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Why I’m grateful to Melissa Bachman - and you should be too

27/11/2013

27 Comments

 
Melissa Bachman lion hunt
By Roxanne Reid
If you haven’t already read about Melissa Bachman and the furore caused by her shooting a lion in South Africa recently – and bragging about it on social media – then you’re living under a rock and you really should get out more. Let me explain why I'm grateful to Melissa Bachman – and you should be too.

First, some quick background for any rock dwellers. Melissa Bachman, an American TV presenter and avid trophy hunter, came to South Africa and shot a lion. Bad enough. Then she tweeted a photo of herself posing gun in hand next to the dead animal, saying: ‘Stalked inside 60 yards on this beautiful male lion. What a hunt!’

Boy, did she ever open a can of worms. And for that I’m grateful to her; in the past week or so people around dinner tables and office water coolers have been talking about what she did, focusing a spotlight on some issues that needed to be brought into the open.

The vitriol that flooded the internet in the wake of her tweet was titanic in size and volcanic in nature. People said things like ‘Someone needs to capture her and break every bone in her body’ and ‘I would happily blow her head off’. Others got a lot more graphic and insulting. Body parts were named and I may even have learnt a new swear word or two.

The barrage of emotional responses was a good barometer of general sentiment about this gung-ho foreigner coming here to kill our King of the Savannah, but regrettably some people fell into the same pit of abuse as Bachman – hers against animals and theirs against her.

There was a sprinkling of satirical commentaries too, like Ben Trovato’s tongue-in-cheek Open Letter to Melissa Bachman, and Matt Stopera’s argument that since lions ‘just sleep and sit around all day’, hunting a lion isn’t really a challenge or even a ‘hunt’ in any true sense. In fact, he said, ‘To kill a lion you have to be a coward.’

Funny man Ricky Gervais tweeted, ‘I can't describe the total thrill of never murdering a beautiful wild animal & mounting its head on a wall. It's exhilarating and so natural.’

He took the words right out of my mouth.
Lions, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
I can't understand why anyone would even want to shoot an animal they agree is 'beautiful'
Among the less emotional and more rational were people who argued that ‘hunting’ should be considered a means to get food, not just for fun or so you can mount a trophy on the wall. Predictably, the defence from the Bachman camp was that hunting is a fact of life, a legitimate sport, it wasn’t illegal (she had a permit) and the money she paid for the hunt would go towards conservation. So that’s a great thing, right?

Wrong.

If Melissa Bachman was really concerned about helping conservation, why not just donate a million or so of her dollars directly to conservation and forget about shooting the animal? Ah yes, because that’s not what she’s about at all.

There are many underlying issues here, among them the morality of trophy hunting and canned lion hunting, what conservation really means, and if hunting even for the pot is ethically indefensible, as many vegetarian activists insist. But if I go down those roads I’ll be here for days and you’ll stop reading. So let me focus on what I think are the most important issues that the Melissa Bachman rumpus has raised.  

The 3 key issues
1. First, as I see it, the notion of killing for conservation is ridiculous, its logic deeply flawed. It reminds me of graffiti I once saw on a wall, saying: ‘Fighting for peace is like f***ing for virginity.’

In case you still don’t see the paradox of ‘killing for conservation’, let’s push the point home with an analogy a friend of mine used the other day: if it’s such a great idea, why not allow the controlled sale of cocaine (with a legal permit, of course), and then use the money you rake in to treat those who suffer from its devastating effects? 
 
Makes you think, doesn’t it?

By the way, South Africa isn’t the only country to spew this crazy ‘killing for conservation’ talk. The Namibian government recently issued a Texan safari club with a permit to shoot an endangered black rhino, justifying its action by saying the money would go towards conserving the 1 800 black rhinos left in Namibia. My bet is that the rhino in the cross hairs didn’t agree that it was okay to kill an individual in the interests of the ‘greater good’.
In Search of the African Lion, De la Harpe
2. My second major concern is how few people realise that the African lion – like the rhino, which gets much more attention – is endangered. I’ll bet Melissa Bachman doesn’t, nor does she care. 

There are fewer wild lions left in Africa than rhinos. According to Roger and Pat de la Harpe in their book In Search of the African Lion, there were some 450 000 lions in Africa about 50 years ago, but only around 23 000 are left today, a paltry 3 000 of them in South Africa. Nearly half of all African lion populations are in decline. 

Even if the particular lion Melissa Bachman shot on the Maroi Conservancy in Limpopo was a ‘canned’ lion specially bred for the purpose, it sends the wrong message about our attitude to protecting our wildlife species. Next thing you know, the Chinese and Vietnamese will be increasing their demands for lions to be killed for ‘medicine’, and do you think they’ll care whether they’re ‘canned’ or endangered wild lions? And we know from our rhinos where that’s going to lead us.

