Canned hunting ranches in Texas

[Catherine]

Canned hunting ranches are places where people pay to kill a captive, usually exotic animal.  This article is a detailed description of one such hunting ranch.
It is interesting and troubling, but it is worth reading. The owners of the ranch itself are not so easy to understand. They care about the animals, but many of them have a price. For that price anyone can kill the animal. The whole idea of the ranch is troubling.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021...aroo-zebra

What I find most disturbing is the people who pay to kill an animal.  They pay thousands of dollars to kill a caged animal. That hardly makes them hunters. 
I wouldn't want to know someone like that. The idea of the ranch as a family outing is very odd. The children are supposed to play with the tame animals while dad shoots a caged animal. The thought of it is disturbing.

More disturbing is the fact that this is one of many ranches. Some of them are probably not so animal friendly (if that phrase can be applied to a hunting ranch).
There is obviously a market for canned hunting. How many people are there that would want to shoot an animal in a cage? I fear the number is way to high.

[LPC]

Is America the only country to have such appalling places, Catherine? I hadn't heard of canned hunting before. The whole idea is sick, and the people taking part are sick.

[Catherine]

There are canned hunting ranches in some parts of south Africa.

https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/articl...n-industry


 I have never heard of one in Canada. Of course if there is canned hunting in Canada, it will be in Alberta.   

Yes it seems there is canned hunting in Alberta.
I found hunting forums discussing it. I just don't want to post the link to that forum on this site.

PETA has been campaigning against canned hunting.

https://www.peta.org/issues/wildlife/wil...necessary/

It may be more common than we realized. I feel like I have just opened a rather nasty can of worms.
There are more problems than just the hunting.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/cecil-the...-1.3176340

Bringing in Elk from the USA for canned hunting also imported a serious wasting disease that is now in the wild population.

I am not necessarily comfortable with everything this person says(actually I am not comfortable with any of it), but it does give a perspective on canned hunting.

The whole idea of canned hunting is horrifying and the idea of someone actually doing it is sickening. I can't imagine what kind of person does this.
I never want to meet them, ever.

https://www.donmeredith.ca/published-wri...nned-hunts

[LPC]

From the CBC article:

"It will cost $14,500 US or more to kill a fenced-in large elk or $15,500 US or more to bag a large whitetail deer, according to their online price list, which may not have changed since 2004."

What a criminal waste of money! That money could be given to an animal charity, animal refuge, or a charity for humans. Imagine what good use could be made with that sort of money - for just one "easy-kill" less.

[Catherine]

Quote:What a criminal waste of money! That money could be given to an animal charity, animal refuge, or a charity for humans. Imagine what good use could be made with that sort of money - for just one "easy-kill" less.

That money could have done a lot of good. Many small charities would have been thrilled to receive even a fraction of the cost of a kill. 
Instead of killing something that couldn't get away, the person could be involved in giving to charity. They could have used their time to do good.
We make choices about what we do and what we support.  When someone spends that much money on a canned hunt, that is really all I need to know about the person. They are not someone I would ever want to know. I would certainly never want to live in Alberta again. 

What a crazy world where animals live on the streets and children go hungry while someone pays thousands of dollars to shoot an animal in a cage.



Just to add another twist to this issue, many of the farmed elk are developing Chronic Wasting Disease. It has spread to the wild population.

https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/index.html

Chronic Wasting Disease is caused by a prion. It does spread from one species to another. 
Is it transmissible to humans? We don't know yet. We didn't know that  Mad Cow Disease could transmit to humans until it did.
These prion diseases take years to develop. Hunters eating the meat or even handling it, could be endangering themselves. They could be endangering others. 
We just don't know. Not know that something is dangerous, does not make it safe.