I can't shoot animals anymore, but I love going to Africa so much that I'd be willing to go with someone else who would do the shooting.
Killing in Africa is different for me than killing anywhere else. I know that's hypocritical and emotionally-based, but in Africa death and life are in constant flux and the whole place is a jungle. It would be foolish for anyone in a place like that to try to bring civilized standards. In my mind I kind of exempt it from my softer feelings which I reserve for home, but it's the wildness of the place that gives it a magnificence and grandure all its own - and there's no other place like it. The cycle and balance of life and death is part of what gives this planet its beauty, so I accept it.
Everyone should go there at least once and see what this planet used to be like in it's savage past.
There are some necessary reasons for killing elephants, which are to me some of the most intelligent and noble of all creatures. But like all of us here we all must face the issue of death. The habitats of elephants are dwindling and they face the misery of starvation in many areas if they are not culled. In some countries the culling is done by rangers who go out and shoot whole families of elephants at a time - a horrible thing to watch. In other countries they allow a certain number to be hunted, depending on conditions.
The real slaughter of elephants is not by licensed hunters but by natives who kill them with AK-47s for their ivory. Pouching is so widepread in all of Africa because of the extreme poverty that everyone lives in as well as a general attitude by the natives that wildlife has no value. In many countries in west Africa all the animals have been long since hunted to zero by the natives. When I re-located the Defense Minister of Sierra Leone to my west Austin neighborhood in 1994 he and his wife were afraid of the squirrels and deer ---- they had never seen animals like that which appeared to be wild. They were similarly afraid of oppossums, skunks, and racoons.
So much of what we do here is involved with the adventure and beauty of the making of life [procreation]. In an ironic way the taking of live is a corollary to that which isn't a contradiction, but is a compliment. I do not enjoy taking any life anymore but I do not condemn it.