hey netizens! i’m not sure how many people are aware, but youtube’s been slowly rolling out a new anti-adblock policy that can’t be bypassed with the usual software like uBlock Origin and Pi-Hole out of the gate
BUT, if you’re a uBlock Origin user (or use an adblocker with a similar cosmetics modifier), you can add these commands in the uBlock dashboard (under My Filters) to get rid of it!
European countries have some of the most unethical, messed up and environmentally damaging hunting practices, yet they will try to lecture other nations on the subject and tell them they’re not allowed to have trophy hunting. Most African countries manage their wildlife and hunting practices significantly better than we do.
Europeans will also freak out over a 10lb fox in their yard, thinking it’s going to eat their children, but expect rural Africans to live peacefully alongside lions, leopards, elephants, crocodiles, hippos and other extremely dangerous animals.
Maybe Europeans should try fixing our own wildlife issues and stop telling other nations what to do.
In the UK there’s been a lot of panic about foxes attacking children after a handful of incidents where kids were bitten by foxes. However, in all these incidents there was a reasonable explanation. Either;
there was likely something neurologically wrong with the fox (toxoplasmosis, poisoning etc.) that caused it to act unnaturally/aggressively. Poisoning could be easily avoided and toxoplasmosis is mostly spread by outdoor cats, both human-made issues.
the fox had been tamed and used to being hand-fed by people, and this resulted in a child being bitten. This is a human-caused issue that could have been easily avoided.
a child startled/tried to grab at a fox and they bit in self-defense
in the case of babies/toddlers being bitten, the fox was likely attracted to the smell of their dirty nappy and the baby was bit in the process (foxes will raid bins for used nappies). The foxes in these cases were also likely tamed as an untamed fox still would not approach a human of any age.
Some of these incidents also later turned out to have been dog bites, with foxes being blamed to try and spare the dog from being labelled as dangerous. Foxes biting humans is extremely rare and almost always the result of a human-made problem.
A hunting group in the UK then put out the most ridiculous video, where they dressed up a dead piglet as a baby, put it in a pram and played baby crying noises. When a fox tried to go for the dead pig they used it as ‘evidence’ that foxes would hunt babies/children. Yes, really. (They also left out the part where the fox avoided the pig for multiple nights because it was scared off by the baby sounds, and even when it did try to take the pig it was extremely hesitant and skittish).
Actually, this does work. Like I know what it sounds like but if you’re interested i can explain - I’m just heading back into work from lunch and want to do the topic justice.
For reference, i have a master’s in conservation biology and my bachelor’s degree in zoology was very heavily focused on ecology and fauna native to North America, but the system set up in the US is excellent for wildlife conservation and is what most people are suggesting when this topic comes up.
Yep, well managed trophy hunting is a great conservation tool. You might not like it (I loath the idea of trophy hunting), but banning it would do far more harm than good. Here’s some articles on the subject;
WARNING: last article has some very graphic images of dead animals
It’s also extremely hypocritical and colonial to tell African countries what they can and can’t do with their wildlife. The UK benefits hugely from trophy hunting tourism. Hunters from abroad will pay thousands to come to the UK to shoot deer, feral goats, pheasants, grouse and other gamebirds and waterfowl. It’s a big industry that’s very poorly regulated in the UK and often has detrimental impacts on native wildlife.
Why is it ok for the UK to have trophy hunting but not other countries, especially when they have proven to manage it so much better than we do? Should it not be up to African nations to decide what they do with their wildlife? What right do we in the UK have to tell other countries how to live alongside dangerous wild animals when we’ve exterminated all our megafauna and large predators?
