By Daniel Itai.
Gaborone, Botswana. (News of The South) – Yesterday Botswana held auctions for the right to hunt elephants. Seven hunting packages of 10 elephants each, confined to controlled hunting areas were issued out.
Prior to yesterday’s auction, Botswana’s former President Ian Khama placed a ban on auctioning elephants in 2014 so as to to reverse a decline in the population of wild animals.
Audrey Delsink, Africa’s wildlife Director for Humane Society said the auction was highly uncalled for.
“Hunting is not an effective long-term human-elephant mitigation tool or population control method, it’s deeply concerning and questionable,” said Delsink.
However, Alice Mmolawa spokesperson for Wildlife Botswana said hunting would help areas most impacted by human wildlife conflict.
The auction drew positive attributions with many local communities due to perceived economic benefits. Botswana is home to over 130 000 elephants, the world’s largest population.
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