BY JOHN NASH
The Conservative Party has detached from its foundations and is bobbing steadily towards a dangerous waterfall, much to the consternation of the captain who has discovered that abandoning well-piloted conservatism and the unfailing support of practical rural people in favour of ephemeral metropolitan popularity has led to pending disaster. Unsurprisingly, many of the invertebrates who came along for the ride are now hopping from their doomed flotsam.
While the public watches this spectacle, few notice the re-emergence of the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill 2023-24, sponsored by John Spellar MP (Labour, Warley).
It was hoped the wise and watchful Lords (thanks for reading last time) had done the necessary prophylactic pest control on this nasty plague when they rejected the bill, but it is extremely difficult to eradicate since it is spread by Eduardo Gonçalves – he who is to honesty like Chris Packham is to the shooting community. This pestilential rodent has established a breeding nest made of APPG garbage deep inside the Parliament Building. Epidemiologists predict a further outbreak of the bill on March 22nd.
We all know about the rat-nest APPG Ban Trophy Hunting, Chaired by gormless and ignorant Sir Roger Gale, the furious gimp belonging to hate-monger Gonçalves.
Gonçalves, unelected, provides many of the 70% terminological inexactitudes appearing in Parliamentary debates on the subject (Roe & Hart, quoted by Wiggin Hansard vol. 729). His prints were also all over Penny Mordaunt’s terminally disappointing anti-hunting film that was destroyed by Prof. Amy Dickman.
The Bill is nothing to do with saving animals. It’s designed to herd an unsuspecting public (and their wallets) to Goncalves’ apparently dormant private company, the financially secretive Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting (CBTH) whose prominent supporters include Packham, the hyper-hypocrite who campaigns publicly against unsustainable consumption and encourages protection of the environment even though he is a multi-millionaire eco-entertainer living in a posh house carved out of the New Forest.
Such is the deceit of these repellent rodents.
Another parasite with a straw in the trough, Protect the Wild, let slip that CBTH has been quietly occupied by another truth-origamist, acting CEO Adam Cruise. Rent-a-gob Dr Cruise is perfectly qualified to waste more of everyone’s time with his profitable AR agenda. Paid to write a nasty AR investigation by the fabulously rich, bunny-hugging FFW in Switzerland, he dutifully wrote:
“After a six-week field-investigation, complemented by a detailed literature research, it was found that trophy hunting failed to provide tangible financial benefits to local communities, did not assist with the conservation of wildlife populations and did not mitigate elephant-conflict incidences…trophy hunting continued to impoverish local communities, cause the decline in wild species and heighten human-elephant conflict situations”.
Cruise has a PhD in philosophy and it shows because his “research” had nowt to do with the real world – his head is so full of AR that it invites the rude comment by our late, great, local hero, Jethro, “May his earhole grow into an asshole and s**t all over his cardigan”.
Cruise’s tripe naturally prompted a polite but very pissed-off press release from the Botswana Government pointing out that:
“Elephant quotas in Botswana are set at a very conservative level, typically ranging from 0.04% to a maximum of 0.23% of the total huntable population. This is well below the ‘rule-of-thumb’ of 0.5% of the total population that hunting managers (including in Europe and America) generally use for wildlife off-take, and so there is no basis to the claim that the Botswana elephant quota is unsustainable nor catastrophic for the elephants…There is no scientific basis nor backing for any of the allegations that have been made in the report including the financial figures that are mentioned. The author (Cruise) has not engaged any of the CBO Boards who would have provided the financial information required for such a study. We appreciate the interest of the media and private researchers in reporting on wildlife conservation and management in Botswana but such reporting should be factual and objective. The views of both photographic and hunting industries should be brought together for balanced reporting on the benefits of the two wildlife utilisation options. Lastly, we urge the authors of such publications to consult the Department of Wildlife and National Parks as the wildlife authority in the country to facilitate informed and factual reporting”
…this is the new clown running the CBTH that runs the debate through our Parliament.
Dishonest to the core, the anti-hunting AR souls of the CBTH are also supported by a former President of Botswana, Lieutenant General Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama who, according to the Telegraph, “has called on the “unethical” House of Lords to back a new ban on trophy hunting imports”. Meanwhile, back in Botswana, his SKI Khama institute says this to the locals, “Khama’s UK trip has been misunderstood….The former President is not advocating for a ban on trophy hunting imports from Botswana… this is absolutely not correct.”
