Here is my hypothesis as to why most trophy hunters are American

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1.wealthy inequality which leads to a lot of Americans having crazy amounts of disposable income

and

2. unfettered individualism (this belief that we don't owe the world anything, we exist to only serve ourselves).


so what's your hypothesis?

[chalmers]

1. Its a false sense of individualism

nobody has gotten to where they are on top on their own, they benefit from social programs and larger scale than the rest of us.

[jberryhill]

2. Fact not in evidence

Can you support the assertion that "most trophy hunters are American"?

I have no idea. Most people are Chinese, but Aussies and Brits certainly include a number of trophy hunters.

Certainly Brazil, for example, has greater wealth inequality and quite a lot of individualism, but not many trophy hunters.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

4. From the L.A. Times

...
"Americans are among the most bloodthirsty among citizens of the world when it comes to trophy hunting, in particular lions and elephants," said Jeff Flocken, North American regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "It’s a small group of privileged Americans. Eighty percent or more of Americans want to see endangered species protected."
...
In March, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe acknowledged that U.S. citizens make up "a disproportionately large share of foreign hunters who book trophy hunts in Africa."

...
An undesirable trend
Wildlife conservationists see what they describe as an undesirable trend.

...
According to data from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the U.S. is the world’s largest importer of African lion parts for trophies and for commercial purposes. Between 1999 and 2008, U.S. citizens claimed 64% of the international market for lion parts. The data show that number has been increasing.

[bobclark86]

5. Figures? n/t

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. The Ugly Americans. n/t

[ymetca]

3. My hypothesis is

that dentists charge WAY too friggin' much for their services!

[olddots]

6. because dentists go to Tony Robbins seminars ?

[csziggy]

8. Americans of European descent already killed of most large fauna

Both in Europe and in North America any large fauna native to those areas have already been decimated. So the only choice for the people who came from that 'heritage' to live up to their ancestors is to go to other continents to kill of their big animals.

[Cleita]

9. I think we could take care of #1 by bringing back the 90% tax rate for the

upper 2% and on down depending on how wealthy they are. I remember an old Ava Gardner movie where she was supposed to meet a Maharaja for a hunting safari and got stood up. My point is that back in those days, which was also the 90% tax rate for rich guys days, only Maharajas and only very few of them could afford to go big game hunting in Africa.

[msongs]

10. gun owners nt

[Gormy Cuss]

11. I'll agree with your hypothesis n/t

[JI7]

12. the whole gun culture thing

[restorefreedom]

13. most trophy killers,

as most climbers of mt everest, are wealthy westerners, many part of the 1%. some will not see the parallel between climbers and killers. and climbers are risking primarily their own lives (although many would argue that the sherpas most likely to die have little choice but to become guides and porters).

but there is a similarity. ego gratification, waaay too much disposable income, and the desire to conduct their chosen activities at any cost. the past two years there have been disasters in everest with many killed. some have called into question whether climbing on everest should stop. the mountain is littered with trash, used oxygen canisters, and over 200 bodies which cannot be removed. and yet the climbing continues.

wealthy 1%ers tend not to care about others, animals, or the earth. that does not necessarily apply to all climbers, many of whom are conservationists. but many are ill suited to even being there and would not but for the large sums of money they are able to pay to have a guide.

the killers of course are just vile pos. but both groups seem to have an "i have the money so i can do whatever i want" attitude.

the murder of cecil just highlights the need for a massive adjustment and correction to the wealth and income inequality in modern western (especially us) countries.

imo, if you can drop 50,000 to slaughter an innocent animal or climb a mountain where your fitness level says you don't belong while children go hungry and people go withoug heat, then you have too much money and aren't being taxed enough.

rant over.

[Igel]

17. It's a socially acceptable form of thrill seeking. nt

[restorefreedom]

18. climbing, yes

savage killing, becoming less so, it seems.

[Zorra]

14. The historically famous ones are mostly from the British Isle, mainly England.

Maybe the tradition carried over when the British invaded and colonized North america

Famous big-game hunters

Africa

WDM Bell (later known as “Karamojo” Bell), Scottish born elephant hunter[4]
P.J. Pretorius
John Henry Patterson (killed the Tsavo Man-Eaters)
Frederick Russell Burnham (Lord Roberts' Chief of Scouts in the Second Boer War and known as: England's American Scout)
Bror von Blixen-Finecke (who was, between 1914 and 1926, married to Out of Africa author Karen Blixen)
Denys Finch-Hatton (who was, after her marriage collapsed, Karen Blixen's lover)
T.R.M. Howard (civil rights leader, entrepreneur, surgeon, mentor to Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer, hunted
Maybe the US has so many today because it was settled primarily by the English, and the tradition is being carried on.

African big game in the 1960s and 1970)
John A. Hunter
Philip Percival
Frank M. "Bunny" Allen, whose safaris with Ernest Hemingway led the author to write Green Hills of Africa, True at First Light, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, and The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Theodore Roosevelt, US President who travelled and hunted in Africa following his terms in office
Frederick Selous
Peter Hathaway Capstick, American hunter who spent most of his life in Africa
Bali Mauladad, the only non-white to be admitted to the East African Professional Hunter's Association

Asia

Britain's King George V hunted in Nepal in 1911.
The fictional villain Colonel Sebastian Moran in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories is described as a reputed, highly successful big-game hunter in India, specializing in tigers.
Ibrahim of Johor who began shooting in the summer of 1897 and by 1898 killed his first tiger on foot.
Jim Corbett, author of Man-Eaters of Kumaon
Kenneth Anderson 1910–1974 Hunter and writer of Nine Maneaters And One Rogue (1954)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big-game_hunting

[smirkymonkey]

15. Interestingly enough, they are also almost primarily male.

[kwolf68]

16. though

many 'good' fathers are raising their daughters to join in the ritualistic slaughter of wildlife. its like they can't cultivate a relationship with their child unless they are killing shit. but rest assured many girls are into it (trophy hunting) these days.

[GusBob]

19. Poachers are a bigger problem in my view

There are more of them than trophy hunters. Lawless

All nationalities. For ivory Asia is thenworst