Ron Thomson On Good Morning Britain - Piers Morgan Rages As Elephant Killer Tells Him I Feel Nothing

[larry4831]

Is anyone old enough to remember their mother or grandmother going into the yard, catching a chicken, wringing it's neck and cooking it? Most people nowadays don't seem to get the connection between death and dinner. Is Piers a full blown vegan?

My grandmother used to do it, grab the chicken by the neck and wring it ,that’s how they ate back then.

 

[larry4831]

I went on the Internet and it said there were 415,000 elephants left. You think someone like queers .....I’m sorry I meant Peirs would have his numbers right when he starts an argument with someone. 415,000 is a long way from 4000.

 

[Hank2211]

Once again, I get to sound like a broken record. This is yet another example of how we and the antis are talking past each other. We point to science, and they point to emotion. In this case, guess which will win most of the time?

If you have any doubt that even the best intentioned can be moved by purely emotional arguments, I suggest you look at this:

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/e5fed...hyaenas_in_the_southern_Namib_Parks_final.pdf

If the link doesn't work, it's to the most recent (May 1) Conservation Frontlines bulletin, and refers to the killing of native hyena to protect non-native feral horses in Namibia. Every scientist involved was against the decision, but even a country as well-intentioned as Namibia gave way to the emotional views of horse lovers.

We will never convince those who view the killing of individuals animals as crimes against nature, even if it is in service of conservation by any scientific yardstick. I have very little doubt that Pier Morgan - not terribly popular with the British public at the best of times - would have been seen as winning this debate outright by a strong majority of the same public.

Wish I had a solution.

 

[spike.t]

Once again, I get to sound like a broken record. This is yet another example of how we and the antis are talking past each other. We point to science, and they point to emotion. In this case, guess which will win most of the time?

If you have any doubt that even the best intentioned can be moved by purely emotional arguments, I suggest you look at this:

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/e5fed...hyaenas_in_the_southern_Namib_Parks_final.pdf

If the link doesn't work, it's to the most recent (May 1) Conservation Frontlines bulletin, and refers to the killing of native hyena to protect non-native feral horses in Namibia. Every scientist involved was against the decision, but even a country as well-intentioned as Namibia gave way to the emotional views of horse lovers.

We will never convince those who view the killing of individuals animals as crimes against nature, even if it is in service of conservation by any scientific yardstick. I have very little doubt that Pier Morgan - not terribly popular with the British public at the best of times - would have been seen as winning this debate outright by a strong majority of the same public.

Wish I had a solution.

Shoot the fkn horses....only good for lion bait anyway .........give me a hyaena over a horse anytime.......

 

[Hank2211]

I agree completely - the horses couldn't even survive where they are without supplemental feeding and watering. Nothing natural about their presence at all. But you can't suggest shooting a horse to a horse person . . . logic goes out the window. Thus my point!

 

[npm352]

I did like how the arguement went from....why.....which was explained pretty clearly why it was needed....to....but okay...well...ummm.... "I just don't like how you say that you did this.....the words offend me even if it was needed."

I do not care who is offended by how Africa conducts conservation practices. I care that many powerful people in the west interfere with it. We are so arrogant to get involved with the stuff we do.

When the Rwandan genocide was happening, the US government, after requested, declined to even fly a plane over the country to simply scramble the radio waves to help prevent a tiny portio of killing. We refused. But if it means we might save a named lion, or an elephant, we will jump in, make laws, and dive right in to that business. We are an effed up country.

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

Ron Thompson was a great man who has "been there, done it". If you have not read his books your should. We are very fortunate to operate in the area that Ron Thompson was once responsible for. I sincerely hoping that we are taking care of it in a way that he would approve of.

It has been a long time since Ron left Zimbabwe and as much as I would like to say he would be amazed at how much destruction has taken place. I cannot, because he knows exactly what is happening on the ground.

In closing I say, read Rons books, about 8 or 10 I believe and join his True Green Alliance!

 

[edward]

Ron Thompson was a great man who has "been there, done it". If you have not read his books your should. We are very fortunate to operate in the area that Ron Thompson was once responsible for. I sincerely hoping that we are taking care of it in a way that he would approve of.

It has been a long time since Ron left Zimbabwe and as much as I would like to say he would be amazed at how much destruction has taken place. I cannot, because he knows exactly what is happening on the ground.

In closing I say, read Rons books, about 8 or 10 I believe and join his True Green Alliance!

Ron is still a great man and i have joined.

 

[Andrew Robbins]

The great injustice is depicting a man that is a trained ecologist and has spent the majority of his life working in conservation as an evil and ruthless animal killer when he probably has done more for animal conservation than Piers Morgan and his gang of snowflakes combined!

 

[Von S.]

