Mmmm, memories of my youth.
Posted on 01/07/2008 6:02:59 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Zimbabwe unveils plans to slaughter excess elephants for dried meat
Posted : Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:24:01 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Africa (World)
Africa World News | Home
Harare/Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's parks and wildlife authority has announced plans to dry and sell elephant meat as a way of making use of the country's burgeoning elephant population, the official Herald newspaper reported Friday. The state-run body will apply to get a quota of elephants it can slaughter to make the delicacy, which is known in southern Africa as biltong.
Abbatoirs will have to be specially constructed for the purpose, according to the report.
"It is in our plans. We plan to start this year," said Morris Mtsambiwa, the director general of the authority.
"We tried it last year and we found that we did not have the proper infrastructure for the purpose," he added.
Zimbabwe's elephant population is believed to number around 100,000.
The biltong project is unlikely to have any real impact on the elephant population, according to the report.
The country would need to slaughter 6,000 beasts per year for there to be any impact on the population.
Around 500 elephants are already slaughtered each year to provide communities in areas near game parks with meat, according to the Herald.
Elephant numbers in several southern African countries, once nearly decimated by poaching, have swelled since a 1989 Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ban on international trade in ivory.
Zimbabwe and South Africa last year raised the spectre of return to the culling in a bid to curb their numbers of the mammoth creatures, as a measure of last resort.
CITES has partly relaxed the ivory trade ban for South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana.
Well, now that the elephants are in danger, the Zimbabwe situation will at last get some western media coverage. Anderson Cooper to the rescue...
“honey, would you please pass the biltong?”
Who knows, perhaps this will be, finally, the straw that breaks the media silence on the corruption there, but I sincerely doubt it.
CITES has partly relaxed the ivory trade ban for South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana.
this is probably more about Ivory than jerky.
The word “biltong” is the equivalent of “jerky” in the USA. You can have elephant biltong, or deer biltong, or gazelle biltong, etc.
Point being, I got no point, but the animal population in south Sudan exploded during the last 10 years of civil war, it’s possible that the same is happening in Zimbabwe.
Generally, when certain animals begin to be slaughtered for food their numbers increase.
That probably isn’t going to happen here.
How can there be excess, when they are on the endangered species list?
Until you reach the point of diminishing returns.
Mmmm, memories of my youth.
What do you mean?
There can be local excesses due to favorable enviromental conditions in those areas. The endangered species list is determined by worldwide populations.
When there is a less than profitable margin because of diminished numbers. Basic economics.
At the rate Mugabe is going, Zimbabwe will run out of people before it runs out of elephants.
That's an excellent point. I hadn't considered it.
What has generally happened as people began to eat an animal is that demand has increased, more of the animals were bred and raised to keep up with the demand.
For example, the Holstein cow, raised for both milk and slaughter, Angus cattle, for it’s high quality meats. The pig, sheep, and so on.
The animals weren’t eaten out of existance. In fact, being eaten for food is quite likely what saved them.
It is different here, with the interference of a mad dictator economics aren’t going to be a factor, basic survival will be.
How many elephants are left on the continent?
Shirley, you jest.
The left will turn their heads and continue to bitch about baby seals and whales. Africans want to kill elephants and sell elephant jerky? Let them, will be their attitude.
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