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Rip, tear, shred – all in the name of conservation hunting?

It might come as a surprise to you, but the very bullets that trophy hunters use to kill their animals are outlawed on battlefields. Why? Because such “hollow point” “expanding” “dum-dum” bullets are considered “inhumane”.

Bullets like these, when they hit a body, expand at the head to wreak maximum havoc. They rip, tear, tumble and shred. No battlefield surgeon has any chance to save a soldier’s life when hit by this weapon of mass tissue destruction.

So they are illegal in military use . Also, anyone caught with such bullets in their pistol or rifle intending to commit a crime receives an additional sentence even if they never fired a round.

Despite laws prohibiting their use against humans, trophy hunters use them with great regularity.

Why?

There could be many reasons. One of which is that trophy hunters, despite telescopic sights, high-powered rifles, baits, “hides”, vehicles, trackers, rifle rests, etc – are usually very poor shots. After all, they are largely derived from a moneyed minority usually to be found in some armchair behind a desk, a boardroom, a corporation headquarters. Perhaps they trophy “hunt” once every few years or even less than that. Such hunters need the “stopping” power if even they hit their intended animal in some extremity. On hand is their paid for assistant – the “professional” hunter to kill the animal eventually, sometimes after many hours of suffering. Trophy hunters themselves admit that they “lose” shot animals at a rate approaching 10%.

Inhumane for humans? Bullets outlawed by international conventions guiding warfare? But OK for trophy hunters? Let’s just think about the irony in that!

 Picture credit: http://bit.ly/1zBgvrj