Hunting The Big Five Is Alive And Well (but the animals are all dead)

Someone recently posted a picture on Facebook that turned my stomach.  It was a picture of a family, mom, dad, son and young daughter, posing next to a dead giraffe they had just shot for sport.  I thought this was a thing of the past, but upon researching game hunting, I found it alive and well in sub Saharan Africa.  In fact, there are 23 countries in which big game hunting is perfectly legal.  It's big business.  Big game hunting generates over $200 million in revenue for these countries.  South Africa is the country that reaps the biggest financial benefit. 

There are numerous tour operators that sell packages to various countries for the sole purpose of coming home with trophies, in fact they have more than 18,500 international hunting clients per year. 

Packages include everything from the beginners package, a five day tour, where you are guaranteed at least one dead animal (wildebeest, impala or warthog), to a 20 day tour for $20,000, where you are guaranteed nine dead animals, even some exotic animals.  The white and black rhino, both extremely rare, are still hunted in South Africa and Namibia.  Most (if not all) of the hunting takes place on private game reserves. 

I get a sick feeling in my stomach when I think of magnificent elephants, zebras, lions and leopards being killed for sport.  It's not that I'm against hunting in general, it's just that to kill animals for the fun of it is abhorant to everything I believe.  Killing animals for food is something I can rationalize, but to just kill something for the sake of showing your friends and family how tough you are, well I can't tolerate that.

I guess the hunters can rationalize their activity by saying that they're contributing to the economic welfare of these countries.  I guess they are, but killing innocent animals is a hell of a way to support an economy.  I plan to learn more about the hunting of animals in Africa, and determine why it is still in existance.  I think the fact that the hunted animals come from a private reserve, may be the key.  No killing animals in public reserves, but it's ok in a private reserve.  It reminds me of some of the private hunting locations in America.  They're all on private grounds, usually the animals are in an enclosed area, and the hunters can kill them and get their trophies.  The animals don't have much of a chance, but it seems to be legal.  If any of you reading this are hunters, I'm sure you don't understand my concerns.  It's hard enough for me to eat meat, pork, chicken and lamb when I think about the conditions under which they live and die, but I do.  I just don't understand why anyone would want to kill for sport, and I never will.