Frequently Asked Questions
Is trophy hunting the same as poaching?
No! Poaching is the act of illegally taking and killing a living creature for trade. It is not sanctioned, not licensed and there are heavy penalties if the poacher is apprehended. Hunting, specifically trophy hunting, is a licensed and legal activity that is engaged in by wealthy individuals for self-aggrandizement and personal satisfaction, supplied by safari operators for profit.
Is trophy hunting the same as subsistence hunting?
No. Subsistence hunting for food where the animal is treated with respect, killed humanely and every part of the animal is utilized is a matter of survival for some cultures. Trophy hunting is purely for pride, pleasure and profit to secure a head on the wall, a rug on the floor and/or awards and accolades from peers.
Is “canned hunting” trophy hunting?
Yes. It is considered the “quick and cheap” form of trophy hunting because captive animals are bred and raised specifically for the bullet. There is no conservation value to it. There is no “sport” to it. A tamed animal that has been petted as a cub and then walked with tourists as an adult (both for profit) is taken into an enclosure where the trophy hunter has a quick, relatively cheap and 100% guaranteed kill.
Is there a points system for trophy hunting?
Yes. The larger trophy hunting groups offer “prestigious” awards to their members based on the most animals killed, the rarest animals killed, the biggest and best specimens killed, the most continents killed on, and greater points are awarded still for kills with bow and arrow that rarely if ever result in a quick, clean, merciful, humane death.
Do trophy hunters have to take proficiency tests in fire arms before a safari?
No. We have miles of footage of trophy hunters wounding and losing an animal and taking multiple shots (up to 27) to kill an animal. These cruel kills result in slow, agonizing and terrifying deaths for the animal. This applies to all methods (bow and arrow, hand guns, rifles and other methods) used for the kill.
Does trophy hunting or poaching do more damage to the genetic diversity and therefore viability of an endangered species?
It is trophy hunting and NOT poaching that deliberately targets the biggest and best of a species for their prize. This, by definition, is removing the strongest and most important specimens from a dwindling gene pool, thereby imperiling the future of that species even further. Additionally, this removes important matriarchs and patriarchs from family units that throws the natural balance and harmony of a pride or herd into disarray.
Are there economic benefits to local communities from trophy hunting?
The Lion’s Share: On the Economic Benefits of Trophy Hunting. This report debunks inflated claims that trophy hunting is a critical contributor to African economies and jobs. In eight key African countries, trophy hunters contribute at most 0.03 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and at most 0.76 percent of overall tourism jobs. It also proves that the non-hunting tourism industry has a much brighter future in Africa.
Access the whole report HERE.
The $200 Million Question: How Much Does Trophy Hunting Really Contribute to African Communities? This report analyses literature on the economics of trophy hunting and reveals that African countries and rural communities derive very little benefit from trophy hunting revenue.
Access the whole report HERE.
Eco-Tourism Worth More to African Economies Than Trophy Hunting by Michael Markarian. The HSUS Chief Program and Policy Officer shows that wildlife-based eco-tourism is a big industry in Africa and dwarfs trophy hunting in its economic impact.
Access the whole report HERE.
Does trophy hunting remove "problem animals"?
On the erroneous assertion that trophy hunting deals with PROBLEM ANIMALS…
There are MANY other proven successful methods of dealing with “problem animals” aside from putting a bullet in them. Furthermore, it is often not taken into consideration that removing an alpha male from a territory will not lessen “the problem”, it will increase it because nomadic males kept out of the territory by scent marking from the alpha had previously kept them away. In Namibia several methods have been successfully trialled and deployed for retraining wild predators to dissuade them from attacking livestock. One of these is based on Pavlov’s theories and it works without killing or culling wild animals. And it will work anywhere in the world. Other methods are detailed HERE.
There are many more examples, such as keeping elephants away from crops by installing bee hives, which also helps the vital bee population thrive.
Aside from killing alleged “problem animals” in Africa, the USDA alone admits to killing over a MILLION wild animals a year on the pretext of protecting livestock. Read about it HERE.
Does hunting help fund conservation?
Africa faces an unprecedented wildlife catastrophe. Many iconic species, especially those favored by trophy hunters, are in a sharp decline mainly due to widespread poaching and habitat loss but an analysis of six African countries – South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania – where trophy hunting has long been regarded as an effective conservation tool, shows that trophy hunting is having negative impacts on wild populations.
Five iconic species – elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards, cheetahs and lions – were selected for this report primarily because they are facing an unprecedented decline in their populations and because they are some of the most targeted trophy species. The analysis will reveal that trophy hunting is an activity that fuels corruption, it encourages the unfair redistribution of the wealth generated without adequate involvement of communities, causes the loss of healthy individuals that are still key for reproduction and social cohesion and, most damagingly, contributes to the decline of all five species considered in this report: HERE
Which country has the greatest number of global trophy hunters?
Trophy Hunting by the Numbers: The United States’ Role in Global Trophy Hunting.
This report reveals that American hunters alone imported more than 1.2 million animals — more than 126,000 a year — as hunting trophies from across the world between 2005 and 2014. The top two source countries were Canada and South Africa.
See the report HERE.
US LEGISLATOR
President Trump’s Wildlife Protection Board was populated by Trophy Hunters due to the enormous power of the lobby from SCI and the National Rifle Association. The truth is actually worse than appears in this article, as discussed by the Born Free Foundation in
lengthy legal action under the Freedom of Information Act to secure further information. However, this story talks about the percentage of Trophy Hunters on the Board and the influence and connectedness of SCI in all this.
See the story HERE.
Steven Chancellor raised over USD$1,000,000 for Donald Trump and in return was awarded a seat on the “Wildlife Board”. According to Safari Club records, Chancellor registered 482 confirmed kills between 1980 and 2008, including 18 lions and 13 leopards.
Why do some hunters quote the bible as an excuse to trophy hunt?
It appalls people when they learn that not only are trophy hunters often torturing, prior to slaughtering, endangered species for no reason other than pride and self-aggrandizement, but they are quoting passages from the Bible as justification for their actions.
See one example HERE.
Marc Bekoff PhD – “Trophy hunting is gratuitous violence than can justifiably be called murder.”
Here are the most common biblical quotes used by trophy hunters with interpretations from a Minister of the Cloth…
Genesis 9:3 “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”
MINISTER OF THE CLOTH EXPLANATION:
This passage means precisely what it says, that everything living is food for mankind (meaning for sustenance and survival) and not that mankind by extension has carte blanche to inflict cruelty, fear and death on other living creatures for purely self-aggrandizement and perverted pleasure. Living things are given by God for survival and even then showing humanity and respect for others among God’s creatures.
Genesis 27:3 “Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me.”
MINISTER OF THE CLOTH EXPLANATION:
This passage describes Esau, Jacob’s corrupt brother who used to hunt, kill, and rape for fun. In this instance, however, his father Isaac asked him to go and catch an animal and prepare food for him as he is about to pass away and would like to bless him being the first born son.
Biblical references that support appropriate treatment and appreciation of animals appear below:
Genesis 2:15 “And God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to develop and conserve it.”
Job 35:11 “Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the fowls of heaven?”
Proverbs 12:10 “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.”
Psalm 50:10-11 “For every beast of the forest is Mine; The cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains and everything in the field is mine.”
Isiah 40:11 “Like a shepherd He will tend his flock. In his arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bossom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.”
Psalm 96:11 “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the tress of the forest will sing for joy.”
Deuteronomy 22:6-7 “If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.”