Issue July – September 2016 ezine

Let’s start with the negative and more extreme view. There is mounting pressure to shut down this industry. From governments, keen to please the international community, airlines pandering to their major constituents, to the naïve public who will support anything from a stranded whale on an ice floe to an elephant stuck in a mud pool. Shutting down this industry is their goal. And despite evidence, facts and empirical data to support us, there is a chance that this industry could literally shut down. Or, at the least, have to go completely underground. That’s the one end of the spectrum (and let’s be honest, we cannot ignore this possibility). Sources within the highly acclaimed Kruger National Park gave in to public pressure to discontinue the culling of elephant, despite the logic and conservation backing (and the law!). Therefore, in order to manage their population and reach the same goal, they destroyed many of the man-made waterholes, forcing elephants to die ‘naturally’ – aka die of thirst!