Monday, August 4, 2008
Ian, even President Teddy Roosevelt was guilty of "over indulgence" on occasion back before.
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Wade G. Burck
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A Blog designed for discussion of topics related to, but not limited to, Circus, Zoos, Animal Training, and Animal Welfare/Husbandry. Sometimes opening up the dialog is the best starting point of all. And if for nothing else when people who agree and don't agree, get together and start discussing it, it will open up a lot of peoples minds. Debate and discussion even amongst themselves opens a window where there wasn't one before.
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5 comments:
"In East Africa in 1900 Nairobi was a tiny settlement and yet, by 1910, it had become the hunting capital of the region. Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the United States, came to Nairobi in 1909 and mounted the largest hunting safari ever seen in Africa.
He set out from Nairobi with 500 men. During the Safari, Roosevelt and his son Kermit killed a total of 512 animals of more than 80 different species. This included 17 lions, 11 elephants, 20 rhinoceroses and 10 buffaloes. Altogether, though, the safari 'collected' and shipped back to America, 4900 mammals, 4000 birds, 500 fish and 2000 reptiles.
At the outset, Roosevelt had repeatedly stressed that he would not 'do any butchery'. He emphasized that his main purpose was to collect specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Some of these 'specimens' are still on display today - and some of the original packing cases have not been opened."
Gareth Patterson, "Dying to Be Free", pp. 38 -39
"Ernest Hemingway went on his first African hunting safari in 1933 and his second, and last, in 1953. He had a fiercely competitive approach to hunting when he was with companions. He also had an excessive fear of snakes and took great delight in shooting hyena. He found it amusing to watch a hyena shot in the lower body biting its own bullet-wounded stomach and grasping its intestines in its mouth."
Gareth Patterson, "Dying to Be Free", p. 42
"Also in the 1960's, pioneer lion researcher George Schaller was deeply saddened by the killing by trophy hunters of the lions he was studying in the Serengeti.
Between 1959 and 1960 at least 85 Serengeti lions were shot by trophy hunters just beyond the national park's boundaries. Over 50 were shot there between 1966 and 1967. At the end of 1969 Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia shot two tame males near Lake Lagaja which is just outside the park, but in an area that was generally regarded as protected.
Most of the lions shot by the trophy hunters were habituated to people and vehicles after years in the protected areas and, when wandering beyond park boundaries, would not have regarded vehicles and their occupants as harmful."
Gareth Patterson, "Dying to Be Free", p. 44
Mary Anne, what awful things humans have done over the millenia.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I found this series on the BBC about the Sheldricks in Kenya who have run an elephant rehabiltation station for 50 years.
If I wasn't so damn old, I'd love to be involved with something like this. My involvement with circus animals, after all, came about as a result of my love for animals. I think I would have less regrets today if I had made something like this my life's passion.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DBCD0AC32CB6F655
Ian
Ian, thank you for sharing these with all of us. I will try to watch them all when I can.
Mary Ann
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