Fuck poachers, don't get me wrong, but fucking hell, I wish people had the same kind of energy when it came to billionaires, who are literally responsible for the deaths of millions of humans (by virtue of hoarding so many resources as well as creating and maintaining a system that relies on exploitation and suffering to benefit them and only them).
If only society cared about oppressed and marginalised people as much as it does about cute animals.
Society doesn’t care about cure or endangered animals
That's bullshit.
I'd agree that not enough people care, but significantly more people care about cute endangered animals than they do marginalised and oppressed human beings.
It doesn't take a study to see the difference in attitudes and engagement (though studies have been done, feel free to invest your own time looking them up).
The fact that you've responded to me to focus on the animals but not on the people my comment is actually about is a perfect illustration of my point.
While I like the idea of every poacher being neutralised, I also understand that the "poach police" may intentionally/inadvertently kill innocents with their blanket immunity; plus many poachers may be poor af hired-guns that aren't the actual source or root cause for the market, and may not dent the trade at all... Hope I'm wrong.
I also understand that the “poach police” may intentionally/inadvertently kill innocents with their blanket immunity;
Is there any evidence that that has been happening? (This article is from 2017, and it mentions "more than 20" poachers being killed in 2015, but doesn't mention any non-poachers being killed, which it seems it would have, given it's talking about the downsides.)
While I agree that taking the fight to the people financing the poaching, reducing the number of poachers - and providing a very clear disincentive for other "poor af" hired-guns to take up the mantle - could still help.
Personally, I don't think any implied sanctity of human life extends to people who are killing endangered animals for profit.
I know a well-connected resort liaison in South Africa. This is what happens on game reserves with predators/scavengers, nature has a way of cleaning up the evidence.
It is important to note here how well-indoctrinated the US and Europe are to "point the finger" and absolve responsibility...
We don't refer to stuff as "deforestation," we call it "urban planning" or "development."
We don't talk about "poaching," we just accept that farmers and the agriculture industry finds natural predators inconvenient, so we allow them to kill off coyotes, foxes, mountain lions, etc.
We have just as many people doing similar, but for some reason we're only taught to lose our minds over conservation elsewhere, in the places where the US intentionally destabilizes (with Europe) to keep prices low for us. After all, it's what our economies are built upon: ruin everywhere, so we can call ourselves the heroes for killing off indigenous folks to areas just for the crime of living and wanting things to feel fair.
Actually they tried the normal way, where they didn't shoot and asked the poachers to surrender / tried to arrest them. But the rangers would get shot and the animals would continue to get poached.
Seeing this as a problem, a new executive order / law was passed allowing shoot at sight orders at national parks / protected zones.
Poaching has reduced, the number of rangers getting shot has reduced. The number of poachers getting shot has reduced (they don't wanna fuck around anymore).
Murder is bad, but humans are the problem. And humans being stupid chaotic creatures, it often devolves in to dirty things like killing. You can say all you want about right and wrong but this is a messy situation and this is the solution they have been forced in to using, after trying the peaceful method for years
Poverty hardly justifies crime. It is a cause not a justification. They are still poachers doing illegal hunting for protected animal on protected land. Also poaching is rather lucrative, even if the government raises income 200% poaching will still stand out.
Poverty does justify crimes. When you need to eat, killing a rhino not so bad.
I hate this mentality where poverty crimes are evil but any rich guy destroying the lives of millions of people through financial schemes or to make a better profit are considered almost like good guys. This is completely fucked up.
Idk, do they? I don't think vegans care about animals' opinions (that they don't have bc they're animals)
This is about reducing unnecessary suffering. The animals you mentioned hunt out of necessity. We have alternatives that don't require hurting other beings.
How long do any of you idiots upvoting this think it'll be until these (so-called) "rangers" start selling rhino horn themselves? That is... if they haven't already and this is really just them clearing out the competition?
No. You are. This meme demonstrates how easily first-worlders will slavishly applaud fascist terrorism in the third-world as long as you wrap it up in green capitalism first.
The only thing these privatised death-squads you call "rangers" are doing is waging unrestricted warfare on impoverished brown people while (at best) doing absolutely nothing to hinder the mass-slaughter of wild life or (at worst) simply monopolizing it for their own profit - but you get your "eco-friendly" revenge-porn in exchange, so everything's cool, right?