MURDER BY INVITATION: Over 45,000 people apply to win a chance to hunt and kill bisons at the Grand Canyon
This hideous exercise in trophy taking will do nothing to control bison numbers in the long-term. Nature is far cleverer than humans and has its own ways of managing populations without human intervention.
MAEVE CAMPBELL: Thousands of Americans have applied to a lottery in the hope of winning a chance of shooting bison at the Grand Canyon, Arizona. Over 45,000 applicants vied for only 12 spots advertised by the US National Park Service (NPS). They will help cull the animals after the service reported their population had become too large…
Grand Canyon National Park is reducing the size to under 200 “in order to protect park resources from the impacts of the bison population”… Officials claim that the bison had been trampling on archaeological and other resources, and spoiling the water in the North Rim area…
“Skilled volunteers” were requested to shoot and kill the bison to prevent any more environmental damage from taking place. But the event is not being classified as a hunt as it doesn’t involve what they call a fair chase. Hunting is prohibited within national parks, but the agency has the authority to kill animals that harm resources, using park staff or volunteers.
Despite the gruelling work involved (climbing to elevations of 2,438 metres and a ban on using motorised transportation to retrieve the bison) many have not been deterred from applying and the competition is fierce… The department will select 25 names through a lottery, vet them and forward finalists to the park service. The volunteers who are selected will find out on May 17…
But some environmentalists warn the cull could set a dangerous precedent in future… Bison have long been considered as skilled managers of nature’s ecosystems. The species are able to change the environment they live in through their natural behaviours. They fell trees to allow space and light in dense woodland, producing deadwood as a result that encourages insects and fungi…
No other species on Earth has declined so quickly. Several Native American tribes are working with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to grow bison numbers once again across vast grasslands under their management. Bison are still in great danger and are listed as ‘near threatened’ on the IUCN Red List. So culling the remaining few is a contentious decision…
Animal rights organisation PETA is also opposed to the bison culling, calling the event a “sponsored slaughter of magnificent, iconic animals” and likening it to trophy hunting. “This hideous exercise in trophy taking will do nothing to control bison numbers in the long-term, because such “culling” – a euphemism for killing – only causes animal populations to rebound when the loss of herd members results in a spike in the food supply.
If killing actually reduced animal populations, lethal methods wouldn’t be proposed year after year after year,” PETA’s Director Elisa Allen told Euronews Green. She concludes, “Adding to this cruel, pointless fiasco is the fact that it can be difficult for hunters to get a clear shot, causing the animals to endure violent, slow, painful deaths. Nature is far cleverer than humans and has its own ways of managing populations without human intervention. We will never achieve ecological harmony through the barrel of a gun”. SOURCE…
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