Hunting

[Lisbeth]

It sounds like the plot of a tragic opera Isn't it time to get rid of all these royal families? Especially the Zulu one or at least stop paying them

[harrys]

It sounds like the plot of a tragic opera Isn't it time to get rid of all these royal families? Especially the Zulu one or at least stop paying them

[Peter Betts]

As long as the British Royal Family stays >> these blood suckers should be paid for by the Zulu Nation from the Bank of Nkandla and leave my taxes alone >> I dont pay for the British Royal family as I am not a British Citizen and Liz is not my Queen just like the Zulu King is noot my King.. Ban that hunt

[Lisbeth]

Killing for the House of Jesus — church trophy hunt raises a storm



A group of hunters after a night hunt on 16 August 2013 in Phillopolis, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Conrad Bornman)

By Don Pinnock | 25 Aug 2022

The Schweizer-Reneke Afrikaanse Protestantse Kerk boosts funds by offering prizes for killing as many wild animals as possible. The prizes? The licence to kill even bigger wild animals.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The North West is hunting country so it evidently seemed logical to raise money for the APK church by shooting wild animals. It’s not clear who came up with the plan, but the church embraced it a year ago and last month ran the competition again.

There were no obvious impediments. Hunting is perfectly legal in South Africa. Among the farming community, most of the animals shot would be considered vermin. And anyway, the Ten Commandments, being decidedly anthropocentric, forbid murder, but place no restrictions on killing, other than humans. And of course, the church needed the money.

The advertisement, written over the picture of a cute jackal licking its nose, laid out the game plan. On registration and deposit of R2,000, teams of two hunters were required to shoot jackals, caracals, warthogs, porcupines, guinea fowl and pheasants.

The winners were awarded licences to shoot two lions, three kudu, a day of deep-sea fishing off St Lucia and “many other prizes”. Entry included dinner at the prizegiving ceremony. From the advertisement, it seemed that the first round of hunts took place between 28-30 July.

Were the awards based on the number of animals shot, their weight or some other criteria? Were the lions farmed or wild? A cellphone number was given to request the rules of play, but was not supplied when Daily Maverick inquired. Four other numbers were given for further information, but none of “Acee”, “Simmie”, “Derik” or “Buks” replied.

Though it was a local affair in a small town, the competition didn’t go unnoticed. First reactions were on the AP Kerk’s own Facebook page:

• It’s terrible that a church — in God’s name — wants to wipe out its creations like that. Don’t you think about how many wild animals will now be left orphaned? If the hunters can pay R2,000, surely they can donate the R2,000 without committing mass murder. There are much better ways to raise money instead of committing murder and disguising it as “hunting”.

• What an absolute disgrace! People are supposed to [be] stewards of God’s creation! It says so in the Bible! I think the Lord is looking down at you in absolute disgust! SHAME ON YOU! This is absolutely barbaric! God will NEVER condone this!

• Why don’t the morons who invented the callous and greedy fundraiser throw stones at each other? The last one standing wins a night in a cage with lions or wins a brain transplant.

Marula Media picked up the story and managed to get through to Buks, who made the mistake of saying the event had been cleared by the National Society for the Protection of Animals (NSPCA). Wrong move. The organisation came out guns blazing.

It emailed the organisers 21 questions, demanding to know the number of hunting teams that entered, whether prizes were based on weight or number of animals shot, why those particular animals had been chosen, where the hunts took place, what weapons were used, whether the welfare of the animals had been considered and whether the two lions, the final prize, were wild or captive bred.

It got no response.

So it wrote to the North West Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism (Dedect), wanting to know whether jackals and caracals were listed as problem animals, the legality of the hunt, whether dogs were permitted in such hunts, the weapons permitted and welfare considerations for the young of the animals hunted.

It still got no response.

The next salvo came from the NSPCA’s national senior inspector of the Wildlife Protection Unit, Douglas Wolhuter, who pointed out to Dedect that his organisation had a legal mandate under the Animals Protection Act to ask and act on its questions. It was doing so following numerous complaints about the hunt and was required to investigate.

At the time of writing, Dedect had not replied, but the AP Kerk then sent an email which sidestepped the questions but gave an explanation:

“Every team will hunt on their own discretion, legally on a hunting farm of their own choice, the hunt itself doesn’t have anything to do with the organizers. Each team will have to shoot one of each animal in 24 hours.

“It will be mainly male animals and the reason is that some are weight and some measured and only males will count because they will measure much more than females. The prices (sic) are all sponsored.

“Animals to be hunted as prices (sic) are all on hunting farms with the legal permits to do so. It is handled by them and not us.

“I’m just out of office for the next week.”

“In essence,” the NSPCA commented in a media statement, “the church is happy to take the money for the hunt, but because the hunt doesn’t take place on the church grounds, they believe they are not involved.”

Was such a hunt in line with AP Kerk policy? Daily Maverick wrote to the Director of Church Administration, Rev JL Schütte, but received no reply.

His position could possibly be gleaned from a letter written to the State President, Cyril Ramaposa, accusing him of “making a mockery of prayer and God’s law” and of “plundering the country” for 25 years.

“Your government,” he writes, “undermines the value and dignity of life and incites carnage by not punishing those who incite death and violence.”

