Leakey backing for elephant cull

[Sweetpea]

The eminent conservationist Richard Leakey has given qualified backing for South Africa's plan to cull elephants.

In an article for the BBC News website, the former head of the Kenyan Wildlife Service says culling is "a necessary part of population management".
But Dr Leakey says there is also a responsibility to curb human activities that impinge on elephant habitat.
South Africa plans to allow culling after a gap of 14 years because of growing numbers of elephants. The population is estimated to have expanded from 8,000 to 18,000 in little more than a decade.
The plan has aroused the ire of some environment and animal welfare groups.
Some are so opposed to the plan that they have called for tourist boycotts

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Leakey backing for elephant cull


While I find the abhorrent, It has to be done for the good of the species, but it does not sit well.

[poppy]

I am not sure on this one. What will happen to the Ivory, it should be destroyed but I bet it wont be.
If it is traded it will open the flood gates for poachers to kill more to sell fraudulently, and they wont be doing it humanely.
There is more to this than managing elephant numbers.

[Hekna]

I do not think there should be any cull of any description. The only reason the elephants are becoming an 'inconvenience' is because humans have encroached on thier habitats. There are so many of us now that the minute another species wants to share some space the automatic answer is to find a method of 'managing the numbers'. I think it is a disgusting suggestion.