Outrage over club for hunters to kill abroad
By Xu Chi |
February 29, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A CLUB whose members, rich Chinese, travel abroad to shoot wild animals, has sparked outrage after reports it was planning a trip to Canada to shoot black bears or polar bears using rifles or bows and arrows.
The "I Love Hunting Club" is offering the trips at 500,000 yuan (US$79,377) per person.
Animal lovers across the country took to the Internet to condemn the club and its customers for damaging the environment and killing innocent animals for money.
The club, established by an American in 2007, says it provides "high-end and legal hunting services" for Chinese people. Members have to purchase hunting permits from foreign country governments to be allowed to hunt specific species in hunting grounds, according to club officials.
On the club's website, a hunting trip to Africa or North America costs from 60,000 to 500,000 yuan to cover travel, accommodation, hunting permits and other services.
So far about 100 Chinese people, mostly rich businessmen, have taken part in the club's hunting trips, and numbers are still increasing as hunting wild animals is becoming popular, a club official said.
But the scheme has caused huge waves of revulsion among animal lovers.
On popular news website 163.com, more than 37,300 people took part in a discussion about hunting with many of the 1,300-plus comments left expressing anger at what the Chinese hunters were doing.
"With 500,000 yuan in hand, they may save many scattered and poor Chinese families, but they chose to shoot down a polar bear. How ridiculous!" was one comment.
Others said they were shocked to see pictures posted by hunters showing how they shot bears and ate their claws.
A club official surnamed Huang said they feared their business might shrink due to rising online anger.
But he said its services were totally legal and approved by governments of other countries, who are actually protecting the environment by allowing hunters to shoot down over-populated animals.
"In some European countries, hunting wild animals is considered to be an elite sport," Huang said. "When the number of certain animals increases to high levels, the food chain may be affected and the ecological environment may be damaged. Hunting them down scientifically may help protect environment."
Money paid to the government may help it protect the rest of its species, Huang added.
The "I Love Hunting Club" is offering the trips at 500,000 yuan (US$79,377) per person.
Animal lovers across the country took to the Internet to condemn the club and its customers for damaging the environment and killing innocent animals for money.
The club, established by an American in 2007, says it provides "high-end and legal hunting services" for Chinese people. Members have to purchase hunting permits from foreign country governments to be allowed to hunt specific species in hunting grounds, according to club officials.
On the club's website, a hunting trip to Africa or North America costs from 60,000 to 500,000 yuan to cover travel, accommodation, hunting permits and other services.
So far about 100 Chinese people, mostly rich businessmen, have taken part in the club's hunting trips, and numbers are still increasing as hunting wild animals is becoming popular, a club official said.
But the scheme has caused huge waves of revulsion among animal lovers.
On popular news website 163.com, more than 37,300 people took part in a discussion about hunting with many of the 1,300-plus comments left expressing anger at what the Chinese hunters were doing.
"With 500,000 yuan in hand, they may save many scattered and poor Chinese families, but they chose to shoot down a polar bear. How ridiculous!" was one comment.
Others said they were shocked to see pictures posted by hunters showing how they shot bears and ate their claws.
A club official surnamed Huang said they feared their business might shrink due to rising online anger.
But he said its services were totally legal and approved by governments of other countries, who are actually protecting the environment by allowing hunters to shoot down over-populated animals.
"In some European countries, hunting wild animals is considered to be an elite sport," Huang said. "When the number of certain animals increases to high levels, the food chain may be affected and the ecological environment may be damaged. Hunting them down scientifically may help protect environment."
Money paid to the government may help it protect the rest of its species, Huang added.
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