The government, he insisted, was undercutting parental authority by criminalising corporal punishment, allowing abortion and outlawing the death penalty. “The foundation of your government rests on the premise of the rights of people and not on the right of God. The much-vaunted constitution carries within itself the germ of ruin.”

One can infer from these sentiments that, given the approval of whipping and the death penalty, raising money for the church by killing wild animals for pleasure would probably not be seen as a moral problem. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

What kind of Church is that?

I am not religious and not much into Churches, but this one sounds bad

[Lisbeth]

Those who kill animals in a church trophy hunt would do well to read the Green Bible

By Christiaan Bakkes | 05 Sep 2022
Christiaan Bakkes led an anti-poaching unit as part of his military service and worked as a game ranger in the Kruger National Park. Thereafter, he worked in the Damaraland desert as a guide and conservation official for Wilderness Safaris. In 2014, he was nominated as No 7 of the top 20 safari guides in Africa by Conde Nast Traveller. He is also the author of wilderness and conservation tales in Afrikaans. Several of his books have been translated into English. He currently works on education and advocacy projects with his wife Marcia, an environmental lawyer, on issues related to wildlife crime, environmental damage and social justice. Together they are trying to make sense out of humankind's ignorance and disdain towards their planet and its inhabitants.

As an Afrikaner I understand the passion to hunt — it’s what we learnt at our father’s knee. But justifying it by the Bible and for pleasure is a step too far.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I read the article Killing for the House of Jesus (read above) (Daily Maverick 25 August) with both understanding and shock.

The Afrikaner obsession with hunting and fishing is deeply ingrained in our DNA and that served to define us for centuries. In their early days in Africa, it was to “tame” the land and provide sustenance for our families.

We did it with such enthusiasm and skill that soon the veld became denuded of wildlife. Were it not for far-sighted Afrikaners like Paul Kruger, Deneys Reitz and Piet Grobler, many more species would have been exterminated.

To most of us as young boys, hunting served as a rite of passage to manhood. My father took me hunting so that I could “learn about death”. It seemed the most natural thing to do. He also used it as an opportunity to teach me about life.

Largely because of these adventures in the veld with my father, I was inspired to pursue a life of adventure in the wilderness as a game ranger.

With the growth of game ranching, hunting was often hailed as a sustainable form of conservation in that wild lands for hunting ensured the survival of species.

But game ranching and game breeding rapidly mutated into an industry that promoted captive breeding and genetic engineering of colour variants of ungulates. This blurred the lines of hunting ethics.

It has become a lucrative, profit-driven industry that undermines everything we stand for in wildlife conservation and genetic biodiversity.

The old-fashioned Boer who took up his Mauser and walked off into the bushveld to shoot a kudu for winter meat has become a thing of the past. He has been replaced by the bakkie jagter.

The Afrikaanse Protestantse Kerk’s hunting competition dresses it up as a problem animal control operation, because the species mentioned are generally regarded as a threat to their livestock and crops. I’m sure that no one from the Schweizer-Reneke APK gemeente has a problem with it.

Ironically, all the animals listed tend to survive despite the fact that they’re relentlessly hunted by farmers. Jackals only seem to be evolving as “superdogs” because of persecution by hunters.

The APK is a variation of the devout Doppers and Calvinists of Oom Paul Kruger van ouds. They will only listen to what the Bible tells them. However, they listen selectively.

I recommend they expand their reading to the Green Bible Devotional written by Carla Barnhill, a book of daily readings as a companion to the Green Bible. It’s a profound re-look at Christian teachings on the care of fellow creatures:

“At times, the animal kingdom has suffered greatly because of human domination, abuse, industrialisation and simple ignorance. Yet we have also saved entire species from extinction simply by changing our understanding of what it means to live in this mutually dependent relationship.

“We wield tremendous power in our relationship with our fellow creatures, and the Bible is exceedingly clear on how we are to use that power.

“Our dominion over the creatures who share this planet with us is a humbling call to serve and to protect; one that compels us to consider the ways in which our lives and our choices impact those creatures we are to care for.”

Then she quotes the Bible:

“Anyone who kills an animal shall make restitution for it, life for life. Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered. One who kills an animal shall make restitution for it, but one who kills a human shall be put to death. — Leviticus 24:18-21”.

It addresses ignorance:

“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer? Can you number the months that they fulfil, and do you know the time they give birth, when they crouch to give birth to their offspring and are delivered of their young? Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open; they go forth and do not return to them. — Job 39:1-4”

It also addresses arrogance:

“How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? For the wickedness of those who live in it, the animals and the birds are swept away, and because people said, ‘He is blind to our ways’.” — Jeremiah 12:4.”

And redemption in a balanced world:

“The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.” –Isaiah 11:6-8.”

Barnhill continues:

“Conversation about creation care typically centre on the planet — the air, the water, the land — and the protection of animals. And yet at the heart of creation care is a human rights issue, one we too often ignore. Creation care isn’t about caring for the earth. It is about caring for one another.”

I relate to this. I find my spirituality in nature, the wilderness and among wildlife, big and small. Spirituality should not be mistaken for religion, but my father, Casper Bakkes, always said that when he was walking in the veld, he was close to God. He had a deep respect for wildlife and nature.

He was the epitome of the Boer walking in the veld looking for winter meat. If he was still alive, he would have been horrified by the slaughter for funds propagated by the APK church. More especially because he was a member. DM/OBP