President Trump has temporarily suspended his administration's reversal of the Obama-era ban on the importation of elephant heads from Zimbabwe and Zambia. But the ban could be reversed at any time.
Which begs the question: who kills elephants for the fun of it, anyway?
Killing a large mammal in order to put its head in your home does not make you a man. Killing it with technology that allows you to stay a safe distance away from it actually makes you a coward.
If killing an elephant makes you feel strong or powerful, maybe you should try it mano-a-mano, with no more technology than the elephant has at its disposal. But somehow you know you wouldn't win that battle. So you give yourself a monumental advantage by using firearms against a creature that wasn't threatening you or your way of life at all.
No one in the United States is threatened by elephants. Our way of life, our liberty, and our pursuit of happiness is not threatened by the existence of elephants on another continent.
Killing animals for food is one thing, assuming they are not an endangered or vulnerable species. But no one kills an elephant so they can eat it. And elephant populations are already on the decline in Zimbabwe and parts of Zambia.
The argument that funds that trophy hunters pay for the right to hunt elephants will somehow be used to conserve the herd is laughable at best given the level of corruption and political volatility in the region. More money is generated by tourists who want to shoot pictures of elephants than by hunters who pay to kill them.
Football, soccer and lacrosse are sports. Killing is not a sport.
So to all the big game hunters out there, I say this to you: the animals you killed had more integrity and more balls than you'll ever have because they fought without the advantages money and technology provided you with.
They died because you wanted their heads to decorate the walls of your man cave. To show your buds that you are a brave and strong manly man. But you are not a man. You are just a mammal killer hiding behind powerful technology that enables you to take down a creature who could trample you to death if you were man enough to fight it without your guns.
Real men don't kill for sport.
Real men don't kill elephants for sport.
And real men don't reverse bans on the importation of elephant head trophies.
Real men fight to protect dwindling, endangered, and vulnerable animals.
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