The giraffe hunters who pay £10,000 to shoot the gentle giants with guns and bows for sport

[dipsydoodle]

GRAPHIC WARNING FOR PICTURES AT LINK BELOW.

From almost a year ago :

Tourist trophy hunters are paying thousands of pounds to go and shoot giraffes with high-powered guns and bows.

The gentle giants are loved around the world for their comical appearance and gentle nature.

Just like character 'Melman' played by Friend's-star David Schwimmer in Disney's Madagascar, they are a hit with kids who love their long necks and eyelashes.

But shocking images show how scores of big-spending men and women - and even families - travel from across the globe, some even from Britain, to kill them for sport.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089806/The-giraffe-hunters-pay-10-000-shoot-gentle-giants-guns-bows-sport.html#ixzz2oJ7tPvS2

I know what I'd do to the hunters. I think they must all be from Kent

[CurtEastPoint]

1. I just will never understand this whole 'killing' psyche. Awful people.

[spanone]

2. kill, kill, kill.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. K and R ( But what's Kent?) n/t

[dipsydoodle]

4. A county In the south east of England

whose name is occasionally used by some comedians -"anyone here from Kent : yes you look like ***ts"

[JCMach1]

5. WTF this is the equivalent of clubbing a baby seal

This is how I shoot giraffes

[Beaverhausen]

11. beautiful!!!

who the hell would shoot those gentle creatures with a gun?

[ryan_cats]

6. People hunt giraffes?

People hunt giraffes? What for, their coats?

No one can say this is a sport if they as gentle as this link says, exactly what is sporting about killing a gentle animal?

Are they not protected? Is this because they've hunted other animals to extinction and now they want to do the same thing to giraffes?

[MoonRiver]

7. Murdering bastards!

These are the same sickos who trophy hunt endangered lions and other animals. THEY should be hunted down, arrested, prosecuted and put away for a loooooong time.

[malaise]

8. Wish I could return the favor

And hunt them.

[Logical]

9. Hunters feel like that is a challenge? Really?

[DirkGently]

10. "Trophy" hunting makes no sense.

It's as though people want to be closer to some amazing animal ... and the only way they can conceive of doing that is to kill it? I can almost grasp that in the Teddy Roosevelt era, when there was no thought we were annihilating whole species, and there seemed to be some idea there was research or preservation of specimens for science or museums going on. But now?

A guy I grew up with is now fairly high up in federal law enforcement. I wondered what he was up to and Googled ... and found nothing but some African safari company's website with pictures of him grinning next to dead zebras and other exotic wildlife, holding his gun. With the guide who doubtless led him right to them, of course. I knew he was a gun guy, knew he hunted -- not my cup of tea, but I get that culture up to a point. But those images of beautiful animals, just dead, for no reason but what? Entertainment? A sense of accomplishment? What, was it hard to lift the heavy rifle and point it at an animal going about its business? Did the zebra get a gun too?

It just speaks of an attitude toward the natural world -- an ignorance and callousness -- that chills me to the bone.

What the hell is wrong with people?

[delta17]

12. I don't get it either.

I don't have a problem with hunting for food, but trophy hunting is fucked up.

[politichew]

13. Despicable. nt

[sir pball]

14. Neither noble nor defensible, but it's the only economy a lot of small African villages have.

It's an unfortunate cold reality of the situation. From firsthand experience with a family member, when an elephant is hunted in Zimbabwe, the government gets a cut of the fee, anywhere from $6-30,0000, while the village where the animal was killed gets the rest of the money as well as all the meat from the animal. It's one of their major economic sources and one the governments are perfectly happy to carry on with, since they don't need to invest in any kind of job creation, food support, infrastructure development, or much of anything besides processing a little paperwork. Cheap and easy way to keep the natives fed and paid and any of the other costs be damned.

Eliminating African trophy hunting is a process that will take loads of money, time, and effort, and sadly I don't see a lot of people really getting together to work on it. The anger and will to change is clearly there, now it's time to start acting.