More on culling elephants

[Guest guest]

*Dear colleagues,*

* Richard Leakey in his article has this to say about culling

elephants :* * " If culling is deemed necessary, then I would personally like

to see the management authority ensure that entire families or bond groups

are removed intact to eliminate or minimize the emotional trauma to

remaining individuals, and secondly, to maintain smaller populations using

the tested and approved fertility control. " This is noteworthy. In his book,

'Wildlife Wars' Leakey speaks about herds of traumatised elephants in South

Africa that panicked as soon as they were approached by zooming helicopters

and got frightened by the rotating blades. But here his remedy for reducing

trauma is fallacious. What he is suggesting, as I understand is this: In the

normal process of culling, young calves and the remnants of the killing

become scarred and abnormal. In order to reduce that effect, the remnants

should be killed.*

* This is a suggestion that indicates that it is better for surviving

elephants of the culling fields to die than to lead a traumatic life. But I

think he misses the point that these aggrieved individuals would have been

normal and healthy had their relatives not been killed in front of their

eyes.*

* I can give a similar example of such erroneous logic. Sister Nirmala, the

head of Missionaries of Charity once said that poverty is

beautiful.Povertycan only be described as an ugly state of existence.

I fail to see how

poverty for humans, with all its concomitant pain, suffering and misery can

be described as beautiful(unless of course you want to exploit it) just as I

fail to see how death for healthy elephants could be preferable to life. But

as I mentioned in my previous email, being famous and well known is not a

guarantee against being dead wrong in your views. As Belinda Wright has

mentioned, Richard Leakey earned many admirers when he stopped the culling

process in South Africa(incidentally he also tried to clean up the

corruption ridden Kenyan politics); his support of the killing now will

doubtless lose him many. All the more tragic since rather than becoming part

of a humane solution, he has become part of the problem.*

* One could write to Richard Leakey at info and

press and express one's views on his latest position.*

* Regards and best wishes,*

**

* *