By Gayne C. Young
Clash Daily Guest Contributor
As if machine-gunning elephants and rhinos with an AK and then removing their tusks and horns with a chainsaw wasn’t reprehensible enough, poachers in Africa are now killing vultures.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that more than 1,500 pairs of breeding vultures have been killed in South Africa in the past two decades alone.
Poachers are targeting the scavenger birds as their presence alerts authorities that something dead is on the ground. The circling birds can also be seen from miles away.
Although some of these birds were shot, most were killed with poison. In order to down as many birds at once as possible, poachers leave poisoned bread and vegetables for animals to eat.
The animals die and are immediately consumed by vultures who in turn die as well. This allows for the poaching of rhinos and elephant in that area minus a number of alerting birds.
Unfortunately, given the fact that vultures are about as easy on the eyes as the rot they eat it is extremely doubtful that the anti-hunting, vegan, animal rights groups will do much to save these critically important birds. It’s much easier to get people to care about majestic elephants than sin-ugly birds.
Oh, the hypocrisy.
Gayne C. Young is the author of the best selling books And Monkeys Threw Crap At Me: Adventures In Hunting, Fishing, And Writing and Teddy Roosevelt: Sasquatch Hunter.
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