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A millionaire from Texas who made his fortune in selling ranches was killed during a trophy hunt in South Africa. He was gored by a 2,000-pound Cape Buffalo that locals call ‘Black Death,’ the very same Cape Buffalo he was stalking on the hunt.
When this story broke earlier in the week, Dallas-based millionaire Asher Watkins, the Texan who lost his life while hunting abroad, become the object of derision by countless comments across the Internet. Thousands of comments across multiple posts on Reddit piled on as news emerged that a man had lost his life.
This is not a straight-forward issue. It wasn’t a human being out to commit a selfish act of murder. There is nuance to this.
Millionaire Dallas Hunter Killed By 2,000-Pound Cape Buffalo
News of Asher Watkins’ death was first shared by Coernraad Vermaak Safaris, an organizer of trophy hunting expeditions in South Africa, and the person who organized this particular hunt.
In his announcement, Vermaak wrote “This is a devastating incident and our hearts go out to his family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time. Out of respect for the family’s privacy as well as our staff members involved, we will not be sharing further details.”
Any hope for respecting the family as they grieve went out the window immediately. Asher Watkins’ widow was forced to delete a Facebook post about her husband’s death after online trolls found it an began attacking her.
When he was gored to death, Asher Watkins was tracking a 2,000-pound cape buffalo in the 50,000-acre Banbisana concession in Limpopo Province. At one point, the massive cape buffalo caught wind of him, turned on a dime, and the goring/death is believed to have occurred very quickly.
Did I mention that I am not a hunter? I feel like that is worth mentioning here. I grew up fishing but not hunting. But I recognize that hunting is a protected activity, that spreads billions of dollars in tourism around the world, and feeds countless families across the globe both directly and indirectly.
Trophy hunting in South Africa injects $130 million into the local economy each year, according to the Dallas Safari Club. They claim the average hunter spends around $10,000 in South Africa per trip, not including airfare or on the game they hunt.
What exactly are they hunting?
South Africa is home to all sorts of exotic game which trophy hunters lust after. But it is not as if they are hunting healthy animals tasked with repopulating their species.
Typically, for a guided hunt in South Africa these hunters are guided to a specific animal that is already sick or dying (due to age or natural causes) and they pay a small fortune to hunt that animal that is in all likelihood going to die in the very near future anyway. It doesn’t always work that way but that’s the gist of how it typically goes down.
This particular cape buffalo was locally famous and known as ‘Black Death.’ That alone has fanned the flames of online trolls, saying this trophy hunter got a taste of his own medicine or that the Black Death did what he did best.
The African Cape Buffalo isn’t even a threatened species. The IUCN lists it as ‘Near Threatened’ with a population of over 400,000. These animals are not at risk of extinction and population numbers are properly monitored and tracked to ensure their future survival.
Everyone has something to say
On reddit, the top comment from user silly-ad-6341 on one of the popular posts reads “All’s fair in hunting. If you die when you have a rifle that you can shoot an animal from a ostensibly safe distance that’s just a skill issue and natural selection really.”
Another top comment, from /u/past-discount-52, says “‘Unprovoked’ attack? My client the buffalo sees it differently.”
You can scroll through any of those posts on Reddit and you will see thousands of comments before you find one person talking about how trophy hunting is a nuanced issue, and how money generated from trophy hunting goes directly toward the same people who are tasked with protecting these species from poachers, maintaining the land, acting as stewards for the populations, and ensuring the species grow into healthier populations.
Instead, the vast majority of the Internet sees ‘Hunter Killed By Buffalo Named Black Death’ and want to pile on.
You can be pro-conservation and pro-trophy hunting at the same time. Those things are absolutely not mutually exclusive.
Similarly, you can be anti-trophy hunting and still have the tiniest bit of compassion for a fellow human being. And if not that person, you can at least have compassion for his widowed wife. But this is the Internet and nuance doesn’t exist, right?!
Content shared from brobible.com.