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Bob, the Elephant, the Villagers

& petaT h e W h o l e S t o r y

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Anti-Gun Judges vs.The Second Amendment • BATFE Botches “Gunrunner”

www.nranews.com June 2011

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I’ll begin by saying that the basic mantra of peta is a good one—conserve wildlife, be kind to animals. Unfortunately, even though I am sure there are good and well-meaning people within peta, the organization is, as the Africans say, “for the eyes only,” and, I might add, in our society for the ears only as well. At the end of the day, what they actually do for animals, wildlife and the African elephant, in particular, is exactly zero.

At this point, I am fortunate that one of my life-mentors, Tony Makris, will carry the ball and speak to you factually about peta and politics (see sidebar here). I will stay in my comfort zone and look at the real world of elephants, elephant hunting and African conservation through the eyes of a professional hunter, naturalist, conservationist and, last but not least, one with a deep, abiding love of elephants.

I have been very fortunate over many years to meet, know and learn from some great conservationists, naturalists and animal lovers. They all have two things in common: None

Recently Bob Parsons, whom I proudly call one of us, one of the family, was vigorously attacked by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (peta) for taking the

life of an elephant. The most distilled essence of their attack was that allegedly they, peta, are animal lovers and he, Bob Parsons (below), is a wanton killer. Perhaps a look at reality will shed a very different light on the subject.

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of E L E P H A N T S and M I C E and M E N

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believe for a moment the irrational rhetoric of peta, and they are all hunters. Many of them are, indeed,

elephant hunters, and some are even “elephant-control officers.”With those last three words we touch the tip of a very real African iceberg.

Most of the historic range, the world of the elephant, is filled with people. There is no longer sufficient room for elephants; where there are thriving populations of elephants, there are usually too many elephants.

Humans of all sorts often speak of the problems of overpopulation of certain animal species. Some of the textbook cases from my wildlife management classes have to do with deer. The Kaibab herd, of long ago, is the icon; thriving population, over-population, starvation and crash, in very simple words. Arctic lemmings seem to do it on a cyclical basis, and both national and international governments and conservation agencies are currently concerned about the significant overpopulation of

snow geese. Some of the control plans for the long-term benefit of the snow geese involves very aggressive hunting practices. Deer herds, likewise, have long been kept in balance through carefully managed hunting.

If we look at these animals and the ramifications of the post-overpopulation crash, they are, in the context of elephants, very minimal. That is, if a mule deer population crashes, it tends to affect the local mule deer population and perhaps some other plant and animal species in that narrow ecosystem. If

the lemmings overpopulate, it greatly benefits the snowy owl and arctic fox for a moment. They suffer again for a short cycle when the lemming population is decimated. The overpopulated snow geese could be very harmful to their species and several others that use the over-grazed arctic nesting grounds. All of these things, lemmings aside, are to the eyes of conservationists catastrophic. But in the larger picture, they are simply a white mouse beside an elephant.

Yet, when elephants overpopulate, it is indeed catastrophic.

ELEPHANTS ARE, WITHOUT DOUBT, THE MOST AGGRESSIVE AND DESTRUCTIVE FEEDERS IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

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Elephants are, without doubt, the most aggressive and destructive feeders in the animal kingdom. They are, with all due respect to the lion, king of the jungle. When an elephant is hungry he eats, and he eats everything in the ecosystem. He eats the grass, bushes, roots, seeds and leaves on the trees, and eventually he pushes over the tree and eats most of the small limbs and all of the bark. At the end of an elephant overpopulation event, there is little left but stark, white, dead tree trunks, bare dirt and elephant dung. At the end of an elephant wreck, almost everyone and everything starves to death.

Bob Parsons Zimbabwe, Africa, March 2011

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The elephant is a wise and selective feeder; he loves human food so he seeks out gardens and cultivated

fields. Raccoons might feed from a cornfield, deer will nibble some here and there and wild hogs root and tear—these things are all troublesome, especially if your life depends on your garden. But an elephant in your garden simply means the garden is his—it is gone and you, the humble human, and your grandmother and your children starve to death.

Returning to elephant populations for a moment, we see the current “solution” to their wellbeing in today’s world. We “cull” them. This is not sport hunting, not even poaching. It is the ruthless killing of entire elephant family units.

