Elise Tempelhoff. Media 24. Yet more Inane Utterances.

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“I see that Elise Tempelhoff is making a fool of herself again, thus bringing discredit to the newspapers that she represents, Media 24. She insists on pontificating on subjects about which she herself clearly knows nothing – lions and their husbandry in captivity. And, in her ignorance, she quotes animal rightist NGOs whose opinions have absolutely no credibility in the eyes of real wildlife managers.

Attempting to counteract her assertions about the diseased state of the captive lion population of South Africa will only-proof fences. So, if a disease were to irrupt in any one of them, it is doubtful that it would spread to the next lion farm in the chain.

She obviously also does not know that all lion cubs in the captive population are inoculated against a whole range of common diseases at birth – delivered by qualified veterinarians; and they receive booster inoculations when they are weaned (at four to six months). Furthermore, all the populations receive super veterinary attention at regular intervals throughout their lives. And she cannot have heard that the host of veterinarians that serve South Africa’s captive lion population have declared them to be the healthiest lions on the continent.

Ron Thomson. CEO – The True Green Alliance.

‘Geblikte’ leeus kan mense siek maak _ Netwerk24

Ron Thomson

I am NOT a ‘trophy hunter’ - and never have been. I am not involved in the trophy hunting safari business. I am also not a game rancher. But I have ‘administratively controlled’ professional hunters and safari outfitters in my capacity as a government game warden. I am an 80 year old ex-game warden with 60 years of continuous experience in hands-on wildlife management, and national park management, in Africa (1959 to 2019). In breakdown, I have 24 years experience in the management of national parks in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe - and in the management of the wild animal populations that lived inside those national parks; one year as the Chief Nature Conservation of the Ciskei in South Africa; three years as Director of the Bophuthatswana National Parks Board in South Africa; and I worked for three years as a professional hunter in the South African Great Karoo (taking foreign hunters on quests for plains game trophies). I discovered, however, that professional hunting was not my forte. I worked as an investigative wildlife journalist for 30 years in South Africa. I have written fifteen books and hundreds of magazine articles on the subject of wildlife management and big game hunting in Africa. Five of my books are university-level text books on wildlife management. I am a university-trained ecologist; was a member of the Institute of Biology (London) for 20 years; and was a registered chartered biologist for the European Union for 20 years. I have VAST experience in the “management hunting” of elephants, buffaloes, lions, leopards and hippos (as part of my official national park work in the control of problem animals); and I pioneered the capture of black rhino in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi Valley (1964 - 1970). My university thesis was entitled: “The Factors Affecting the Survival and Distribution of Black Rhinos in Rhodesia”. Look at my personal website if you want any further details about my experience: www.ronthomsonshuntingbooks.co.za.

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