I do regular mission work in Africa, Tanzania to be specific.
As such, I very much support the hunting efforts done there.
You are correct, the human population is expanding, and that is a good thing. Everyone of those people was specifically created by God, therefore God wants them to be.
In modern Africa, there are a number of nature preserves, areas where the animals are shielded from human pressure. Again, a good thing.
The problem is that nature preserves require animal management to ensure healthy populations. In a preserve, the animals cannot be allowed to breed to such an extent that they overwhelm the ability of the land to support them ( called ‘carry capacity’)
So that leaves the park management with two options. PAY someone to kill the excess animals, or sell hunting licenses and have someone PAY to do their work for them. Pretty much a ‘no brainer’, especially when the funds can be used to hire more park rangers and buy equipment to go after poachers.
On the plus side, the meat gained from legitimate hunting is generally given to the local population. That is a major plus, as the local diets are very short in protein. Contrast that to poaching, where the meat is simply left to rot.
I know quite a number of people, faithful Catholics, whose livelihood is positively impacted by the money that hunters spend. Because it is not just the hunting license fees that the hunters bring, but money spend on food, accommodations, purchasing local crafts.
So it is easy to sit here in our comfortable, Western world, and decry pictures of hunters with giraffe, lions etc… but in every effort I see to ban legitimate hunting, I see only attempts to economically hurt I lot of people that I deeply care about. And that giraffe or lion or whatever was going to be shot anyway, most likely by a park ranger, as it’s death was needed as part of scientific wildlife management.