This takes place on all sorts of land and, perhaps to your surprise, most of all within many of Africa’s national parks. It is done for a very simple purpose: to keep elephant numbers in these relatively small areas in check. It is done so the elephants and the rest of the ecosystem will survive. I have witnessed this and know several men who are saddled with this horrible task. I have seen weathered, war-hardened men cry at the end of a cull as the dust settled and the blood flowed. The elephant cull is horrible and heartrending yet essentially unavoidable. It is, as said in the book The Elephant Problem, “for their own good.”

The cull, as horrible as it is, at least in the narrow context of current history, benefits the

vast majority of elephants. However, there is another far more sinister elephant-killer at work in Africa—the poacher. This criminal element ranges from the relatively innocent bush African who kills elephants for money, to the Asian nations that buy the poached ivory, to perhaps worst of all, the highest government officials in many African countries who line their pockets with the gold paid for the illegal ivory. Poaching does not take some

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IT IS DONE FOR A VERY SIMPLE PURPOSE: TO KEEP ELEPHANT NUMBERS IN THESE RELATIVELY SMALL AREAS IN CHECK. IT IS DONE SO THE ELEPHANTS AND THE REST OF THE ECOSYSTEM WILL SURVIVE.

elephants, a few elephants or even “necessary” elephants. It ultimately takes virtually all of the elephants.

Not long ago, the wife of the president of Kenya was caught being the largest dealer of illegal ivory in the world. Some years ago when I was working in Zambia, we caught a ring of poachers with a 10-ton truckload of illegal ivory. We escorted the criminals and their loot for 14 hours to the capital city of Lusaka and turned them over to the police. However, we were not called to the trial. In fact, there never was a trial. The poachers and ivory were never heard of again. Turns out, instead of taking the criminals to prison with our rifles, we had acted as armed guards. We had unwittingly delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of dead elephants into the hands of the very government officials who had ordered the death of the elephants in the first place.

Since then, some of the government corruption has been cured, and some still goes on. But there is only one tool that can fight poaching and the corruption behind it, and perhaps even save the elephant—money.

We now come to the point of it all—Bob Parsons and the bull elephant he killed in the only grocery store that native village possessed, their cultivated field. A group of bull elephants had found the tasty sorghum field and, in short order, had flattened and consumed a good bit of it.

When destroying a village’s crops, the elephants come like ghosts in the night … five-ton, potentially deadly ghosts. If their raids on the “refrigerator” go unabated for even a few nights, the grain will all be

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gone. Again, this crop is the only food source for the village. If the crop is gone, the outlook for the

humans is very grim.The short-term solution to this problem is to have a courageous

individual with a rifle wait in the field in the black of night until the bulls arrive. Then, with the aid of a narrow spotlight beam, a single bull is killed cleanly and humanely.

I can tell you, I have had the opportunity to do this and have declined. It strikes me as courting the undertaker. The element of danger associated with declaring war on a group of elephants in a small, dark field is a bit much for me! But for those with the courage to partake, it works.

Elephants are intelligent. They know when they are not wanted and, though the lesson seems harsh, they do not return. At the end of the night, many lives—both elephant and human—are ultimately saved. Further, the death of the elephant provides several tons of meat—real protein, an exquisitely rare commodity—to the villagers. Watch the video in question (at right); the glee and delight of the people is unmistakable. They are not happy that the elephant died. They are happy because, perhaps for the first time in years, there is meat for dinner, and for many dinners to come.

There is another facet to having a man like Parsons, with his powerful, modern rifle and significant marksmanship skills, do this job. The elephant is killed quickly and humanely. Had Parsons not taken on this individual task it is still likely the elephant would have been shot with something … most likely a bit of cast iron pot leg, or hammered battery terminal fired out of an ancient muzzleloader. The end result of this is usually a wounded, angry and deadly elephant that suffers and, perhaps rightly so, takes up killing humans for revenge.

This is not the only field in Africa that is being raided by elephants, and Parsons is not the only hunter from outside Africa who defends the

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AND NO, THE AFRICANS DO NOT PAY PARSONS TO RISK HIS LIFE. RATHER, HE PAYS A PRINCELY SUM FOR THE PRIVILEGE.

fields. There are certainly hundreds of these events each year. And no, the Africans do not pay Parsons to risk his life. Rather, he pays a princely sum for the privilege.