3. Finally, if what Melissa Bachman did was legal, perhaps the fault lies with the authorities who are still allowing trophy hunting at all. Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa, for instance, has defended hunting, saying it contributes significantly ‘to conservation, tourism development, job creation and sustainable development’. Job creation maybe, but conservation? Seriously?

There's now either a ban or moratorium on sport hunting in both Botswana and Zambia. In a few years’ time we should be able to analyse the effect this has had on game populations, as well as income from hunting and tourism in general. There may well be job losses in the hunting sector, but my guess is that the skills of that sector might easily be redirected into the photo safari business where animals can be ‘shot’ again and again.

Let’s face facts: most tourists come to Africa for a safari to see what’s unique to Africa – our diverse and abundant wildlife. If we no longer had this diversity and abundance, would they still come in their droves? Would they still bring their foreign money and spend it in Africa? Lions, rhinos and elephants – which are all under threat right now in Africa – are among the Big Five that feature on every visitor to Africa’s bucket list.

Even if you're cavalier enough not to care that people are killing animals for recreation (and just for the record, I do care), perhaps you'll care when animal rights activists and visitors who are concerned about conservation and ethical tourism vote with their feet, and tourism revenue – which is currently worth some US$80 billion in the African economy – takes a nosedive. Look what happened to Uncle Bob and his economy north of the Limpopo.
 
What can you do?
1. During the height of the furore, a ‘Stop Melissa Bachman’ Facebook page was set up and had more than 343 000 ‘Likes’ when this blog post went live. If you’re on Facebook, join the debate.

2. Dereck and Beverly Joubert, filmmakers of the documentary The Last Lions,  suggest: ‘If you're up in arms, then write to those who can change it. Push for the lion to be added to the US endangered species list so that those trophies can no longer be taken to the US. Write to the South African Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa and Tourism Minister Marthinus can Schalkwyk calling for a ban on canned hunting.’

3. You can also lobby the South African government via the GoPetition to stop trophy hunting and all legal killing of our wildlife. 

I don’t condone Melissa Bachman’s methods, nor do I approve of the misogynist tone of some of the abuse hurled her way. But I’m grateful to her for opening this can of worms and getting people talking (even if it's not at all what she intended). Her tweet may have put her in the hot seat on this occasion, but I can promise you that people – let’s be honest, mostly men – are doing the same thing all the time. 

What do you think can be done about it? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
27 Comments
Roxanne Sutton
27/11/2013 07:04:15 am

Great article and I agree with your comments 100%.

I have just one thing to add, I think it should be made illegal for anyone to travel out of their own country to hunt, I dont know how this would be implemented , but I think the only way forward is viewing Trophy hunting as a world problem , and those that take part as Pirates.

Reply
Roxanne Reid link
27/11/2013 09:28:34 am

That's an interesting concept, Roxanne. According to filmmaker Dereck Joubert, 600 permits were issued to kill lions in the whole of Africa last year and 566 of them were to Americans.

Reply
Roxanne Sutton
27/11/2013 11:08:49 am

Why does that not surprise me, I think this tells us all something.

Chris Ryan
27/11/2013 10:45:36 am

That's a good idea Roxanne! Exporting and Importing is already a complicated and often impossible action...which kind of raises the question even more of why do it in the first place? If you are willing to spend $50,000 to go to Africa, kill something, and have to leave it there anyways, it kind of proves that the only reason it was done was for 'the thrill of the kill'...man's deepest darkest essence at it's worst. Man came, man saw...man destroyed. And for what purpose is this done?? Just for bragging rights really.

Reply
Kerry
27/11/2013 08:42:16 am

Wonderful...really wonderful, very well written. Thankyou

Reply
Roxanne Reid link
27/11/2013 09:29:22 am

Thanks so much, Kerry.

Reply
Peter
27/11/2013 12:37:08 pm

Excellent summary of the issues. Watched a few youtube videos today on canned lion hunting - real eye-opener. I cannot understand how this is permitted in our country. Thanks so much Roxanne !

Reply
Gaelyn Olmsted link
27/11/2013 06:01:03 pm

Excellent article. I don't see how killing wildlife helps conservation. Seems like endangered species should be protected.

Reply
Roxanne link
28/11/2013 12:08:07 am

Thanks for your comments, Peter and Gaelyn. The logic of killing for conservation does indeed seem specious.

