By Nicky Niehaus
O
pinion – everybody has one. It’s not always a good one
but then again we all differ. I want to try to put a few
opinions that have been aired in the past few months
into one article. Hopefully, you’ll understand my opinion at the
end.
Last week a story was posted on Facebook about a man
who works for SANParks. He resides in the park and his wife
and two-and-a-half-year-old son came to visit for the weekend.
They decided to have a braai (BBQ) that night. The father went
outside to do something (it was not said what), his son followed
him and was sadly killed by a leopard. As the father turned
around on hearing his son move the leopard pounced. Park offi-
cials immediately responded and two leopards were shot – an
adult female and a younger female. At the bottom of the page
were one hundred and something comments, 90% of which read
as follows: “Sad about the little boy, but why kill two leopards?”
None of these keyboard jockeys said that they were animal
behaviour specialists or even a game ranger, so, what qualifies
them to express their opinion? Is it just because they have an
opinion and can hide behind their screen?
Case number two: At the beginning of May I walked and
stalked a warthog. I took the shot at 13 yards. On inspecting the
animal I saw that she was really old. She had almost no teeth in
her mouth. She was covered in scars and there were two fester-
ing wounds on her leg and buttocks. And there were ticks many,
many ticks. All these were signs that things were not going well.
I doubt if she would have seen August, but nonetheless I was
glad that she was removed before she had to suffer any more.
We took a few pictures and I sent some on to Stephan van
Wyk, who I buy my arrows from. Stephan kindly put my picture
on the Carbon Core Facebook page. Then some woman, whom
none of us knew, left a comment on why we had to kill and how
would I like it if shots were taken at my family and me. I had
a good mind to tell her to first do a little research and see that
I am a South African farmer, and in case she didn’t know, we
are being attacked and murdered daily. Yes, I know what it feels
OPINIONS
like when shots are being taken at you. Stephan explained to her
promptly what she needed to do.
Thirdly: Nobody, and I cannot stress this enough, NOBODY
in this world can say that they are blameless for anything. So
maybe you have never hunted or you like to be ignorant about
where your steak, pork, mutton and poultry come from. Most
of these animals are reared to be slaughtered, but boy, just don’t
shoot a wild animal – their lives are worth much more than that
of a lamb or calf.
If you use a smart device or computer to aid your cause or
eat only lettuce and tomato, you are just as guilty as someone
who hunts a lion. Your smart device uses electricity that is gen-
erated by fossil fuel, coal and diesel, or a nuclear reactor. The
components of your device are made in a plant with raw mate-
rial and the plant got the raw material from a mine. If you want
diesel you have to drill for oil, then the oil is refined into diesel.
These processes and mining areas we know are not very good
for the environment. Remember your tomato and lettuce come
in plastic bags and polystyrene punnets.
Oh, but I recycle, you might say. Well, are you sure your
recycled items are recycled? I’ve passed the landfill many times
and huge bags of plastic cool drink bottles were left there that
had to be recycled. Your lettuce was not planted in a field that
magically appeared. Natural vegetation was taken out to cre-
ate a field for planting. Many small animals and insects were
displaced because of that. But that’s not all. Now the seeds have
been sown, rabbits and birds started eating the seedlings so we
get rid of them. “Rid” in this instance can mean kill or chase
off by any means, you just don’t say “kill” because we are eco-
friendly. Insecticides and herbicides need to be sprayed so that
there will be a crop. When the soil is devoid of all its nutritional
value artificial fertilizer has to be brought in, and if it is not
used correctly what happens to the runoff when it rains?
What’s my point? Nobody is blameless. If you don’t live out
in the wild where you can plant your crops in between natu-
ral vegetation and you make clothes from fibres you get from
plants, don’t give your opinion on anything! And that’s just my
opinion. •The author with
a huge tusker he
bagged with his
bow.