Big Game Hunting.

What do you think about big game hunting?

You know, elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and Cape Buffalo?  The Big Five?  Even the lesser plains animals like impala, wildebeest and oryx?

People ordinarily come down about fifty-fifty on that question.  Half think we should leave those beautiful creatures alone, assuming that everything will stay static if we do.  Which it won't.  And the other half says hunt them responsibly, like we always have, and let the fees and taxes and often exhorbitant prices people must pay to hunt them go to benefit the local residents.

The often starving local residents.  As in, "natives."

And for those who've never considered the matter, that's exactly what happens.  Let's say you're a doctor in Chicago and you want to get out of town and visit a safer place.  Heh, heh.  So you decide a Big Five hunt in sub-Saharan Africal would do nicely.  And I say doctor, 'cause you gotta' make $Big Bank in order to afford such a privilege.  Maybe we should also include politicians in this grouping.  And then you call an outfitter and guide, who'll take care of everything else.

And make your Gold Card turn a light tan in an afternoon...

A visit to Abercrombie & Fitch then becomes a requirement.  You'll drop $5 - $10,000 just in clothing and boots and fitments for the trip.  This does not include your rifle.  A "cheap" rifle adequate for "Big Five" hunting will cost at least $2,000, and a wonderful Holland & Holland double rifle could cost upwards of $50,000.  Gulp!  You're now ready for the next step...

While you're worrying about rich pukes killing off all the poor critters over there, understand how the system is currently laid out.  There are 12 game preserves in Africa.  Each is at least 100,000 acres, and a couple are nearly one million.  The preserves are set up entirely around the health and welfare of the animals.  Each has a veterinary hospital.  Each has environmentalists and ecologists and zoologists working for them.  And each has a police force bigger than most American cities to catch poachers.  The real threat to Africa's animals. 

Poachers are those who kill animals with abandon for their valuable meat and tusks.  An elephant tusk can bring as much as $250,000, making poaching lucrative.  And making the killing of poachers by the preserves Priority One.    

When you book your trip, usually a year in advance, you decide what you want to hunt.  And that question is usually answered by how much you want to/can afford to spend.  Hunting the Big Five could bankrupt an ordinary citizen.  Example:  An elephant license is $33,000.  That's to just hunt an elephant.  Usually for a period of 7 - 10 days.  You get your elephant in that period of time, or you don't.  The government, the license issuing authority, doesn't care.  

And that elephant license fee does not include the cost of your guide.  Figure than in at about $2,500 a week, usually including food and lodging.  And remember, all this could be for naught; there's no guarantee you'll get your elephant.  That's why they call it "hunting," instead of "finding."  

Then there's taxidermy.  No point in shooting your animal unless you bring it home, right?  So figure about 9 months and $5,000 for each of your prize kills.  Triple that for an elephant.  The costs just keep on adding up, continuing to fuel the economy of Africa.  

But let us concentrate on the real reason this whole thing works so well.  The money from the licenses and tags and taxes and fees goes to feed and clothe and handle the medical care of the local villagers.  The millions of local villagers.  They need protection from roving gangs of poachers.  And protection from wild animals if left to grow uncontrolled.  Like lions.  And Cape buffalo.  And hippos, the Number One killer of humans in Africa (!).  At more than 500 per year!  

Remember when the dentist from Cincinnatti shot the famous old lion by accident?  When he wandered off his game preserve?  Yeah, well the uproar was so great they stopped lion hunting for almost two years.  The dentist lost his practice and his license, and his wife left him, and he was prosecuted and ridden out of town on a rail.  The side story you never hear about is that since lion hunting was no longer permitted during this period the lions grew exponentionally in number.  And ate more than 200 villagers.  Before they regained their senses and resumed controlled hunting to thin the herd to acceptable - meaning safe - levels.

Another example:  all the meat from an animal shot on the preserves goes to feed the local villagers.  Their main source of protein is the animals taken by big game hunters.  An elephant, for example, produces an average of 6,640 pounds of meat after it's dressed.  That's 26,400 4 oz. meals, or enough to feed 850 villagers for a month.  

So, without that dead elephant, which the villagers cannot by law themselves kill, they'd starve.  Kinda' interesting if you look at it that way...

A lion tag is $14,440.  A leopard tag is $18,l30.  A rhino tag is $8,498.  A Cape Buffalo tag is $17,098.  And a hippo tag is $2,599.  After their various governments wet their beaks, the rest of this money goes to the various preserves to keep these beautiful animals alive.  WITHOUT GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE!  

An on-the-cheap, first-time hunt for a few plains animals, like the impala, and the gazelle, and the gnu, would still set one back more than $12,000.  So without hunters willing to spend, Africa's animals would soon disappear...  

And without conciencious hunting, they would all go away.  And Black Africans would starve... 

Just a couple of thoughts as I head out the digital door.  First, for the reasons I've outlined above, those who are against Big Game Hunting must be racists.  Chew on that for awhile.  Second, they call it "hunting," not "finding."  Just like they call it "fishing," not "catching..."