Reply
Cathy rees
28/11/2013 01:53:36 am

I strongly object to rich, mostly ignorant and arrogant, Americans coming into my country and killing my grand children's heritage there is no upside to hunting, it creates very few jibs ad it is not labour intensive, and the money certainly dies not go to the employees but stays in the pocket of the opener. This is a well thought out article from someone who knows what they are talking about. Well done I applaud you

Reply
Roxanne link
28/11/2013 02:30:56 am

Thanks Cathy, I appreciate your support.

Reply
Delphine Cady
28/11/2013 05:12:54 am

Thank you Roxanne, this is a very well written article. Hope this will help... there's so much to be done to protect wildlife.
It's not only about foreigner coming to SA killing your grand children's heritage... It might not be my own country, but I strongly believe it's my son's heritage as well, we should be concerned about this all over the world!

Reply
Roxanne link
28/11/2013 06:19:37 am

Well said, Delphine. I consider foreigners like you as 'honorary Africans' because you understand and feel the beauty and wildness of our Nature.

Reply
Di Brown link
28/11/2013 12:22:26 pm

Hi Roxanne,
Thank you for an informative and thought provoking article. I cant bring myself to click on the link to canned hunting, it is just too horrible to contemplate.
I think the whole hunting issue comes down to money and supply and demand.
As long as there are people with big ego's and more money than sense, and someone is making a fortune by allowing them to hunt, it will continue. There are other ways to raise money for conservation, surely? This issue needs to be attacked at the root cause, money.
If the people here cease to make good money from it, it will slow down. If it becomes prohibitively expensive to feed your ego by hunting, maybe they will find something else.
I doubt it will be banned any time soon, sadly

Reply
Roxanne link
28/11/2013 01:26:03 pm

I fear you're right, Di, about both money and hunting. But we can at least apply pressure and hope to keep the issues in the spotlight.

Reply
Caroline Hurry link
28/11/2013 10:56:12 pm

My sentiments exactly! Great piece, Roxanne!

Reply
Roxanne link
28/11/2013 11:30:30 pm

Thanks Caroline, glad it resonated with you.

Reply
nancy daniels
30/11/2013 09:07:30 am

Thank you for writing such a great article on Lions. This is exactly my own sentiments. i have shared this on facebook and twitter. There are several of us that want to keep this momentum going and want to find ways to stop this madness! We are sick of leaving comments and need to do something more. Let me know if you would like to help.

Reply
Roxanne link
30/11/2013 09:34:28 am

Thanks for your comments, Nancy. I hope that in my article I gave people various ideas about how to help -- follow the link to the GoPetition, for instance. The links to canned lion hunting take you to the web page for the registered public benefit organisation, Campaign Against Canned Hunting (http://www.cannedlion.org/), which should be able to pull all objections together in an organised and productive way. Donations towards their efforts are always welcome.

Reply
Nancy Daniels
30/11/2013 10:31:30 am

Yes i have signed the petitions and what i did was counted 20 different petitions that have all lost momentum as there wasn't a clear focus. I want to do more than just hand a few dollars over to an organization. i will contact them and offer my assistance. Thank you for pointing it out.

Reply
Roxanne link
1/12/2013 12:11:20 am

Good for you, Nancy. I'm sure they'll welcome practical assistance.

Chris Mercer link
1/12/2013 02:51:51 am

Good article Roxanne. I recently read a fascinating philosophical piece on the psycho-sexual aspects of hunting. Anyone who wants to read it can email us through our website, and we'll send it as a pdf attachment.

Reply
Roxanne link
1/12/2013 08:12:57 am

Thanks Chris. Anyone who wants to read the article Chris mentions about the psycho-sexual aspects of hunting, email him via the Contact page on http://www.cannedlion.org

Reply
Roxanne link
22/1/2014 05:40:09 am

Good piece from 'lion whisperer' Kevin Richardson on this issue: http://blog.africageographic.com/africa-geographic-blog/hunting/did-melissa-bachman-and-her-friends-shoot-your-lion-cub/

Reply
Chris Mercer link
22/1/2014 07:06:27 am

Kevin is a real lion expert and his articles are always worth reading.

Reply
Lynne Poole
2/12/2014 07:35:30 am

Great article Roxanne! Thanks for all your efforts in protecting our precious lions. I always try to sign petitions to help the cause! Long live our lions!!!!

Reply
Roxanne link
2/12/2014 11:18:33 pm

Long live our lions indeed, Lynne. Thanks for your efforts too.

Reply

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    I'm an independent travel writer and book editor with a passion for Africa - anything from African travel, people, safari and wildlife to adventure, heritage, road-tripping and slow travel.
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    We're happiest in the middle of nowhere, meeting the locals, trying something new, or simply watching the grass grow.
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