And remember when I said money was the only tool that might save the elephant and the rest of Africa’s wildlife? Yes, these deadly elephant hunts generate vast amounts of money that goes toward game management, national parks and, most important, the fight against poaching.

So now we return to the word that I used to begin: “reality.” It is an ugly reality, one that says elephants must die so that they and humans might coexist. It is this death of elephants that peta deplores. It is this death that caused them and others to condemn Parsons.

I, like so many of our “family,” wish there were a better solution—not the ridiculous solutions proposed by peta, but realistic solutions.

I charge peta to find that solution, one that works for elephants, mice and men. peta, do not rail at men like Parsons and incite terrorism. Instead, shut up and, for once, step up—put your money where your mouth is and do something that really matters.

(Continued on next page)

HOLLYWOOD FANTASY VS. AFRICAN REALITYBy Tony Makris, Host, “Under Wild Skies” (Versus network)

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I don’t usually pay much attention to the ranting of animal “rights” activists. In their zeal to ban all hunting, everywhere, they rely on emotion, not fact, and resort to lies, not truth. They’re just not worth much mind.

But this attack against Bob Parsons is outrageous. Parsons is a friend of mine and he deserves

better. He was a steel worker, a Marine and a wounded Vietnam veteran who served his country. As an entrepreneur, he provides jobs and technology to thousands of people. As a benefactor, he gives money to good causes. Parsons is, in many ways, a great American success story. I cannot be silent in the wake of a reckless attack on his integrity.

Radical activist groups like peta want people to believe that life in Africa is like Disney’s animated feature “The Lion King,” where the leopards and warthogs frolic as hyenas and lions lounge together in the afternoon sun.

It might play in the movie theatre, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

In real-life Africa, lions and hyenas don’t get along. And if a warthog ventures near a leopard, it’s likely to become dinner. Every African creature is trying to eat something, or trying to avoid being eaten—usually at the same time.

The African people, just like all the other creatures, engage in the same life struggle every day. Villagers fight starvation with their meager crops, and suffer from the threats of malaria and aids while facing the very real threat of being killed and eaten in the bush by another of Africa’s creatures.

Sadly, peta doesn’t care about African villagers … or their crops … or the diseases that kill them. peta activists masquerade as saviors of puppies

HOLLYWOOD FANTASY VS. AFRICAN REALITYBy Tony Makris, Host, “Under Wild Skies” (Versus network)

and kittens but, in fact, theirs is a radical, militant organization that opposes virtually any solution to the real threats faced by the African people.

peta opposes virtually all medical research aimed at curing malaria and aids. peta opposes efforts to defend African crops grown by local villagers. And peta will slander and smear the good name of anyone who doesn’t fit its “Lion King” fantasy. They don’t care about the people and reality of Africa, and they don’t care about the truth.

The fact is, elephants are endangered in some parts of Africa, but are flourishing in others. While this may seem counter-intuitive to some, areas in which elephant hunting is allowed harbor greater numbers of elephants than areas in which hunting is banned. Illegal poaching is a greater threat to elephants than legitimate hunting based on scientific wildlife management.

When an elephant is taken in a crop field, the crops are safe from future trampling and total destruction. When an elephant is taken, the villagers celebrate and pick the creature clean to the bone. Almost every part of the elephant is used to better the lives of the people. Most importantly, a single elephant provides several tons of meat, a critical source of protein desperately needed by starving people.

The hunting of elephants has been justifiable and sustainable throughout the history of mankind. On virtually every continent, caves are painted with scenes of humans hunting mastodons, mammoths and pachyderms. Man has hunted these giants throughout time, and the hunting of elephants continues to be noble, for one very simple reason—hungry … people … eat … them!

peta doesn’t care about people in Africa. I do.I have hunted elephants there and I have witnessed, with my own eyes,

the sheer delight among African villagers when they divide the bounty of the hunt. I have been honored to laugh with them as they fill their bellies with meat and their hearts with the joy of life. Their joy has been my blessing as a hunter.

Now, you won’t see that in any Hollywood production. But in the real world of Africa, it’s one of the greatest shows on earth.