Poachers kill 300 Zimbabwe elephants with cyanide

[Fantastic Anarchist]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zimbabwe/10390634/Poachers-kill-300-Zimbabwe-elephants-with-cyanide.html

[cali]

1. I think I'm going to be sick.

[joeybee12]

2. There's not a hell horrible enough for these fuckers...

[malaise]

3. OMFG

Noooooooooooooooooo!

[SummerSnow]

4. I'm outraged and speechless

[Owl]

5. I hope they find the perps and execute them.

[oneshooter]

6. I was a Game Warden in Kenya for six months.

I had three Matabele Zulu and three Maasai trackers. We would track from the ground after cutting the spoor from the air. They never did like flying, almost kissed the ground when we landed. We would track them and try to arrest them, they almost always fought. The poachers knew what lay in store for them if they surrendered. Kenyan prisons are not near as nice as American ones.

As long as the Asian market exists for elephant ivory and rhino horn there will be poachers willing to risk it all to sell to them. I really don't know of any way to fully stop the poaching. An honest goverment and a shit pot of money would be a big help.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

7. How do we eliminate demand?

[oneshooter]

8. To be painfully honest with you

I don't know.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. Strengthening CITES might be a good first step

Nearly every country in the world is a signatory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CITES

[LeftyMom]

11. End the legal ivory trade.

Right now it's easy to gin up some paperwork that says a shipment comes from legal stocks.

[flvegan]

12. Seriously?

Did you see "flvegan's Blackwater..." post below?

"Legal", illegal...fuck them. You poach, you die. Next? What?

I'm totally getting a talking to here.

[LeftyMom]

14. That doesn't really solve the systemic problem.

I neglected to say that some demand reduction via education could also be very helpful, especially if reigious leaders could be brought on board (a tremendous share of ivory products are religious symbols and statuary.) Im normally cynical about that sort of thing, as you know, but news of the dramatic reduction in shark fin sales in China after a concerted public education campaign have shifted my opinion slightly.

To the significant extent that front line poachers are desparate and desparate people are in nearly infinite supply, going after the buyers, smugglers and craftspeople all make more sense in the long run. But the end goal has to be the elimination of the market via education and the end of the smuggling and laundering of the illegal ivory via a loophole free ban and the end of legal ivory schemes.

Wait, am I being the less radical one? I'll go check my temperature.

[Duppers]

15. there should be no such thing ..

As "legal stock"!

Put birth control in human drinking water there.

Kicking this thread.

[flvegan]

9. flvegan's Blackwater is just one Powerball win or serious donor away.

In 12 months, no more asshole human poachers. Too dead, or too afraid to be dead.

Poachers...Go fuck yourself.

[cliffordu]

13. Just what I was thinking.

Loads of dudes out there with heavy tracking and ambush skills.
Always leave one alive to tell his buddies.
Kinda like Kaizer Soze

[oneshooter]

19. The reason that I am no longer working in Kenya

is that the government decided that a white Ranger shooting black poachers is not "proper", as they put it. I was given a months pay in leu of notice.

The money made travels up to the Ministry level, and there is a lot of it.

[a la izquierda]

17. +1000

Scum of the earth

[Fantastic Anarchist]

18. You know, I can't disagree ...

And it is self-defense. They are killing off an entire species, which of course could have ripple effects.

[Judi Lynn]

16. What a shame the animals have to pay for someone's greed.

The people harboring the lethal weakness for ivory should have to pay the price themselves for their moral depravity.

NOTHING taken at this expense should be honored anywhere.

[MoonRiver]

20. The rage, pain and absolute horror I feel right now is beyond description.

I could type every smilie available and it wouldn't even begin to express what is going on in my mind and heart. Shoot every poacher on sight is one fairly easy solution. More control on how ivory is transported is another. Put some kind of screws to the Chinese who buy this stuff is another.

[derby378]

21. I am absolutely fucking livid right now

Please, someone talk me down.

[MoonRiver]

22. I just went off on a rant to my husband about this.

He understands but we're all so f'n helpless to do anything!!

[Fantastic Anarchist]

23. Me too.

Me too.

[undeterred]

24. Obama is actually lending surveillance drones to some African countries

to aid in protecting rhinos and elephants. The drones can see everywhere.

But cutting off demand, and illegalizing transport are important too.