The mere size of the bag indicates little as to a man’s prowess as a hunter, and almost nothing as to the interest or value of his achievement.”Īpart from not wanting to judge people who lived over 100 years ago by today’s politically correct, academic-led morality, the question that probably enters a few minds is whether or not Roosevelt can be believed. ![]() We were in hunting grounds practically as good as any that have ever existed but we did not kill a tenth, nor hundredth part of what we might have killed had we been willing. “ Kermit and I kept about a dozen trophies for ourselves otherwise we shot nothing but was not used either as a museum specimen or for meat – usually for both purposes. If you consider the number of mouths they had to feed, this is not excessive, especially if you bear in mind Roosevelt’s later statement at the end of the book: The nine-month safari amounted to the equivalent of over 26 three-week hunts for Roosevelt and Kermit combined and less than one animal per day each. ![]() If you consider that the longest modern safari in Africa today is usually three weeks long and that the game offered on licence pursuant to a government set quota usually consists of one or more of whatever is available in the concession where the safari takes place, then the amount of game killed was not excessive even by modern ethical standards. In addition to myself and my son Kermit (who had entered Harvard a few months previously), the party consisted of three naturalists: Surgeon. “ On March 23, 1909, I sailed thither from New York, in charge of a scientific expedition sent by the Smithsonian, to collect birds, mammals, reptiles and plants, but especially specimens of big game, for the National Museum at Washington. As Roosevelt wrote in African Game Trails – An Account of the African Wanderings of an American Hunter-Naturalist: He also left out the object of the exercise. What Michler left out, however, was that Roosevelt and his son were accompanied by some 200 porters and camp staff, 15 askaris and three naturalists who all needed to be fed over the course of the safari and, back in 1909 when this adventure took place, there were no supermarkets en route. His son, Kermit, who accompanied him, shot 216 animals of which eight were lion, three elephant, four white rhino and three black, making 512 animals in total. In fact, Roosevelt shot 296 animals of which nine were lions, eight elephant, five white rhino and eight black. Not unexpectedly, I found that Michler could not even get right the one statistic he quoted. I have always been envious of a man who was able to spend nine months walking, riding and hunting across the unfenced majesty of probably the best wildlife habitat and wildlife areas in the world at a time when they were at or near their best, and decided to examine the above statement. I have read a number of books about Roosevelt, the former president of the United States, including one about this particular safari. Sounds shocking, doesn’t it? Five hundred animals killed by one man on a hunt, including iconic ones such as lions, elephants and rhinos? I mean, how could this be reasonable, let alone have anything to do with the conservation that hunters so often say their passion supports? Surely the man was killing for pleasure and thrills, to brag about to his friends? And who was Theodore Roosevelt anyway? Just another idle, rich colonialist and probably one of the founders of white monopoly capital? And who gave him the right to steal Africa’s natural resources anyway? Some argue that distaste for sport killing began when Theodore Roosevelt returned from East Africa in 1909 with his hunting bag of over 500 trophies, including 17 lions, 11 elephants and 20 rhino.” “ Despite being entrenched in conservation programmes, doubts around trophy hunting started a long time back. In an article by Ian Michler in Daily Maverick in May entitled Like the fossil fuel industry, trophy hunting is unsustainable, the only empirically determined, scientifically established statistic quoted in support of his repetitive, preconceived, provocative propaganda related to Theodore Roosevelts’s nine-month expedition through East Africa and into Sudan.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |