The new year is well and truly on its way and the cruelty continues. Minister van Schalkwyk, (Minister of the Environment and Tourism South Africa)believes that the sort of behaviour you see in the picture at www.cannedlion.co.za/ethicalhunt.htm is acceptable. For those of us who feel that our heritage is being destroyed, by South African land owners and South African hunting operators and many overseas hunters then it is time to do something about this. I do not mean one letter. I mean that it is time to really get involved. It is time to think of every influential person, celebrity, priest, government official who you know and to approach them with requests for help to stop the killing of our wildlife. It is time to get the church involved, approach your local minister. It is time to speak to your travel agents and ask them to approach government through their tourism bodies to identify reserves and resorts, such as Pilanesburg where they hunt, so that ethical tourists may choose to avoid such facilities. It is time to expose every hunting lodge and hunting safari operator in South Africa. It is time to ask "is the resort hunting or non hunting" when you take your vacation, see
www.cannedlion.co.za/ethical-tourism/index.html. It is time to approach the airlines and petition them to ban carrying hunting rifles and trophys. Trophy hunting is deemed a sport. Killing exquisite animals is "fun". Taking a life that these hunters
have no right to take. They are destroying beauty and a gene pool that our wildlife cannot afford to lose. How dare these hunters, safari hunting operators and land owners think that our wildlife is theirs to destroy. Our wildlife heritage belongs to us all and is something we borrow from our children. If we are not prepared to get involved and get active then we will lose it all. Please forward this as far and wide as you can, lets make each letter count. Our website
www.cannedlion.co.za will draw to your attention specific clauses in the new hunting regulations which provide the loopholes for the hunters to continue business as usual.