I was fortunate to have grown up in an are which you could walk out the back door and go hunting.

Unfortunately over the years the area has been over built and no more hunting. But this has not stopped deer from bumping ugly and making about a zillion new ones.

When I was a kid we had a giant vegetable garden,lawn and flower beds and God have mercy on any critter wanting to Stop for a meal.

My mother who is still alive, and about 100, had me get her a flat of pansies and I put them on the back porch.....two hours later they were chewed off to the dirt. Looking up and down the street there wasn't flowers anywhere....or young trees with leaves either......no veggie gardens either.

Too many houses.....too many deer.

And though I am by far no great white hunter, I have sent a few elephants to take a dirt nap..... Other " beloved by some" creatures as well who were not really as loveable or gentle as they might think they are, but rampaging beasts who couldn't give a fat babies ass about the humans around them.

My belief is that if these do holders really cared about the whole system......putting people on the top of the list where they belong...... Not animals.

I am a firm believer in trophy hunters and the good that they do for the almost non exsistant economy of many areas.

Let the trophy hinters pay a reasonable fee and take their trophy home to do with it what they please........ With all animals.

If the people who don't want hunting to take place they let them buy an area.....fence it in....and make Noah's Ark out of it if they please.

 

[Kenneth McMillan]

I think Piers "I have to have the last word" Morgan needs to check his facts. African Elephant populations are increasing across Africa not declining. That's according to IUCN.

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

So typical of idiots who "sit in their comfy armchairs" and know absolutely nothing about habitat and animal control. They should be made to go to the affected area and see first hand the damage these herds do to the environment.

+1

 

[Saul]

What a terrible way to conduct an interview. Piers had the opportunity to expose his audience to a different point of view from their own, an opportunity of which every journalist should take full advantage. Instead, he squandered it with petty bickering and rhetoric. He also could have taken the time to have a serious discussion about actual elephant populations and conservation efforts, or at least cited some of his sources.

I will say, though, that "I feel nothing" is not what most people want to hear about killing elephants. Whenever I take an animal's life, I do so with great sadness and respect for that animal. I have never had the opportunity to hunt elephant but I can imagine that these feelings would be even greater. Not ever hunter feels the same way but probably a lot of us do. I think that if Thomson had said something to this effect, it would have been a lot harder for Piers to attack him.

 

[Pondoro]

Me, I think Thompson was just honest when he said "I feel nothing"..

I do not "feel" more myself when I shoot elephant than say a moose....I am more adrenaline filled...but I do not get more emotional..

 

[sgt_zim]

400,000 is closer isn't it?

going completely from memory...the last "full" survey done, I believe they counted about 600K ele total in Africa. However, they were only able to survey about half of the land considered viable ele habitat, so that 1.3 million number is probably still pretty accurate.

also as I recall, there are more than 100,000 ele in Botswana alone.

boots on the ground, closer to the info than I am, may give a more accurate answer

 

[bowjijohn]

This is typical of the argument being conducted here in the UK

It has been hijacked by those with a political motive and their voice is heard above all others - partially because they are more media savvy

and partially

because they are aided and abetted by media people, musicians and comedians who have been told by their promoters that they ''need more publicity''

An easy way to get that publicity is to pretend some understanding of an emotive subject that is guaranteed to peak the interest of, and elicit an emotional response from, the general public

It is a subject very dear to my heart

Here in the UK I run ACET

African Conservation through Education and Training

It is an initiative that I have been working on for the last 2 plus years along side the owners of a reserve in Mozambique.

It takes school groups out to the reserve on educational conservation trips

Its purpose is three fold

To provide an understanding of the challenges and threats to the wildlife in Southern Africa
To raise money for conservation projects
To give attendees an authentic educational experience of the bush and an exposure to the realities of conservation in Southern Africa

These children are tomorrow's captains of industry - we need them on side

 

[Adrian]

Most people in the UK are detached from hunting and shooting. They know nothing about it and I don't expect many really care one way or the other.

Unfortunately due to the media and social media, they are being subtly brainwashed by these so called celebrities and motor mouths who have latched on to shooting animals as a way to increase their popularity and 'likes' and followers to boost their ego and profile in society.

Not one of these people actually care but oh boy!
It makes a wonderful TV interview when reasoned debate and factual discussion can be discarded into a rant and the opportunity to shout at and put people down who dare to live a different life and have a different opinion than the apparent politically correct clones our media wish us all to be.

It will be interesting to see how many of these types will step up to the plate and purchase four lots of Namibian elephants totalling 170 beasts that are put out to tender.

They are available to be sold to the highest bidder. Anyone can buy them, including the 'save the elephant' brigade.
Or, equally they could be purchased by hunters.

See below....

*Edit* Can't upload the image at the moment.

 

[Adrian]

Here is the tender.....