Misunderstood?
Calling on the Lords to back a ban is not advocating a ban?
This is the quality of AR evidence to make our laws?
Botswana’s The Voice reported locally thus:
“Why is he (Khama) lobbying for the ban on trophy hunting, which brings earnings to local communities, creates employment and brings income for the Batswana? We are told that Khama has a heavy interest in non-consumptive tourism. We used to hold him in high esteem, hold him like a deity, but now he is working against the Batswana national interest and that of the region”
No wonder that Khama, feted by some of the Townie rodents nesting in our Parliament, is actually an exile with a warrant for his arrest waiting at home.
What MP’s are not being told is that local Batswana are on the march about this dishonest ban in the UK, saying:
“We implore your government to carefully consider the implications of enacting the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) bill. Such a decision could have far-reaching negative consequences on wildlife populations, exacerbate human-wildlife conflicts, undermine conservation efforts, and impact the livelihoods and well-being of communities residing in wildlife areas…”
Interestingly, Protect the Wild, mentioned above, represents the next generation of AR souls for us adults to look forward to. It shares the same London accommodation address as Gonçalves and is the apparent childish brain-fart of one Robert Pownall, a 20-something vegan half-wit who believes in “speciesism”, basically meaning that he can’t tell humans from other animals and has no idea where his food or clothes come from. He started as a nauseating fifteen year old, formed Keep the Ban to hop onto the foxhunting bandwagon, and when that stayed as law, limiting donations, he changed its name to Protect the Wild, going worldwide, no doubt using his vast experience of animal hunting, conservation, farming and rural matters learned in the rolling green hills and valleys of his mother’s attic in Gravesend, the “armpit of Kent”.
Robert Pownall
From his intergalactic HQ on a portable toilet in Gravesend where he produces his best ideas, Pownall is determined to stamp out “all animal abuse globally” (don’t laugh) including all animal farming (stop it), a pretty impressive aim for someone not yet old enough for solid food. He was the adolescent klutz behind “Mini’s Law” wasting the time of 100,000 gullibles who signed his silly petition “to protect the public and animals from hunting hounds” when a pet cat in Cornwall was unfortunately deconstructed by hounds from the Western Hunt. The petition, like all AR bleedin’ nonsense, was another complete waste of Parliamentary time, thrown out because the Dangerous Dogs Act was deemed already sufficient to prosecute the hunt-master. Pownall is one to watch – responsible for many of the anti-hunting animated cartoons seen of late – his latest fictional offering apparently being voiced over by Packham, surprise, surprise. The gene pool of these cretins is not very wide.
They see the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill 2023-24 as the thin end of the wedgie they are trying to pull on all of us.
Meanwhile, Dear Readers, please allow me to expose more of the pointless and deceptive shenanigans of these AR souls in Parliament. In the real world, hunting and trophy hunting carry on because they are regulated worldwide by science and experience and have tangible benefits for rural people and wildlife with tremendous conservation dividends in Africa. The colonialist, parasitic AR souls in London will never save a single animal, even if that was their intention rather than the money and political power that they rake in with their dishonest babble.
How many animals can they save?
Over a million wild animals are killed for meat annually in Southern Africa according to the SA Govt. Biodiversity Lab Fact Pack (page 38). That volume of venison inevitably produces well over a million inedible skins and mountains of horns.
Imported hunting trophies are defined as “the legally obtained non-edible parts of wild animals personally hunted and imported by or on behalf of that hunter”. It means that none of the millions of skin and horn by-products of the SA meat industry are “hunting trophies” – they are useful commodities left over from harvesting done by local venison hunters, contractors and farmers – so what are the flatulent AR broccoli-gobblers trying to save with their AR, vegan-inspired UK hunting trophy ban?
They know they will be laughed at if they told the truth about their lettuce religion, so they make up lurid stories about evil people in other countries.
