[Jacob-list] RE: [Jacob-list]]ad for Jacob Sheep for Hunting

[Thomas Simmons]

"Is this an accepted practice with sheep to use them as hunting targets ?"

Let me put on my Economists' hat for a moment....

Hunting our sheepies may evoke negative "feelings," but managed, for-profit
hunting actually creates an opportunity for management, andn therefore,
survival, of rare or threatened breeds.  The classic case is the African
elephant.

Two decades ago, the Ivory Trade seemed to threaten the existance of the
African elephants. Eastern African nations such as Kenya and Tanzania
outlawed the hunting of elephants, and tried to keep them all in protected
"game reserves."  The western world went along with this, and many nations
banned the importation of ivory inorder to "save" the elephants.  The result
was that poaching became even more lucrative, and within 10 years the
African elephant population in the eastern african nations was 50% of what
it had been before the ban.

On the other hand, southern african nations such as Zambia and South Africa,
took the opposite approach:  instead of banning hunting, they assigned
"ownership" of the elephants to the tribal peoples on whose lands the
elephants travelled, and permitted hunting and ivory sales in spite of the
western ban.  The result wa that the various tribes "managed" the herds,
protecting nursing cows, managing the numbers hunted, and guarding against
poachers. In short, they managed the herds much as we manage our flocks.  In
the same decade that the "protected" elephants in Kenya fell by 50%, the
south african elephant herd population tripled.  Southern African nations
continue to breed and export elephants to Kenya to repopulate that nation's
herds.

In short, it often appears "horrible' that we would permit defensless sheep
to be "shot."  Yet, the creation of *economic value* in a privatized,
renewable resource just about guarantees the survival of that resource.

thom


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