Argumentative Essay On Trophy Hunting

On July 1, 2015 Cecil the lion was shot and killed by Walter Palmer, an experienced big game trophy hunter from Bloomington, Minnesota. Cecil, a 13 year old male lion who resided within the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, was a local favorite and popular tourist attraction. Two local inhabitants guided and assisted Palmer in luring Cecil outside of the reserve’s boundaries and remained with Palmer as he hunted Cecil. As news of Cecil’s death spread, the enraged public began protesting and violently threatening Palmer. The illegal poaching of Cecil created a global outcry against trophy hunting and opened up a platform for debate over the issue of hunting in both illegal and legal settings. Many African countries utilize trophy hunting as

Crosmary, Cote, and Fritz analyze the benefits and complications involved with Trophy hunting in their publication, “The assessment of the role of trophy hunting in wildlife conservation”. One concern voiced in this article is that

The paper recognizes that the costs of protecting land for wildlife can be crippling to local governments and communities because competing land use options such as agriculture or urban development.

The funds provided by trophy hunting provide an economic incentive for governments and local community members to support wildlife conservation. There are 23 African countries that allow trophy hunting within their borders, generating 201 million US dollars a year in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. In order to accommodate the 18,500 international hunting clients, Sub-Saharan Africa has 1.4 million square kilometers of land have been set aside for trophy hunting. The largest trophy hunting industry is within South Africa, which generates $100 million US dollars a year and is still growing. In addition to providing a smaller income than trophy hunting, tourism often induces the increased use of fossil fuels. When tourists visit they often desire comfortable living conditions and expect conditions similar to their own home, this requires fuel for vehicles, light sources, air conditioning and heating, and other