Photo: Vince O’Sullivan/Flickr
Leaders in South Africa and Namibia have expressed their concerns that Delta, United and other airlines’ bans on big game trophies are going to have serious effects on both countries, effects that will extend well past the baggage carousels at their respective airports.
After the death – or murder, really – of Cecil, the world’s most famous lion who wasn’t animated in Orlando, Delta became the first airline to announce that it would no longer transport lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo trophies as freight. Eleven other carriers, including American, Emirates and Air France, also announced changes to their own policies concerning the transport of those particular animals.
But South Africa’s Ministry of Environmental Affairs says that the ban does not differentiate between animals that have been hunted legally and those that haven’t. The country is also concerned that, if hunters are not allowed to take their lions or leopards back to stuff, mount and morbidly decorate their own living rooms, then they could be less likely to hunt within the country. Hunting is a $500 million industry in South Africa, one that provides jobs and develops communities. In a statement, the Ministry said:
The decision by Delta Air Lines to enforce a blanket ban fails to distinguish between the trade in and transportation of legally acquired wildlife specimens and the illegal exploitation and trade in wildlife specimens.
Pohamba Shifeta, the Environment and Tourism Minister of Namibia, has echoed those concerns, as most of her country’s wildlife conservation agencies “depend largely on funding from trophy hunting.” Shifeta said:
If conservancy members have no income, they will abandon their role in protecting the country’s natural resources. These anti-trophy hunting campaigns are very serious as many countries are joining the chorus now. It will also be uphill for the hunter if trophies are not to be shipped.
In the United States, Alaskan hunters had expressed their own concerns about the trophy ban, wondering whether it would extend toward that state’s own big game, such as bear, moose or caribou. Alaska Airlines has confirmed that it would not be one of the carriers joining the trophy ban and emphasizing that it doesn’t typically transport the five animals that are at the center of the debate. According to the Associated Press, Kelly Vrem, a master guide and the chair of the Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board, has shrugged off the other carriers’ African trophy ban as “grandstanding,” as many hunters have their kills shipped by freight companies anyway.