Poachers kill 11 elephants in Kenya

Irishtimes ^

[chessplayer]

Poachers killed a family of 11 elephants in the biggest single mass shooting of the animals on record in Kenya, wildlife officials said today.

A gang of about 10 attackers hacked off the elephants' tusks in Tsavo East National Park on Saturday, officials said - the latest sign of a resurgence of mostly Asian demand for ivory jewellery and ornaments.

"The entire family of 11 elephants have been confirmed poached and tusks chopped off. All the carcasses had bullet wounds," the service said in a statement.

[chessplayer]

Sad to think about the elephants seeing their family members being gunned down before they themselves were killed. Poachers need to be killed on the spot,,,no trial, no jail, no nothing. Just fill them with bullets or hack them to death with machetes. And it's always mostly the Asian countries that drive poaching. And there is no reasoning with them, so thats why the poachers have to be targeted and killed.

[deadrock]

It is important to let the skulls rot 5 days to enable the tusk to release. Time isn’t a luxary for poachers so my guess they left a fifth of each tusk behind.

[Veggie Todd]

Wow! This is terrible news! Hope it doesn’t ruin my appetite as I sit down to eat my bacon cheeseburger.

[umgud]

Poachers need to be killed on the spot,,,no trial, no jail, no nothing. Just fill them with bullets or hack them to death with machetes.

I agree completely.

[doorgunner69]

Rhodesia used to have a cool ad saying something like "Rhodesia is ready when you are".

Ooooh, militaristic and anti-black, can't have that now. But what if Kenya got serious about stopping the poachers. Might find a few souls that would happily protect elephants from two legged savages.

Greenpeace and all those fur lovers are so passionate about saving animals, so do something other than throwing red paint on some rich bitch!

Oooh, that might be racist to suggest doing anything against a protected race............

[chrisinoc]

When I was in Kenya and Tanzania on safari in 2003, the newspaper mentioned encounters with poachers almost every day. People there despise poachers.

I will take a guess and they are former Somali pirates, they are ethnically related to many Kenyans so they blend in the population.

[Aria]

Bastards. I wouldn’t EVER buy anything containing ivory. The UN ought to do something useful for a change and outlaw the ivory trade. HA...like that’ll ever happen...

[BwanaNdege]

Back in 1980, I visited with a Texas millionaire transplanted to Kenya. He had a huge ranch and his own force of game wardens. His ranch had more elephants & rhino than it could sustain, so he offered some them to the Kenya Wildlife Service.

“Thanks, but no thanks”, was their reply, “we could not keep them safe from poachers”.

[Arthurio]

Odingo obama’s fellow countrymen in action

[tumblindice]

You know the nice thing about elephant hunting, they’re so dam big you don’t have to be a good shot.
I bought this wallet from that pricey Kraut catalog, Hammlecher-Schlemmer or something: $600.00.
It was made from a bull elephant’s foreskin. Man was my wife mad!
But I showed her that if you rubbed it just right, it turned into a garment bag. So it was all good.

[Glennb51]

I was on safari in Zimbabwe in 2001. Every time we got on a herd of cape buffalo, we had to divertbecause of all the elephants. My PH told me that sometimes the Zimm government pays to have whole herds of elephants killed because the carrying capacity of the land could not sustain that many elephants.

On another note, we heard shots in the concession we were hunting. The PH said that if those were poachers. we were going to shoot everyone of them. Apparently there is an open license on poachers.

He also explained that the reason there were so much wildlife in Zim was because the animals had an economic value. Hence, everyone in the country had a reason to ensure their survival. Kenya has outlawed hunting for some years. There is no money for games scouts or wardens to patrol for the poachers, so the poachers have free rein. There is less than 10 per cent of the wildlife in Kenya since the hunting ban.

[Secret Agent Man]

i pretty much agree on how to handle the poachers. we’re not talking about survival kills, or hunting plentiful game here.

[Ouchthatonehurt]

...and so the elephant’s death certificates will be registered in the State of Hawaii, yes?

[TexasTransplant]

If Obama had a Son...

TT

[youngidiot]

Is the removal of tusk fatal? Has anyone ever tried putting the animal to sleep and then removing the tusk? I’m just curious.

[DH]

All the carcasses had bullet wounds

---

Duh! You think so? What amazing reporting and analytical skills the reporter has.

[Hot Tabasco]

I have a friend who has been on several major hunting trips to Africa. The logistics, licenses and costs is astronomical.........On his last one I think he said it was a month long.

Anyway, he took tons of pictures each trip and hosted a slide show at the local grade school for the kids there........It was very educational for the kids.

What's funny is that particular year, when Marty headed to Africa, his wife went her own way to Alaska for a cariboo hunt......

[Hot Tabasco]

Has anyone ever tried putting the animal to sleep and then removing the tusk?

I've thought about that too. That could be a deterrent to poachers.......

[Rannug]

I believe there is an international ban on trading and using ivory.

[CatherineofAragon]

I agree with you. I’ve been an animal lover all my life, and I have no problem with hunting for food and hunting deer in the fall. While I wouldn’t want to do it myself, I understand that the PETA idiots who scream about it are clueless that an end to hunting means deer dying slow deaths due to starvation.

But killing elephants for ivory and cats for fur coats, that sort of thing? I despise it and I wouldn’t give a damn if the people who do it end up dead. If that makes me an animal nut and takes points away from my conservatism, so be it.