Botswana Threatens to Send 20’000 Elephants To Germany Over Western Morals

While we are still in the beginning of April, this is no joke. Botswana’s president Mokgweetsi Masisi is very upset that Germany’s environment industry wants to limit imports on trophies from hunting animals. The government of Botswana also threatened to send 10’000 elephants to London’s Hyde Park. They are not messing around (or are they?).

The TL:DR version is living with a third of the world’s elephants is trash. Having rich foreigners come and pay to shoot elephants is a very big source of income for Botswana. It is, in their opinion, a valid source of pest control. The Botswana wildlife minister let the world know that there are areas where there are more elephants than people, children literally get trampled. 

The other side of the coin we have groups like Humane Society International calling for governments to ban the import of big game trophies. Given the Western governments proceed with the bans, it represents a significant loss of revenue for Botswana. Plus more elephants. 

This is a question of Western morals and how it will affect African countries. 

The West thinks big game hunters are a threat to endangered species

Unfortunately the United States and the European Union kill a whole lot of animals every year to collect trophies. Sometimes these expeditions operate on the black market and the end result is 73 internationally protected species were hunted between 2014 and 2018. 

But the truth is one day Cecil the lion was murdered by Walter J. Palmer. Cecil was part of a long term study. One day Walter lured Cecil out of the protected area and killed him. This pissed off a lot of people in the West, particularly groups focused on animal rights. What is particularly interesting is that the Wiki article says that the folk of Zimbabwe did not care that Cecil died.

People in the West cared a lot. 

No one denies that there are people who illegally hunt animals for sport. The problem is many overlook the local benefits to legal hunting for sport.

Botswana feels that big game hunting will help control elephant populations

Botswana got so good at conservation that now they have over 130’000 elephants. They frankly have too many elephants for their population to handle. 

One of the benefits to legal hunting is that you control populations from getting out of control. When Cecil the lion passed, multiple countries made it clear that despite the optics, killing big game is good for their local population. These countries, and their people, are comfortable with allowing rich folk to pull up and hunt. 

The way the Botswana government paints it, there is a legitimate public health concern of death via wild elephants. It’s selfish that the West is enacting legislation, from a moral perspective, based around something other countries need to live with. 

I never considered that a lot of the world’s conservation efforts are dumped on the countries that host these animals. Considering we have a boar outbreak in North America, we should be grateful it’s not elephants. Imagine 20’000 elephants walking around Berlin, or Montreal. Wild. 

Animal rights activists are legislatively having an impact

Botswana is not happy at all with the state of things. If Western countries ban big trophy imports, they lose a big bag and have even more elephants to deal with. While there should be efforts made to limit poaching, is legally hunting the elephants of Botswana plaguing their nation morally wrong?

We sit here and see elephants and know they are smart, empathetic and cute. We don’t actually have elephants flipping our cars over causing damage. Most of us have not lost a loved one to a herd of elephants cruising by. I’d imagine if my livelihood was ransacked by animals, I’d feel very differently about them. 

The problem with this situation is that we in the West enjoy projecting our morals on everyone. This time, how we feel is potentially hurting other countries. 

Animals deserve to be protected

Animal rights matter. I believe poaching is wrong and there are so many stories of animal abuse that make my heart sad. At the same time, I’m very comfortable eating meat and if I’m being honest, I don’t check how the people who prepare my food treat animals. I don’t like how the world works, but I’m the same kind of hypocrite as most of us on the topic of my addiction to meat. 

The idea that Germany will save the endangered animals of the world by limiting big game hunting is noble. I think there should be international efforts to work together to deal with poaching. A really good way to deal with illegal behaviour is to provide safe legal channels for that behaviour.

If countries in Africa depend on big game hunting, and there are legal channels for it, that would protect more endangered species. If everything is illegal, the whole enterprise goes underground and becomes taboo. 

When people are already breaking the law, it’s easier to cross the line than when they are law abiding citizens. If we really want to protect endangered animals, maybe we should let people hunt the overpopulated ones. 

The West shouldn’t be telling people how to run their country

The reason the Botswana government is mad enough to threaten elephant invasions is because of the hubris behind the actions of the West. Our culture decided that killing elephants is bad under all circumstances. We did so while ignoring the pleas of people who clearly have circumstances where elephant culling is relevant.

It sounds selfish to me. Or at least another example of Western powers interfering with Africa to force their governments to play by their rules. This is being done indirectly with each country mandating behaviour from its own citizens. The decision is also being made for moral reasons with real financial impacts on other countries.While we have the right to advocate for what we believe in, it’s dangerous to impose legislation that hurts the GDP growth of another country. We wouldn’t like it if other countries were powerful enough to do that to us.

How would Botswana ship 20’000 elephants to Germany?

Botswana is landlocked and Germany is in the north of Europe. Elephants cannot be transported by planes, it has to be shipping crates. You’d need to move the entire family at once, or you’d end up with sad elephants.

Botswana would need to round up elephants and pack them up into trucks. They’d need to tranquilize them and use specialized teams to supervise them. At that point they’d need to negotiate passage through neighbouring countries. The distance by land is too far.

The shipping containers could be moved onto a ship. Here is where it gets tricky. You’d at some point have to let the elephants out of the shipping container. This would make the entire process a logistical nightmare. Load them onto a giant ship. Go 6-10 hours. Unload them. Let them roam. Reload them. They’d need to work with every single government on the coast. Perhaps they can make a Pan-African alliance to get them to Europe. Then Botswana would need to work with Spain and I’m sure the EU is going to make it difficult. End result: Spain is full of elephants intended for Germany. Some are conveniently lost along the entire West African coast. In my fantasy they go West. You could also plan a route by train, but at some point I think you’d need a boat. 

Like the Canadian truckers flowing across Canada, Germany would see this coming. They could in fact prepare to fend off the elephant invasion. 

Okay, hope you enjoyed this one.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone