THREAT TO AFRICAN LIONS--WEALTHY AMERICAN HUNTERS

When we again take up the question of taxing Americans of the top one percent income bracket we should think of the impact on African lions! How can those two topics possibly be related? According to recent reports, the great beast of the African veldt teeters today on the edge of extinction. Their populations, once numbering in the millions are now down to a few scattered thousands in each of several economically challenged African nations. And who threatens these remnant populations? The answer is wealthy American hunters! It's hard to believe in this day and age..but apparently some Americans are still able to live in the "gilded age" of the past--when "great white hunters" killed animals for "sport" all over the world, bringing back the remains of their kills to decorate the walls of their palatial residences. These wealthy Americans not only want to return to the political and economic circumstances of the era of British imperialism of the 19th Century, but apparently desire to spend their leisure-time recreating that era and living like the phenomenally wealthy elites and nobility of the past.

According to a recent study by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, (as well as the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, Born Free and Defenders of Wildlife) American hunters are emerging as a strong and growing threat to the survival of African lions. (See: Le Monde: "The Lions of Africa threatened by American hunters" (Les lions d'Afrique menacés par les chasseurs américains, Le Monde 11-3-3). But beyond dealing with the threat to the lions of Africa,the Le Monde piece inadvertently revealed one way that wealthy Americans spend their largely untaxed incomes. They apparently spend a great deal on expensive African lion hunting expeditions! The target of their hunt, Panthera leo, has now become prey rather than predator, and been reduced from more than 200,000 in the mid 20th century to a mere 40,000 at the present time. Remnant populations exist in several non-contiguous parts of the African continent. The threat by mostly American hunters (67% of the trophy kills) is compounded by the fact that they have also stimulated a market in African lion body parts. So not only do Americans kill more of the lions in the wild, but they have encouraged a demand for trophy lion parts such as skin rugs, teeth-necklaces, claws, skulls, and even dried lion penes. Ugh! Reading this account I could not help but think of the paradigm of the wealthy-hunter type--such as Dick Cheney--as a member of this class. I imagined him with his trophy string of dead-quail draped around his neck (and his shot-up hunting buddy with a patched up face standing next to him). But Cheney is only a piker when it comes to wealthy American hunters and their need for trophies.

Apparently between 1999 and 2010 (note how these dates correspond well with the Bush II Years of profligate spending, a boom income period for the oligarchs, and low taxes for the super-wealthy) more than 2/3 of the lions killed in Africa by hunters were taken by Americans. These great white hunters demand their trophy kills are of large, black-maned, mature males. This need-to kill mature males tends to disrupt the social-structure of African lion prides. The death of the alpha male in a pride results in violent conflict between surviving males, the death of other contenders and more often and more tragically the death of young lion cubs which are killed by the new alfa male of the pride. Thus the kills and trophy parts sent home are only a small fraction of lion deaths actually occurring in Africa and directly related to the taking of trophies.

So that's how some American oligarchs spend their lightly taxed incomes--not reinvestment in the US economy (as the Republican agents of this wealthy class so glibly state and restate) but many spend it away off in Africa-- and to the detriment of the African lion population.

So the next time the bill to repeal the Bush tax breaks for the super-wealthy comes up again, let us all think how a few extra percentage points on these wealthy Americans would help save the African lion (and those cute little cubs) from extinction. And if our super-wealthy can spend their excess money on destructive lion hunts, they can certainly afford to give a bit more to Uncle Sam...who needs it desperately in these trying times, to support our tattered school systems and shattered infrastructure.

Get the picture?