I thought it would be interesting to hear opinion from people elsewhere in the world. In South Africa there is (and maybe soon was) a lucrative business in canned hunting: Lions bred specifically for hunting purposes, sometimes even old circus lions let loose. These lions would be shot for large amounts of dollars/pounds/euros. This has been controversial, and legislation has been brought in, with a lot of interesting arguments coming to light. Here is the report: what is your opinion?

http://cooltech.iafrica.com/features/661971.htm

We have something like that in the US. In fact, our Vice President actually shot a man in the face while doing that sort of hunting, that is, hunting animals bred for that. Birds here, mainly. With clipped wings and the like.

Personally, I find it disgusting, but not enough to make it an activist issue in my book. Popular opinion here seems to be apathy more than anything else.

They have something kinda similiar when it comes to deer hunting. They are raised for the purpose of letting people come shoot them. They are fenced into a game hunting reserve and roaming over a few acres. It's not very sportsmanlike, but these are the folks paying big dollars to be able to boast their manly kill of a large buck. And this is very, very rare.

Fisheries are a good policy. They stock streams, rivers and lakes with farm-raised catfish or trout. The reason they do so is that some types of fish actually keep trout populations low... beyond the fact they swim off. Catfish usually compete with some fish, but it isn't as bad. Bass tend to keep their numbers down in smaller bodies of water due to their aggressive feeding habits. Usually people stock their ponds with bass *OR* catfish, not usually both. Crappie and perch are popular choices as well for stocking tanks. This isn't canned, per se... but I like the idea of helping with the populations.

Usually deer populations can get too crowded for their food source and cause mass starvations. It also brings in larger predatory animals to the area. I personally don't mind the idea of wolves, bears or even mountain lions nearby. But others are kinda uncomfortable with that, understandably. Used to live where there were a couple of cougars... even a black panther. You really don't see them. And you have to look for signs they are there. Unless you lose livestock.

Let me make it clear first - I'm not opposed to hunting, with provisos. The first time I read about the canned lion hunting, I was appalled. I grew up with grandparents owning a farm, and hunting took place quite often. No-one I knew would have taken any joy out of shooting a sick circus lion just to be able to have a trophy. At least when kudu is hunted the rest of the carcass can be used as food, but nothing can be done with the lion's, except keeping the vultures happy. The entire story is about $$$, which converts to plenty ZAR.

In my opinion, these trophy hunters can rather help culling the elephants, and have a real trophy to take home.

(Before I'm the one being shot at, there are too many elephants, and they are destroying the vegetation in large areas.)