Reuters: Poachers Kill 200 Elephants During Six-Week Spree in Cameroon

[tex-wyo-dem]

Reuters: Poachers Kill 200 Elephants During Six-Week Spree in Cameroon

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Poachers have killed more than 200 elephants in Cameroon in just six weeks, in a "massacre" fuelled by Asian demand for ivory.

A local government official said heavily armed poachers from Chad and Sudan had decimated the elephant population of Bouba Ndjida National Park in Cameroon's far north in a dry season killing spree.

"We are talking about a very serious case of trans-frontier poaching, involving well-armed poachers with modern weapons from Sudan and Chad who are decimating this wildlife species to make quick money from the international ivory trade," said Gambo Haman, governor of Cameroon's North region.

<Snip>

TRAFFIC has said that the spike in poaching and illegal ivory trade in Africa was a direct consequence of China's investment drive into the continent.

(Writing by David Lewis,; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=poachers-kill-200-elephants-in-came

Fuck china

[Firebrand Gary]

1. Greed will be the demise of the human race. n/t

[babylonsister]

2. This sucks so bad. nt

[TheMadMonk]

3. Their bosses maybe. The poachers themselves...

...are for the most part simply men desperate to feed their families in a world where (too many) white men STILL consider them to be sub-human.

[Nihil]

4. If they act like that then there is no argument.

People (regardless of race, colour, religion, sex) who slaughter long-lived and sentient
creatures for financial reasons *ARE* sub-human as there is nothing about such a person
that can be termed "sapiens".

Don't try playing the race card on this subject as it is TOTALLY out of order here.

[TheMadMonk]

5. And I say bullshit. The vast majority of Africa's woes can still...

...be laid at the feet of Westerners (and increasingly Asians) and the continued exploitation of the continent.

Some of the poachers may truly understand what they're doing. However, most don't have the background, education or financial security to understand anything except that elephants are animals which destroy crops and that those animals (along with a lot of others) are declared off limits by white man's fiat.

[Nihil]

6. So you missed this bit in the OP did you?

> well-armed poachers with modern weapons from Sudan and Chad who are decimating
> this wildlife species to make quick money from the international ivory trade

In other words, your "forgive the naive farmers" plea is - to use your word - bullshit.

They aren't doing it to preserve their crops (crime taking place in Cameroon, criminals coming from
Chad & Sudan).

They aren't doing it from the desperation of poverty ("heavily-armed", "modern weapons", no hint of
having to hunt to eat).

They are doing it for pure greed - for "quick money from the international ivory trade".

Save your "noble exploited savage" bullshit for someone more gullible.

[TheMadMonk]

7. You taken a look at conditions in Chad and Sudan lately?

If they're not poaching elephants in Camaroon, or Gorillas in Rwanda, they're shooting the fuck out of each other at home, or maybe just watching their kids bellies bloat ever larger with starvation.


And like a lot of other fucking subjects: the drug related masacres in Latin America; why there are more wife beatings in harsh ecconomic times; the atrocities on BOTH sides in the War on Terror (in any war); why Somalia is a hotbed of piracy. It's NOT about excusing inexcusable behaviour. It's about explaining it, and perhaps, just perhaps using that knowledge to make the world a better place.

But no: If someone else does something that people find abhorent, just hate them, declare them to be less than human, and keep on doing the things that helped make them less than human in the first place.

[Nihil]

8. So these "poor starving poachers" are walking thousands of miles to avoid shooting each other?

> If they're not poaching elephants in Camaroon, or Gorillas in Rwanda, they're
> shooting the fuck out of each other at home, or maybe just watching their kids
> bellies bloat ever larger with starvation.

Maybe we should just take away their vehicles and leave them the guns so at
least they only shoot each other?

Hey, here's an idea: save the money you're spending on "modern weapons" and
ammunition and feed your fucking kids.

Stop being a "gangsta", driving to other countries and shooting up endangered
animals for money - nothing else - not food, not water, just fucking money.


> But no: If someone else does something that people find abhorent, just
> hate them, declare them to be less than human, and keep on doing the things
> that helped make them less than human in the first place.

Hate them? Damn right. They've already shown themselves to be less than human
so I'll keep on doing things like donating to wildlife protection agencies in the hope
that it will buy enough bullets for the rangers to ensure that they can make the
world a better place by eliminating the money-grubbing scum that are wiping out
entire species for profit.

[TheMadMonk]

9. And I see where you deliberately(?) ignored the bit about not excusing...

...the inexcusable, but explaining it.

Shall we just drive the streets of America potting kids in gang colours? Shoot up Wall Street? Either behaves as evilly in their own way as poachers in Africa do.

Your "solutions" sound remarkably like the "solutions" Rush Limpballs and his odious ilk offer up for dealing with the likes of you and I.


And yet, I'll bet London to a Housebrick you absolutely oppose the DP, even for the sort of killer who is the bread and butter of shows like Criminal Minds.