Bushmeat Trade Wiping Out Burundi's Hippos

Hippos End Up As Steaks On Burundi Dining Tables
Patrick Nduwimana (Reuters)

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"Locals say the amphibious animals are being wiped out by soldiers who earn extra cash by selling the meat to restaurants where middle-class gourmets pay highly to tast its flesh. Experts fear the growing trade in bushmeat, which is fueled by poverty, is devastating much of Africa's wildlife.

'Soldiers kill hippos, but people fear to denounce them,' said Shabani, a fisherman. 'The operation is done early in the morning. They shoot the hippo, immediately they start cutting the meat, five minutes afterwards everything is finished, then the meat is carried in a van (to buyers).

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The army declines to comment on his allegations. But officers say privately that the killings are carried out by what they call uncontrolled elements in the army who are motivated by deepening poverty and exploit lawlessness caused by the war.

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Of the 300 hippos counted by a 1997 census in the tiny central African country, more than 100 have been exterminated, as many as 60 of them this year alone, wildlife officials."

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http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/21892/story.htm

These stupid tourists and whoever the fuck they are.

Yes, as we rich Americans, waste and shop and waste more and shop more, the poverty has become so horrific in Africa, that the Africans have resorted to killing the hippos. I can imagine that the Africans themselves arent eager to kill these hippos, but what choice do they have when we arent helping them and they have no where else to turn? Ultimately, they have to survive. This looks like one of their last natural resources, and again, leave it to Americans and Europeans to exploit that natural resource, this time through tourism.

Sad, though.

"If we do not care, the only thing that will remain in Burundi is war."

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Yet another reason why our national interest is not defined by cheap oil, but ending international conflict and promoting stability in every region of the world.