Have a good day

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I feel a little bit bad for the poachers getting mauled by lions, but like?? even if they had no other option, slicing the faces off of living animals and leaving them to die (the faceless elephants/rhinos are real, look it up) is legitimately evil. Also, they could hunt something that's, you know, NOT ENDANGERED

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If you feel bad for the poachers, congrats, you're human.

But that doesn't mean they deserve your sympathy(better word?). They kill animals for sport, idiotic 'medicines' and 'support' for their families. If you don't want to get mauled to death by a lion, why would you go and shoot at it?

If they truly cared for their families, they would get a job, or not drop out of school, or actually put some EFFORT into work. I live in Africa, and we have a farm up north. We had three desert lionesses stay fir a while, and I was delighted.

But the local Zulu/Xhosa/Damar thought they would KILL THEIR CATTLE. Guess what they did. They SHOT TWO OF THEM WITHOUT PERMISSION. Even though they were on MY(Father's) LAND and were therefore MINE.

THE LOCAL POPULATION DOES NOT GIVE TWO ASSORTED F***Ks ABOUT ANY WILDLIFE. WE EVEN HAD POACHERS TRY TO KILL A KUDU ABOUT A MONTH AGO.

This is why I do a little 'victory dance' when I hear about poachers being mauled to death by lions in a farm in Zimbabwe/Angola/Botswanna(forgot which it was). THEY GET WHAT THEY DESERVE. PERIOD.

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I think the majority of humanity sucks especially the poachers. They can hunt lions and stuff when they are plentiful and not ENDANGERED. and its not fighting a lion its slaughtering them for money. It is stupid and greedy. But who am i to say that's the majority of the world, 'stupid and greedy'. And then all the endangered animals suffer from the catastrophes that we, humans, make.

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and what sympathy should i have if a man tries to kill a lion and ends up getting killed themselves. none.

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We are destroying the world and the wildlife, including lions. One day we will learn and i hope to see the day we do.

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Goodness this is a zombie thread from 2016, oof.

I can only hope that OP has gotten a bit more perspective on poaching. Yes, it is certainly tied to corruption and exploitation, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it happens and that animal populations are slaughtered. Motivations and reasoning are not excuses nor should they ever be viable as such. Evil people can have families. That doesn't mean they deserve sympathy. It doesn't mean they shouldn't face consequences for their actions. A murderer with a wife and children isn't absolved of their crimes because "noooo it'll tear their family apart and he'll go on death row." Poachers deserve what they get. They knew the risks going in.

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(Disclaimer: Trophy hunters and the smuggling rings are exempt from the following argument. Also I'm not an expert on this subject and welcome corrections if I got something wrong.)

I think a lot of this thread mistaken in assuming poachers are universally motivated by greed and sadism. Unfortunately the reality isn't nearly so simple.

Poaching hotspots are frequently plagued by political instability, war, and poor infrastructure. Smuggling rings often buy their product from impoverished locals struggling to make ends meet. Some of them are indigenous people whose way of live has been shattered by colonization and war. These people often have their livelihoods threatened by wildlife raiding their farms and killing their livestock (not to mention being personally attacked).

For many poachers "finding another job" is simply not a viable option, because job access is limited and may not pay enough to live off. We're talking about regions with limited-to-no access electricity, clean water, adequate nutrition, education, transportation, or health care.

Here's a specific example of the circumstances that foster poaching, Zimbabwe (summarized from wikipedia):
In the 2000s the infamous hyperinflation rate of the Zimbabwe dollar was so extreme that prices in shops and restaurants had to be adjusted several times a day. In 2007, poverty rates were nearly 80%, and the unemployment rate in 2009 was the highest in the world, 95%. When the Zimbabwe dollar was introduced in 1980, it had an exchange rate of 1.45 USD to 1 ZWD. When it was officially demonetized in 2015, it had an exchange rate of 1 USD to 35 quadrillion ZWD.

One partial solution is training poachers to work as gamekeepers and safari guides, providing them with a livelihood that protects wildlife instead of threatening it.
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/nov/22/zimbabwe-safari-poachers-turned-gamekeepers
(I haven't found a more recent article, so I don't know how this program worked out. If anybody has updates, please share.)

