Comments on: Bushmeat Debate: How Can We Save Gorillas Without Starving People?

By: Emmanuel Rush

Emmanuel Rush — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:19:57 +0000

hi
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good luck

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:14:41 +0000

I agree with Samantha. It’s disgusting to eat any animal especially gorillas, who are great apes just like humans, which means that they have emotions and cognitive abilities very similar to ours. We should give our fellow great apes equal consideration to humans and in order to preserve them a hunting ban should be made law and enforced properly to avoid the underground market.

Those saying that the Africans need the meat to survive are blind to the fact that all the animals they say they need to hunt are herbivores, so those people can just as easily live on grains, nuts and seeds.

We should not just help humans as humans are not the only species we share this planet with. Besides, humans are over-populationg so it’s a good thing for the rest of the planet if a few of us don’t make it. I would much rather help animals anyway.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 06:36:28 +0000

Depending on their location, the soil and vegetation, and viable crops, it may be that meat is necessary for them to survive. Whether or not they should be eating endangered species is certainly worthy of debate, but a more productive discussion would concern their options. Given incentive and alternatives, it would most likely be possible to change their diets.

Thank you for your comment, Jay, I agree completely in that we, as humans, cannot continue to strain our planet to the breaking point. It isn’t just irresponsible, but unethical and risky.

For those interested, I would suggest reading this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/6091334.stm) article from the BBC written by Eugene Lapointe, then head of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), on hunting bans, and theoretical alternatives that might result in higher conservation rates.

Unfortunately, we are much better at stripping ecosystems of their resources and members than we are at teasing them into flourishing and healthy homes for the species they support.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:41:14 +0000

It’s a disgusting idea to eat any animal especially a gorilla. The starving people need to go eat some vegetables, grains???!!! They don’t need to be eating meat. Especially not the meat of endangered animals. I think if they want to eat it they deserve to die! They can survive without meat!

By: Jay Warner

Jay Warner — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:16:35 +0000

The question is not whether we can save gorillas without starving people. It is whether we can save the people. Period. Th gorilla population clearly cannot survive the human predation it is receiving. We (especially the people in the local area) are ‘mining’ the land of its output. Unless we behave differently, the output of the land will go away, and we will be left to starve. On a local level, we probably need to let the gorillas (and other bush animals) be, while we find ways to sustainably harvest the rest of the land. The same is true for people in other areas of the world, including the US. Every salt seep springing up in Montana means more acreage indefinitely lost to (human) production. Every inch of topsoil lost from Iowa brings us closer to the desertification of that state. (In some parts of that state, it goes by multiple inches per decade.) The cod fish is effectively gone, as well.

Time to get real. We are not living sustainably. When do we start changing?