this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

"Do you have any idea how expensive it is to maintain nature? Why won't you let us pay for it by letting rich assholes murder beautiful animals?"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Masisi attacked the German federal government, and the environment ministry in particular, led by Green minister Steffi Lemke, for seeking to ban the import of trophies despite Botswana’s overpopulation of elephants.

"We have a problem we can't control, so that should prevent you from controlling imports of dead animal parts to your country"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Damn immigrant elephants not paying taxes!!

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago

Invasive species indeed!

Is there a US National Park that could take them, I wonder? That would be a sight to behold!

Poor mountain lions would be like "WTF? Can we eat that?" and the elephants would be like "Bitch, we know REAL lions..."

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Officials from the southern African country already protested a potential U.K. ban on safari hunters importing trophies, warning in March they would send 10,000 elephants to Hyde Park in London.

So who's paying to ship these 30,000 elephants to Europe?

Because I imagine shipping one elephant would be pretty expensive and I don't think Botswana is a very wealthy country...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Because I imagine shipping one elephant would be pretty expensive and I don’t think Botswana is a very wealthy country…

Botswana is one of the best off countries in Africa.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Well off enough to ship 30,000 elephants to two European countries?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Easily.

The price for a 20ft shipping container from Africa to Europe is around €12.000 and you should be able to fit two elephants in a container. So you need around 15.000 containers, so aroung €180 million. And you'd probably get a discount for booking half a container ship.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You are ignoring everything I said about providing for the elephant's health. So I guess you're assuming they don't care if those elephants die.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

You didn't say anything about health? And I'm pretty sure you can keep an elephant alive in a container for a week.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I honestly don’t know how much it costs to transport one elephant, but it would be a lot unless you were fine with letting it die. To keep them from getting too stressed, you need to move them quickly, which means cargo plane. You have to prepare that plane for the elephant so it will remain healthy during the flight. You probably have to sedate them, which takes a huge amount of sedatives. You also have to arrange transportation to and from both airports. In the case of the threat to the British, from either Gatwick or Heathrow to Hyde Park. I don’t know how many elephants can safely fit into a cargo plane, but let’s be generous and say four.

That’s something you have to repeat 7,500 times.

I honestly don’t know that $4 billion USD would cover that.

I didn't say that in reply to you, but I did post it before you posted your reply, so it was already there when you replied.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So the elephants might be a bit "stressed" but being a box for a week won't kill them (not most of them anyway), so the plane is not needed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Stress can literally kill them. And "not most of them" sounds like not caring about them dying.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The point was to get 30.000 live elephants to Europe at a price that Botswana can afford, which, ignoring the "why" aspect, is definitly feasible. Just add a couple of extra elephants to account for the ones lost during shipping.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't see why not. I mean, it would be a colossal waste of money, but the Botswana government has a yearly budget of some 4 billion USD.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I honestly don't know how much it costs to transport one elephant, but it would be a lot unless you were fine with letting it die. To keep them from getting too stressed, you need to move them quickly, which means cargo plane. You have to prepare that plane for the elephant so it will remain healthy during the flight. You probably have to sedate them, which takes a huge amount of sedatives. You also have to arrange transportation to and from both airports. In the case of the threat to the British, from either Gatwick or Heathrow to Hyde Park. I don't know how many elephants can safely fit into a cargo plane, but let's be generous and say four.

That's something you have to repeat 7,500 times.

I honestly don't know that $4 billion USD would cover that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I'm not so sure the Botswana government cares if they die.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I mean isn't Botswana is doing pretty well for itself?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I'm guessing not well enough to transport 30,000 elephants to Europe.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 5 months ago

Botswana as a benevolent steward of the world’s wildlife is a lie. They ban the local people from subsistence hunting but invite the world’s ultra wealthy instead—even though it is the traditions of those local people who preserved those animals since prehistoric times. They now take credit while destroying the cultures who did the real work of protecting that wildlife.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/25/genocide-in-plain-sight-shooting-bushmen-from-helicopters-in-botswana/

[–] [email protected] 72 points 5 months ago

I honestly can't tell the difference between real news and satire sometimes.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi has threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany as the countries argue over the import of hunting trophies.

Masisi attacked the German federal government, and the environment ministry in particular, led by Green minister Steffi Lemke, for seeking to ban the import of trophies despite Botswana’s overpopulation of elephants.

Officials from the southern African country already protested a potential U.K. ban on safari hunters importing trophies, warning in March they would send 10,000 elephants to Hyde Park in London.

The animal rights organization PETA supports Lemke’s plans to restrict and possibly ban the import, calling trophy hunting “a hobby of rich, jaded people who have more money than morals.”

Botswana should ban trophy hunting entirely and instead rely on photo tourism to generate revenue, the spokesperson added, pointing out that living animals would do more for the country’s image.

The German Association for Animal Welfare called the government’s plans “long overdue” and shared a 2022 report with POLITICO, which argues that such hunts, in fact, exacerbate existing inequalities within society instead of diminishing them.


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