Hunting is a coward's pastime!
- Thread starter demopeng
- Start date
Unlike caribou giraffe meat isn't in high demand and rarely eaten by people in Africa.
Here are two pictures I took in northern Namibia. Both would have been legal shots due to location and time of year. You can see from the shadow and the mirror just how far away I was. I saw equally easy pot shots many times. Is this your definition of fair chase?
Hunt a cape buffalo or a kudu and you are worthy of respect. Hunt a giraffe and you're a slob hunter.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Unlike caribou giraffe meat isn't in high demand and rarely eaten by people in Africa.
Here are two pictures I took in northern Namibia. Both would have been legal shots due to location and time of year. You can see from the shadow and the mirror just how far away I was. I saw equally easy pot shots many times. Is this your definition of fair chase?
Hunt a cape buffalo or a kudu and you are worthy of respect. Hunt a giraffe and you're a slob hunter.
I've eaten giraffe bilitong, and its not bad. Perhaps your sources are mistaken. Its all fine and dandy to say that you're not interested in hunting a particular game animal, but that doesn't mean that others should be prevented from hunting them should they choose to. Given the reduced range for game in Africa, giraffe hunting sounds like it is a prudent activity.
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I've seen and eaten all kinds of biltong -- beef, kudu, ostrich, eland, springbok. oryx to name a few. I've never seen giraffe for sale or on menus anywhere not even Joe's in Windhoek. The Namibians and South Africans said they don't eat it and if one is shot the meat goes to the dogs.
Dumbass North Americans paying trophy fees and believing they are the Great White Hunter for shooting a giraffe deserve ridicule for shooting an animal that is slow, easy to see, not aggressive and not particularly wary. In the pictures above I had enough time to stop the car, take out my camera and take the pictures while the giraffe just stood there. A rifle would have made short work of them without having to get out of the car.
Not even at Joe's?!?! Wow...I guess it really isn't ever eaten.
Claybuster, who are these "people in Africa" to whom you are referring, and whose tastes and habits are so familiar to you? Are they the people with whom you deal on your business trips? Perhaps the dinner-crowd in the cities? Maybe those people don't care for giraffe...I don't really know, but I'll take your word for it. I know that the dirt-poor rural people...the ones whose existence you sneered at earlier in this thread, perhaps because they didn't have dealings with you...don't get a lot of meat of any type, and will never turn up their noses at it when it presents itself, regardless of species, origin or vintage. An earlier hunter in one camp where I stayed...oops, sorry, I guess he was a slob...had shot a giraffe and I tried some. Not delicious, but certainly edible. The staff were happy to have it.
It must be nice to see everything in such simple black-and-white, right-or-wrong yes-or-no terms as you seem to. No room for anyone else's opinions...they're not yours, so they're wrong. Is that why you travel to Africa to do business? Is it because arrogant crap like that doesn't work well in business here in Canada?
Claybuster, who are these "people in Africa" to whom you are referring, and whose tastes and habits are so familiar to you? Are they the people with whom you deal on your business trips? Perhaps the dinner-crowd in the cities? Maybe those people don't care for giraffe...I don't really know, but I'll take your word for it. I know that the dirt-poor rural people...the ones whose existence you sneered at earlier in this thread, perhaps because they didn't have dealings with you...don't get a lot of meat of any type, and will never turn up their noses at it when it presents itself, regardless of species, origin or vintage. An earlier hunter in one camp where I stayed...oops, sorry, I guess he was a slob...had shot a giraffe and I tried some. Not delicious, but certainly edible. The staff were happy to have it.
It must be nice to see everything in such simple black-and-white, right-or-wrong yes-or-no terms as you seem to. No room for anyone else's opinions...they're not yours, so they're wrong. Is that why you travel to Africa to do business? Is it because arrogant crap like that doesn't work well in business here in Canada?
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
Unlike caribou giraffe meat isn't in high demand and rarely eaten by people in Africa.
Here are two pictures I took in northern Namibia. Both would have been legal shots due to location and time of year. You can see from the shadow and the mirror just how far away I was. I saw equally easy pot shots many times. Is this your definition of fair chase?
Hunt a cape buffalo or a kudu and you are worthy of respect. Hunt a giraffe and you're a slob hunter.
Congratulations, you went to a glorified zoo. Just because the animals stand by the side of the road for people to drive past doesn't mean they do that in the wild. You understand that, don't you?
Well, the PH was in possession of a gun that could have turned the gizmo into little pieces. But he didn't.
From what the PH's testimony in court, he reported the collar to the authorities afterwards.
My time in Namibia is spent in rural areas or small towns in Oshikoto. Just passed through Windhoek to get there if your anxious for my travel itinerary. I'm sent there by a Canadian company and I've travelled there privately.
