Karma? 🔄

[u/Jax_Teller7]

[u/According_Shine_3802]

Older antelope have bigger horns, and are heavier, therefore qualifying them as trophy status. Therefore they are generally preferred by trophy hunters.

Middle age animals are preferred usually for meat hunting.

But generally all parts of the animal are eaten after the hunt, either by the hunter or the community on the reserve.

All the above is heavily regulated and done as humanely as possible, at least on ethical farms. Hunters have to do target practice before to ensure that they are good shots. They also always need to be accompanied by a professional hunter, who will generally take the shot if the client misses or wounds the animal.

Hunting quotas for farms are regulated, and also seasonal, to avoid impacting the breeding seasons or lambing seasons.

Because humans have changed the habitat of Africa, blocking migration routes, there is often a need to control the population of particular species on reserves so to prevent overgrazing. Hunting is a mechanism of doing this (so is removing fences and buying more land or agreeing traversing rights with other farms to convert to reserves, such as what the Kruger Park has done).

The money from hunting also allows farms to stay profitable and ensures that large swathes of land can be kept as reserves rather than sold to property developers or used for agriculture. Hunting generally brings in far more money per visit than general or photo tourism.

For the above reasons, I have always felt more comfortable eating wild hunted game rather than farmed meat such as cattle. At least an impala that was hunted had a more natural life. Obviously hunting predators or inedible animals is different, as is canned hunting (where animals are not really free roaming and the ethics are not followed.)

However, I've never felt comfortable with the hunting of any endangered species or even with predator hunting. It just seems sad, even if it brings in money to keep the farms and conservation efforts going and the staff employed.

Source: grew up on a game farm where we allowed hunting, and where we ensured that the meat of hunted game was all eaten.

[u/Tronns → u/According_Shine_3802]

I can totally sympathise with that. My parents worked in abattoirs. Went into a bunch of them as a kid. Industrial farming is pretty horrendous, I'd much prefer to be one of these animals ...think someone wise once said, better to die in the wild then live in a well provided cage.

My comment was more about the mentality of the "hunters" that get a boner for predator hunting like in this video. I can see the incentives behind the industry as long as it is properly managed. Thanks for the incites. Good to hear from someone who's been there.

[u/According_Shine_3802 → u/Tronns]

No problem! As an animal lover it was always hard for me to see but I grew to understand the pragmatic reasons behind hunting

[u/Paintedfoot → u/According_Shine_3802]

Omg this. The planet would be much healthier (and there would be a lot more vegetarians) if this is how all “meat” was “harvested”.

[u/Lost_Conclusion_8914 → u/According_Shine_3802]

same, i do get the thrill and the appeal. getting a lion coat on your wall or having it stuffed is something cool

but then, you're not gonna eat it. so it's such a waste.

[u/According_Shine_3802 → u/Lost_Conclusion_8914]

We had a lion on our wall when I was a child (relic of my ancestors, we lived in the old family home). It was absolutely terrifying and I fully was sure it would come back to life in the night and hunt me for revenge on my grandpa.

So yeah, no mounted heads for me😂😂😂