can’t carry all the meat back to Europe, USA so this is a chance to reward the starving community.
2. In one of the pictures referred “Audience: People gather on a hill a short distance away to watch village men get to work” that picture has some semblance of order meaning this was not just a carcass but this was proceeds from a hunting safari. If you carefully look one of the people in the picture is professional hunter, the elephant is being skinned to perfection, why? because the hunter possible Mr. Chancellor himself or a colleague of Mr. Chancellor who took him on this expedition to Africa needs his tasks and elephant skin. Look at how the legs have been skinned if this was supposed to be a chaotic situation there would be no time to sit on an anthill with an empty stomach.
3. In his report he talks about a boy on a bicycle having discovered the carcass, I find that hard to believe and understand what would be a boy on a bicycle be doing in a National Park with the Big 5 but journalist being journalist the story has to have some excitement.
4. Its very interesting the report talks of the elephant being 70 years old, that elephant in the picture by its tasks is not that old possible 30/40 years, the potential lifespan is 60 years.
5. There is a project in Zimbabwe called Campfire, where all some of the proceeds from hunting safari go to the community in the form of trophy fees and eadible meat like Elephant, Buffalo are given to the community am sure you are aware of that, there are numerous websites covering that project.
6. The situation in Zimbabwe is not the best, yes, people need food and those are signs of the need of it in the chaotic manner shown.
7. My description of this article is the “the west making the worst of Africa”.

Am positive if one is to research deep in this matter, you would notice these are but such effects of the business of Hunting Safaris, foreign come to hunt, get very close up opportunities to record, document and write in their context the situation as they want it to be seen not how it happened.

The authenticity of the report is questionable.


Thank you also for posting the articles and videos that you find here, you are one of the people who make this forum so very informative and interesting.

Have a good day, Sabine
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