Donald Trump Jr. Celebrates Big Game Hunting

Donald Trump Jr., avid and proud big game hunter, is the antithesis of a conservationist. Yet, this is how this press release from Safari Club International begins, “Safari Club International (SCI) has made to the conservation of global wildlife. The SCI Convention, featuring a keynote address by acclaimed author and accomplished conservationist Donald Trump Jr., will be proudly held between February 5^th and 8^th in Reno, Nevada.”

And how can they defend a “need” to do this to a leopard for the sake of “conservation?” It’s only legal for people who can pay the dollars to do this. Leopard are actually endangered or threatened (depending on the species). And even if they weren’t, how can this be defended?

In addition to his keynote speech,Trump Jr reportedly also plans to sell a trophy hunting trip with him in Alaska. For $17,000, attendees of the convention can bid to hunt black-tailed deer native to the region with him, according to SCI.

Trump Jr. noted on Twitter, “I’m not going to run and hide because the peta crazies don’t like me.”

Graphic images of the Trump children celebrating their kills are readily available on this YouTube link and elsewhere on the internet.

The Safari Club release says, “Anti-hunting activists claim that the hunting industry’s ‘conservation claim is shattered’ by promotion of big game hunts at the annual convention, but overwhelming evidence from multiple independent scientific entities such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) proves this quote to be the opposite of reality. The IUCN has repeatedly published articles that prove illegal poaching and habitat loss are the largest threats to wildlife and that so-called trophy hunting provides direct benefits for the species hunted.”

This statement carries some truth as there is complexity of protecting nature when land is limited and the supposition that big game hunting is required when there is limited space for animals. However, this statement is about defense of killing rather than to find ways to solve the problems of diminishing habitats and illegal poaching. Some nations provide corridors for wildlife to travel to get to water, food and follow natural migrations. And also, an effort can be made to merely protect more habitat and additional resources to fight poaching.

Simply put, a real conservationist wants animals to live and not die.

Face of a hero, inspirational but to only those who pay attention

Instead of slash and burn, follow Dr. Jane Goodall’s examples of demonstrating to native residents how to more efficiently farm, and also the value for them of protecting their native wildlife. Goodall has demonstrated you can save animals.  And as she notes the lesson to kill and to celebrate killing as some sort of “sport” is presumably not what you want to teach young people.

The reality is that people like the Trumps make no effort to protect wildlife and take some sort of perverse joy in hunting big game, something they define as “sport” as a defense or that shooting of even endangered animals is somehow excusable. Instead, while the Trump administration is disrespecting wildlife, and continues to eradicate protections, Princes Harry and William and Price Charles in the U.K. are doing all they can to protect the future of the world’s wildlife.