There must be a special place in hell for these people.

This has to stop.

take out? Collateral damage?

They are not autonomous killing machines. The idea that the person flying the drone would mistake an elephant for a human is inane.

Get the poachers out on a permanent basis.

Shooting from helicopters? Can't drones be aimed at a moving target? Time to declare war on poachers.

no matter the reason. We have not even gone in for those poor young girls. We have done enough. Let other countries handle their business.

All for fucking IVORY!!!!!! Greedy materialistic assholes, every one who purchases an ivory product.

Every.

Damned.

One.

like they treat elephants.

No more Elephants. Not even in the Zoo. They will have gone into extinction.. as one of the great animals on the earth that once roamed the earth.. This is very sad.

Either pouched or died.

90% GONE.

& recommend.

Fuck poachers. May they all go to Hell.

When a poacher is caught, take them out into the park; inflict two gunshot wounds to each kneecap and throw them off the tailgate of the truck...

...let nature figure it out overnight.

Fu*k poachers.

I don't think China gets as much flak as it should for things like this, or they don't hear or care. A lot of it is for fake medical reasons that don't even work like shark fins and tiger bones, it's completely pointless and ignorant. For comparison Japan has sort of come under fire lately for the whaling and the dolphin cove thing.

really.

still a lot of people in the region who believe in 'traditional' medication..

saw something about rhino horn in Vietnam not too long ago... sick.

someone desperately needs to ship all these 'traditional' people a few truck loads of pot to use instead.

In Asian medicines the use of animal products is rare. It is used for specific reasons and not as an every day treatment. The bulk of TCM and Japanese herbal medicines are herbs, just herbs!

The amount of elephants poached and killed can not be correlated to Asian traditional medicines. This slaughter is for more than just greed. It is just the human sickness that we all struggle with as a species.

Ignorance will not stop this from happening.

Take away the customers and the poaching will stop.

Assholes, all of them!

but are there not security folks who are just as armed as the poachers?

sounds like they need more money to hire more protectors if they don't have enough to stop these incursions..

The African Wildlife Foundation uses funds to stop these poachers:


http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation

I'm sending another donation this evening.

They were anesthetizing elephants and sawing their tusks off with a chain saw only to be pouched later for the stub that remained.

Bad idea IMO.

They need to protect these animals, not maim them as they have no way to protect themselves!

Were I in power, I'd have a group of folks set aside to do just this job.

That eliminates trained eyes, ears, and armed anti-poachers on the ground. Many wish to eliminate safaris. Well, beware what you wish for.

There are many billions of dollars of Chinese development money in Africa -- and probably a little on the side for off-the-books concessions.

"Elephants massacre 68 Poachers in Congo park"

I swear I'd be willing to take them out...the poachers, that is.

And not think another thing of it.

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And I don't consider myself a violent person.

5.8 million Congolese have been killed in armed conflicts since 1998.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014821084

If you cannot for ONE minute acknowledge that the entire country is both a humanitarian and conservation disaster...

Keep imagining that you're the most progressive DUer around by making hyperbolic statements with links to prove your worthiness.

Thread about dead Congolese elephants gets dozens.

I didn't see anybody saying anything about the Congo being a humanitarian disaster; just wanting to kill poachers.

Soon there will be no elephants.

None. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

So do the math.

Elephants OTOH are completely defenseless when being gunned down by poachers in helicopters.

I think you'd also find that if there was a story about 68 helpless fishermen being gunned down by criminals in helicopters in Congo there'd be a great deal of sympathy over that situation as well.

Precisely how does concern for one necessarily deny concern for the other?

After saving his country from fascism twice. Oh well. Sic transit gloria.

They're going to be extinct.

Everything from protesting to taking up arms against those killing the innocent elephants, killers whom I detest so deeply that I cannot even come up with a name bad enough for them.

But that is done by government employees. Civilians rarely have guns because of the laws, and the governments are weak and corrupt. Too often the people are fighting insurgent forces in their own battle for survival. There is little or no control in many regions, and poachers (if they are using helicopters) may be stronger than what constitutes "government."

with big guns killing these animals just because they can. Poachers can go to hell, but at least you can understand the reason for their slaughtering their wildlife. Assholes who fly in with their high-power rifles , get run out to the plains in a jeep, spot "game" with their binoculars and shoot a beast from 100 yards away just so they can pose beside a body - that really pisses me off.

expecting a region embattled by decades of war to additionally hold back this black market tide is pointless.

making the item contraband merely increases demand to fury pitch. and desperate and amoral people will do desperate and amoral things to supply that furious demand.

you must kill the demand.

you must mock the validity of the demand for medicinal use — especially in the age of viagra and enzite and whatever else — the 'fairy tale aid for weak penises' should be ridiculed openly and repeatedly. shame works.

you must shift desire on usable mediums.

for art objects, you'd think bone from elsewhere would be just as art worthy for the carving medium. considering how much meat is eaten, there should be plenty.

you must harvest supply early and responsibly.

otherwise clip off the rhino horns and elephant tusks in a bid to at least keep them alive. no high value products to poach on them, no reason to poach them. sell those extracted products legally upon the market, removing poaching temptation early.

all this poaching is done as easy money for survival during guerrilla war. kill the demand. extract early the latent supply. watch those in it for the easy money to shift to a new target.