Millions of wild but dead African animals are NOT hunting trophies. They are simply dead meat and a source of tanned skins and taxidermy. What do the UK metropolitan AR souls want? To ban taxidermy too? Even in the UK, that would be somewhat pointless, since skilled UK taxidermists have access to plenty of raw material – UK game species, road kills – including over 10 million birds per year (Chris Mead/BTO), 40,000 badgers per year (British Federation of the Badger groups) and 100,000 foxes (Wild Aid), while domestic cats kill 200 million animals per year (Pirie), then there are natural causes and captive fatalities from zoos, bird parks, breeding projects, etc. The 20,000 hunting trophies taken by visiting hunters to the UK are, by comparison, a tiny but profitable fart in a thunderstorm.
Southern Africa is the same – shown below are some typical, perfectly normal by-products of the legal and organised game ranching and meat industry in South Africa, where raising wild animals is just another ranching exercise and huge numbers are harvested annually. The skulls and skins below are constantly produced, just a few of the millions that arise from ranch and concession animal management and harvesting operations – they are not from “trophy hunting”, so a ban on hunting trophy imports won’t affect them, unless you are an insane AR soul and want to ban taxidermy worldwide.
With kind permission of copyright holder
Above is a fine selection of lovely wildebeest skulls saved from being destroyed. They will become decorative items admired for years, surely a far more dignified end than being ground up into bone powder for animal feed or fertiliser. Not one of them is a “hunting trophy”. Not one. Where did these sustainable Wildebeest go? Here’s wildebeest stew.
With kind permission of copyright holder
Here is a fine pile of common impala horns before sorting out. Not one of them is a hunting trophy, either. An import ban won’t affect them. Better they are exhibited and admired whole than chopped into dog chews like UK deer antlers. They are simple trade products like leather or cow bone. The reality in Africa is impala casserole.
With kind permission of copyright holder
The same for these giraffe bones (endangered according to the AR souls, but they are not – SA ranchers can raise as many as required). Eventually they will be turned into decorations, fine carvings and knife handles, etc. Not one of them is a “hunting trophy”, but they do suggest someone has eaten a whole lot of delicious meat – ask Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall or here.
The family tanning and taxidermy company shown above probably processes four times as many commercial industry by-products as it does hunting trophies. They assure me that they could, for example, supply 500 zebra or 500 impala skins at short order, all beautifully tanned to modern high standards and as safe as any leather. None of them would be “hunting trophies”. The zebras go into the free range organic horse meat trade and the impalas into the free range, organic, low fat venison market. Should the horns and hides be thrown away?
For a wide selection of zebra, giraffe, blesbok, springbok and other skins like those above at retail, try these:
None of these animals were trophy hunted, so what are these halfwit AR souls trying to achieve in Parliament with their dishonest Hunting Trophy Import Ban, covering thousands of species, including corals, frogs, hummingbirds and jellyfish that are never hunted, and never will be hunted, while completely ignoring the by-products of 50,000 tons of venison produced in South Africa alone? Perhaps it has less to do with “saving animals” and more about prolonging their deceptive money making, pseudo-religious racket?
You are being hoodwinked, mes braves.
It is time to put a stop to this nonsense once and for all, to stop wasting valuable conservation resources and Parliamentary time on AR lies and wokery and listen to the people who actually live with and work with wildlife rather than people who rob us using wildlife.
We cannot let the frivolous UK worry-bead and sandal brigade, who are merely the innocent human shields of a horde of parasitic, money-sucking cling-ons, destroy the more serious and challenging lives of rural people and precious wildlife overseas – things really worth conserving.
There is far too much proper work to do. Please ask your MP to insist on hearing only qualified, scientific fact-based voices, to vote against the dishonest Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill 2023-24 that is not fit for any purpose whatsoever and to tell its deceitful, lying promoters to depart in a copulatory manner and take their collecting tins with them.
Rural matters in the UK and Africa are not a metropolitan playground.
The Lords saw through this racket last time and this time they just need to confirm the con with a quick call to the Inland Revenue.
John Nash grew up in West Cornwall and was a £10 pom to Johannesburg in the early 1960’s. He started well in construction project management, mainly high-rise buildings but it wasn’t really Africa, so he went bush, prospecting and trading around the murkier bits of the bottom half of the continent. Now retired back in Cornwall among all the other evil old pirates. His interests are still sustainable resources, wildlife management and the utilitarian needs of rural Africa.