Oh no, the big nasty zebra wanted to eat him so he had to defend himself?? Of course not! Meet Stephane Denis (click here) from Sedan in France who has helped kill off more of our wonderful wildlife here in Africa, Stephane paid his bloodmoney to Mubuyu Safaris (see Neels Louw further below)
Here Stephane was obviously so jealous of this Eland Bull he had to kill him. It will not make your horn any bigger Stephane!!!
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After seeing the post regarding Rebecca Francis on a number of Facebook pages and reading her explanation for killing the giraffe, watching her YouTube video (Giraffe Bowhunt in Africa – Eye Of The Hunter - view further down in post )and just looking at the giraffe itself, I had a number of unanswered questions that I felt needed attention.
As Rebecca is a trophy hunter and we all know by now that they will constantly feed the non-hunting community a lot of misinformation and, well to put it bluntly, nothing but lies.
Lies like “the animal was old”, “it was a threat to the rest of the herd” and so the list goes on. They love to call themselves “conservationists” but we have yet to see any of them produce any hard, viable proof to justify them using this as title. But then there is my personal favourite lie that always comes up, “the meat went to the poor and starving local villages.”
Now the fact that the animal in question was a giraffe and the fact that giraffe is unfortunately a delicacy here in South Africa, amongst both white and black people alike, I decided that this lie needs to be put to bed once and for all. So let’s analyse this so called “hunt”.
1) Giraffe hunts are in fact advertised on the internet. Rebecca paid the
rich white owner of a privately owned game farm Oom (uncle) Piet (as we will refer to him for this purpose ) in the region of $5000 to $6000 to hunt this animal. As advertised on the internet. She was never “approached to do a favour” and I’m sure she had every intention of hunting a giraffe, contrary to her statement and regardless of what she says.
2) This was a canned hunt. The giraffe in question was a Thornicroft giraffe, indigenous to northern Zambia and not South Africa. This hunt as reported by Rebecca herself, took place in the Limpopo province. So I see no other alternative but that this animal was bred for the bullet in South Africa for the sole purpose of becoming a “trophy” on someone’s wall. Nothing more nothing less. Her hunt had nothing to do with conservation, or an old “almost dead” giraffe!
3) In Rebecca’s YouTube video, one can clearly see the following that one would not see in the furthest reaches of the wild. Overhead telephone lines, chain-link fencing and a well-worn foot path. All exactly the kind of thing one would find on your common game farm. If you are not sure what a game farm is it is a farm where what normally would be “wild animals” are bred for the commercial market, whether it be for hunting, the exotic pet market, or the exotic meat market.
It remains precisely that, nothing but a farm and therefore a “business” with no ties to wildlife conservation what so ever.
Also keep in mind that the Limpopo province has a major city; it is called Polokwane (Pietersburg). Yes a major city with a population of 130,028 people, covering 1,200 square kilometres of land, Polokwane is complete with multilane highways, industry, farms, education facilities, suburbs, informal settlements, townships (which I will cover in a bit) and two, let’s say that again, 2 (two) commercial airports and a prominent tourist market.
Very far from the furthest reaches of the wild as the likes of Craig Boddington and convicted poacher Aaron Nielson will have you believe.
4) In the video there is one snap shot of the “local village”.
People! That is anything but “a local village”. That in fact is the farm workers residence, built by the farmer to house his farm workers. If that was the “local village” it would be what is referred to in South Africa as a squatter camp (informal settlement), township or rural village.
One may Google images for “informal settlements South Africa”, “townships South Africa” and “rural village South Africa” you will instantly notice the differences.
FYI, our “local villages” in the 21st century have things like cell phones, I-pads, computers, “intelligence”, etc. After all this in the 21st century and not the Stone Ages as the trophy hunters seem to think Africa is living in, just because they, the trophy hunters themselves have not evolved past the 1800’s.
5) Now the carcass - the favourite lie used by all trophy hunters! This did not go the “local community” as stated by Rebecca, or the coached response from the farmer himself in the video. In a “real life” world, giraffe meat sells at a “retail price” of around +/- ZAR400.00 (+/- $33.00) per kilogram for giraffe meat as opposed to +/- ZAR40.00 (+/- $3.00) per kilo for beef.
Do you really believe Oom Piet (Uncle Piet) is going to actually give it to the “poor starving villages” when there is more money to be made out of the carcass?
Do the math, your average giraffe weighs in at around 1,192 kg multiplied by R400.00 per kg, is equal to? That’s right, ZAR476,800.00 ($39,730.00) give or take for “waste products” such as the heart, liver, kidneys, etc. Usually sold on for dog and cat food. But keep in mind that the skin, tail and hooves are not waste products and are also sold at a premium! One can visit Meat Exporters of South Africa (http://www.gamesa.co.za/products.php.) Kindly take note of the flow chart under the heading “traceability” and you will see hunting operations are clearly defined as a source for the meat. Give it to the locals? Yeah, right!
So in conclusion, Rebecca Francis hunted this giraffe for nothing more than to kill a giraffe and put another head on her wall. She is a liar and a cheat and has no concept of what conservation is all about. She would not even be able to define the word conservation. Rebecca and other trophy hunters like her are nothing more that pathological liars, with a blood lust and no more ambition in life but to kill anything they can without any remorse or empathy.
All that matters to them is the seemingly sensual gratification they get from killing and a bigger better head than “the Joneses” have on the wall for them to brag and tell “tall tales” about with their buddies, in order to make themselves feel better in their sad, meaningless, pathetic, unaccomplished little lives.
Steve E
Steve E is a valued member of our WWNBSAH Facebook page. Thank you Steve.
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