What fly-by-night hunters don't get is that the staff are happy to have anything for free. Who isn't? But giraffe is very low on their list of choices for the reasons you mentioned. They'd much rather see someone shoot more desirable meat but it's a lot tougher to shoot kudu or eland.
They will also tell you damn near anything to fulfill your Hemingway-fueled fantasies of being a Great White Hunter. "Oh yes, Bwana, we are so happy to have you here." What you are is an income source.
I know you'd like to think so and justify the slobs who shoot giraffe. The pictures were taken on roads going past private land in northern Namibia at two different times about 50 kilometers outside of Etosha.
At least the dentist who poached the lion in Zim went up against an animal that could fight back instead of a large ungainly ruminant that isn't hard to find.
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- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
The giraffe bilitong I had came from the RSA, and I was under the impression that it was sold as a commercial product. If you go to Banff, you can walk amongst herds of elk, does that mean that we shouldn't hunt elk? Your point of view is unrealistic, probably gained from your observations while on a photo safari. While on safari I turned down opportunities on zebra because I like horses, but I don't criticize hunters who want zebra, or for that matter who hunt wild horses in Alberta. Because its not my thing, doesn't mean I'm the only one with a point of view. If the hunt is conducted in a legal manner, the fees have been paid, and the trophy is properly cared for, I don't understand the problem.
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- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
You bet they're happy that foreign hunters are a source of cash. If trophy game animals had no value, the Africans would have exterminated all but the ones which they'd keep going as a source of meat. No African farmer wants an elephant trampling his crops, lions, leopards, or African wild dogs killing his stock, not to mention that the presence of these animals, in addition to buffalo, hippo, and crocs, are a daily hazard which kill people on a regular basis. The best chance that African game has comes from the atrocious fees levied against trophy hunters.
The pictures were taken while driving on a work assignment not on a photo "safari." We'd often see animals on the road and why you should never drive there at night.
What's unrealistic is believing you are a Mighty White Hunter or engaging in fair chase by shooting a large, ungainly animal that presents such an easy target and isn't high on anyone's list for dinner.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Actually the mighty white hunter is the fellow I paid to act as my guide, although these days he's called a PH rather than a white hunter as he was up til the '60s or so. The largest animal I shot while in Tanzania was a buffalo, he was walking down a sand river, and I shot from behind a curtain of grass. Why is that any different than shooting a giraffe under similar circumstances. Like I said, you can walk with elk in Banff, but that does not represent their true nature. You can see all sorts of cutesy bear photos, but that doesn't represent their true nature either. The idea that there are good animals and bad animals is not one I agree with, and to suggest that its alright to hunt an impala but not a giraffe, is just saying the same thing in a different way.
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cdn1canhunt
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- southwestern ontario
Claybuster I think we all understand you. You personally feel that a giraffe is not challenging hunt, but why would you condem another person for hunting them? If a person feels that a giraffe is a worthy animal to hunt and there is a legal and ethical way to hunt one, what difference is it than hunting some other animal?
Perhaps the hunt could be for population control or to remove and old decrepid animal from the herd? Or perhaps our "Trophy Hunter" hunts for his/her wheelchair and does not have the ability to hunt a more difficult species of game animal and giraffe would make a fantastic trophy for him/her.
What is not a trophy to you.....may be some others biggest life accomplishment. If the animal is harvested under legal, ethical, and fair chase conditions how is a person any less of a Hunter than you? The world is not black and white there is a lot of grey area to consider. Just adding some " second thought for you"
CDN 1
It is different because the buffalo is more desirable meat, presents a risk to the hunter, is a warier animal and doesn't always make for an easy shot.
You'd have a point about Banff if I'd posted pictures of giraffes in a park but the ones I posted were in the wild and could have given their location and date been legally hunted with the proper licensing.
Did you shoot a giraffe in Tanzania?
It's definitely legal. It's not fair chase or ethical. If someone's biggest life accomplishment is flying half-way around the world and spending tens of thousands to shoot a massive target that presents no risk, is slow to get up to speed and not regarded as prime eating then it must have otherwise been a fairly shallow and insignificant life.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
They weren't on my license, nor did we see any in the Selous, although we saw hundreds if not thousands in the country north of Arusha.
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- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Claybuster, no disrespect intended, but your argument against the hunting of giraffe is an emotional one, and not supported by fact. Since I know little about giraffe hunting, I turned to an authority on the subject, veterinarian and professional hunter Kevin Robertson. He considers the giraffe as worthy an opponent as any other bushveld dweller in areas where they are hunted. "Their exceptional eyesight, acute hearing, cautious disposition, and the terrain in which they're found all make approaching them a real challenge." This suggests that fair chase giraffe hunting is much more common than you suggest.
