09 August 2015

What should be done with wildlife poachers ?

Police in Bangladesh killed six poachers during a gun battle:
The gunfight was reported two weeks after the census was released revealing that the number of the Sundarban’s famous Bengal Tiger population was far fewer than it was previously thought, sparking an uproar among environmentalists, who demanded intensified anti-poaching campaigns. 
Redditor Egg-imitations offered the following suggestion:
"They should capture poachers, put them in a special enclosure and then let dentists pay to hunt them. Everyone wins!"

10 comments:

  1. Ah yes, reddit, performance space for people to display their clever bon mots and cynicism. Here we see a fine example: Violent revenge fantasies against relatively poor people doing something awful because they care more about their family's immediate needs than if their grand children ever see a tiger. I can't see how that is funny. At least the reverse suggestion to hunt dentists would be directed against the powerful instead of the powerless.

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    1. Tell me more about these powerful dentists. Do they give the Koch brothers their marching orders?

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    2. Yes, I see your false dichotomy very clearly. There are only two levels of power in the world: abject poverty and the Koch Brothers. Thanks for clearing that up.

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  2. In Bangladesh, I'm not so sure, but in Africa, the notion of poachers just killing endangered animals for food for their poor families is an unfortunate myth. Sure, they may be poor, and they almost certainly feed people with the money they make, but it's no more necessary to their survival than native American tribes killing whales. While I don't actually know this, I'll wager good money that no poor person eats tiger for dinner, anywhere in the world.

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    1. Sorry, didn't mean to imply that they were eating the tiger. You are correct. They are using the proceeds from the sale of various parts of tiger carcases to live a subsistence or slightly above subsistence existence at a level we in the western world would find unacceptable in a slum.

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    2. Oops, my apologies, I didn't get that from what you wrote. You are, of course, also correct in that killing people isn't really funny. I don't use Reddit enough (hardly ever) to know if the comment about the performance space is right or wrong. Seems plausible, though, from what I know of teh Interwebz in general, though. :o)

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  3. I think the issue is that the only reason for killing tigers (and rhinos and other endangered species) is because of mythology that tiger gallbladders or rhino horns or whatever will stimulate male sexual response. What we need is education to teach those who believe the mythology that it's not true, and the demand for parts of these creatures could (one hopes) disappear.

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    1. The sad irony is that many "traditional" medicines from the East usually actually contain various, uncontrolled and undisclosed, amounts of pharmaceuticals from the West. I have actually read a story (some years ago, and now I can't quickly find the source) where researchers tested the ingredients and found Viagra in one of those engorgement potions.

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  4. Actually what we need is to change the mythology from the belief that gallbladders or horns or whatever help with creating and maintaining male erection, TO the belief that such items help prevent erections, or something like that. In other words, quite the reverse.

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  5. Poach them...........poach them all .

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