BY: JESSICA BEUKER
Last weekend, an African trophy hunting show was expected to bring hundreds of hunters from all across the world to Vaughan, Ontario, a city just north of Toronto. The host of the show, Borgata Wedding and Event Venue, cancelled last minute after receiving “threats” from animal rights activists. According to The Globe and Mail, the two-day event was set to offer attendees an opportunity to book trips to Africa to hunt wild and exotic animals.
There are 29 awards in total, and according to In Defense of Animals, a hunter would have to kill 322 animals of different species to win them all. That’s 322 dead animals—and all because some egomaniac wants to prove his or her worth by covering their floor with a tiger rug.
Each year, trophy hunting kills thousands of wild animals from a variety of different species. The “sport” primarily takes place in Africa, where wealthy hunters pay large amounts of money to local and financially unstable governments for permits that grant them a choice of certain animals to kill.
The practice is purely a game, one that inflates the egos of hunters who live by the mantra that the bigger—and more rare—the better.
According to In Defense of Animals, the list of huntable species includes impala, black bears, zebra, giraffes, baboons and endangered species such as elephants, leopards and white rhinos. A popular trophy hunting target, the western African black rhino, was officially declared extinct in 2013.
Trophy hunters bring home full animals or parts of animals, often to mount as a trophy. There are also competitions and contests within the elite trophy hunting organizations – the most ruthless being the Safari Club International (SCI). Some of the contests include the Africa Big Five, which involves killing a leopard, elephant, lion, rhino and buffalo in order to win. There are 29 awards in total, and according to In Defense of Animals, a hunter would have to kill 322 animals of different species to win them all. That’s 322 dead animals—and all because some egomaniac wants to prove his or her worth by covering their floor with a tiger rug.
“The SCI argued that captive breeding was necessary for the survival and rescue of the species in the wild and that ‘Sport hunting of surplus, captive-bred animals generates revenue that supports these captive-breeding operations and may relieve hunting pressure on wild populations.”
The worst part is that the members of clubs such as the SCI legitimately think they are doing the environment some good. According to the National Post, Birgit Johnstone, owner of African Events Canada, said that animal rights activists don’t understand that trophy hunting has economical and ecological benefits for the local African population.
Their reasoning is this: “The SCI argued that captive breeding was necessary for the survival and rescue of the species in the wild and that ‘Sport hunting of surplus, captive-bred animals generates revenue that supports these captive-breeding operations and may relieve hunting pressure on wild populations. In the case of black rhino, 83 per cent of those countries represented at the 2004 CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) meeting approved sport hunting of the species in limited numbers.’”
“It’s unfortunate that people have sort of humanized that lion, you know, given him a name, and sort of given him a Disney character.”
Photo By: Glenn Stubbe
Johnstone attributes the sudden large amount of anti-hunting activism to the death of Zimbabwe’s Cecil the Lion in July 2015. “I think the emotions are still running high,” Johnstone said to CBC. “It’s unfortunate that people have sort of humanized that lion, you know, given him a name, and sort of given him a Disney character.”
But animal rights activists will always take the stance that it’s not about humanizing animals, it’s about standing up against humans who take advantage of living beings that have no voice.
Animal rights activists will always take the stance that it’s not about humanizing animals, it’s about standing up against humans who take advantage of living beings that have no voice.
Similar hunting events across Canada have also been targeted by animal rights activists. A second show, which was set for Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was backed into a rut after the host, the Saskatoon Inn, cancelled the event. A third show is planned for Calgary and will likely go on as planned despite a petition that has 3,500 signatures.
According to CBC, The Coast Plaza Hotel and Conference Centre that is hosting the event in Calgary has said that they will not host it in the future.
As for the Toronto event, since the protests, the show has had trouble finding alternative host venues.
Image Source: scime.org, wordpress.com, glenstubbephotography.com