Even if the demand for things like ivory and tiger penises was eradicated, there will still be people poaching for sustenance and security. Until everybody everywhere has access to adequate resources and safety, poaching will never go away, no matter how severe the punishments are.

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This is about my opinion only!

As a person who advocates animals rights I would kill each of these animals if I lived in that culture... Don't think me cruel I'm not really... Each animal is different... Do you know anything about African heritage and what rituals they partake in!? I have studied thoroughly anyone with access to a college database can... Some of you're sourced are invalid because they aren't from an academic standpoint they're for organizations, .com is always a throw out (most of the time), .net is ok, .edu is what you need to look for, and .gov is also not feesable... Why is this!? Because if the sight is boast towards one side or the other it's just not factual... Academic sights are usually has opinions but they are required to look at they're point of view to... Now African culture you have bush meat is widely trafficked into America... Because Africans have traditions and some can't be allowed due to hunting laws... Permits help but there's hoops to jump through and what's better jumping or hunting illegally! I am against poaching in general as they usually are cruel to the animals... Like I said I'd kill any animal but I'm a stick to the laws kind of person... But through one quick painless shot... Because it's inhumane to do things while they still are alive... But they also morally as people don't see the smart animals they are... It's like a doctor's desensitized to blood and guys they're desensitized to the killing by telling themselves it's just a dumb animal what's wrong with another dead one?! Anyways I don't agree with it but you have to put yourselves in their shoes and the anti poachers before you can even begin to understand the depths of the African government and the issues they face! Granted I am not either I'm American born and haven't visited Africa yet... I don't have sources because I'm on my tablet and it's a pain in the arse to find things on here... Anyways I hope you guys have a great day/night!

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As someone with an English degree, websites CAN be legitimate sources - it all depends on where THEY get their information from. Discarding a website just because it doesn't end in .edu isn't necessary; you just need to do a bit of digging to make sure the information they provide is accurate. Most .gov websites are backed up by credible sources. I won't say all of of them are, but a very large chunk of them are.

Regardless...this post was started in 2016, so I think it just got accidentally rezzed.

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Oh sorry, I don't know how yearly event threads are supposed to work. I assumed it would get rezzed each March. Is every year supposed to get a separate thread?

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I'm honestly not 100% how it works myself, but from the looks of it, I don't think event threads such as this one are supposed to be bumped again yearly. I think maybe it was just a case of someone looking through old event threads and replying to this one? Seems like since it was posted in 2016, it was replied to again in 2018, and then a few times this year.

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Yes I know that I'm saying .com usually is disregarded (I said this already) only because if theirs not a lot of good sources out they're... Now .gov I say only because it's a political statement most likely and for the fact not what we are talking about it's not something I would look hard at... Because it's a blast opinion because it's a government owns thing (and no I don't think the government is bad) .org is an organization run thing... Again most of the time its biast... Network I hardly ever see so... All are ok for papers on what we are talking about but .edu is usually more a teaching and it has less arguing (I mean less in the way of mean out lashing to the opposing side... Look up black fish a documentary and you'll see what I'm talking about)

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Yes, I'm very familiar with Blackfish. I'm a huge fan of orca whales and their conservation, so that's a whole different conversation that I could spend forever talking about haha.

But you're right, you have to be careful of all sources! It's just a matter of looking into them and where they get their information before linking it blindly, which is a fantastic habit to practice, especially in this day and age where social media is so quick to take all articles at face value. Most .gov websites are actually credible because they are not accessible for the general public to purchase and operate - they HAVE to belong to government agencies. Of course certain ones can end up being biased, but for the most part, when it comes to animal conservation, .gov websites are fine. Likewise with .edu websites, most of those are credible, but occasionally a university will assign a .edu address to each of its students for personal use, so you should be cautious of those as well.

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Yep I've seen a lot of blogs from academic websites... Of course I known this because my aunt drilled it into my brain (she writes a crud ton of papers for her graduate school to be a psychologist so) and so I'm one of the few who actually know how to navigate the web and know what is trash, a story someone came up with, or an actual piece of fact I can use! Of course my papers make no sense until I I through them twenty times but that's it... My main point though is that the media isn't the place you want all of your facts from as they only report the big things... Or eye catching stories... At least most Of the time!

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