In reply to RyanOsborne:
Firstly I'm not a hunter and never intend to be.
Contrary to popular belief, concern for dwindling wildlife populations, and an enjoyment of hunting are not mutually exclusive. (I mean what will they hunt if there's no animals left.
It has been proven time and again that some populations benefit from hunting if done in the right way . It's also worth noting the huge sums of money that hunting generates for wildlife reserves which benefit the wildlife in the area as a whole.
The real problem tho isn't big game hunting. Big Game hunting involves respect for animals, being aware of how and where to shoot an animal to kill it (rather than maim it like that idiot with Cecil the Lion), it's normally got rituals involved, as well as respect for the environment and not upsetting the balance. (As always in all groups of humans, there are a small minority of utter twunts that go over the line)
Historically of course this has been a problem, but I do think human attitudes to the rest of the inhabitants of the world have vastly improved in this regard to the extent its not really a problem as the volume of hunting licenses is well controlled.
So if hunting isn't the problem what is?
Poaching and harvesting from animals in volume (especially from unsustainable small populations that can't recover) - essentially where animals are killed for profit rather than sport and the animals are shown about the same respect as a hillside being mined - Ivory poachers that kill 10s of elephants at a time, and just hack out the tusks, rhinos hunted for their horns, tigers for what ever chinese medicines want etc.
Global Human population boom - Probably the worst influence on wildlife - habitat encroachment, depleting resources, expanding and more intensive farming, burning forests, toxic waste etc
It's all very well pointing at someone like Harry and calling him duplicitous, but just look in your cupboards and you'll find plenty of products that you've bought that result in animals losing habitat and dying off. Flora - Palm oil from the ex-rainforests of Borneo, bananas from plantations in africa that previously were forests full of apes, tea and coffee from the ex-habitat of snow leopards, Jaguars and Pumas. This doesn't make you unable to have an opinion or lobby for protection for species so I'm not sure why the fact that Harry once shot a Buffalo (a farmed and high population species) prevents him campaigning to reduce human impact on wildlife?
Opinion as to whether it is right for humans to gain pleasure from hunting is an entirely different matter
Post edited at 17:26