by Today I learned, by reading academic literature, that by engaging in trophy hunting or merely desiring to do so, I am:
- Engaging in male supremacy by seeking a trophy of my “conquest”
- Taking part in an ongoing rehearsal of Western imperialist history
- Seeking to subjugate and conquer “subhuman” (their words) indigenous peoples
- Partaking in perpetuating the racist and sexual norms of oppression and social exclusion
- A human supremacist
- Not a conservationist
- Alarming and social reprehensible
- Violating the dignity of nonhuman animals
- Entrenching my Western narrative of supremacy which is underpinned by my chauvinistic, colonialist and crudely utilitarian anthropocentric attitude.
Who would have thought I was “guilty” of all of that just for wanting to go on a once-in-a-lifetime hunting trip to Africa.
Evidently, that is the opinion of Dr. Chelsea Batavia, a postdoc fellow in the Dept of Forest Ecosystems and Society, at Oregon State University
The paper, The Elephant (Head) in the Room, can be found here.
This same lead author also thinks tsetse fly eradication is not ethically justified. This is despite almost 70 million Africans who are at risk for sleeping sickness. The disease, by the way, is fatal without treatment.
Batavia was also one of the star’s of the anti-hunting Humane Society of the US’s YouTube diatribe on trophy hunting.
At Academia.edu, I subscribe to be notified of articles about wildlife conservation, Africa, and trophy hunting. Most articles are much different but I do find it instructive to know what is going on in academia as they are teaching (supposedly) the next generation of wildlife biologists.