need to add title here

Sending the oryx back to Africa

June 10, 2012 11:59 AM

Charly Seale, executive director of the Exotic Wildlife Association, is helping repopulate the scimitar-horned oryx in Senegal, but it's a pricey project with lots of pitfalls.

Can hunting endangered animals save the species?
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by hungariantaxpayer June 17, 2012 1:14 PM EDT
Animals have been hunted for thousands of plus years. We buy domesticated meat in our grociery stores. We eat seafood. Hunters kill bears, deer, rabbits and many more. People like to go fishing. So why would these animals be excluded? If the conservationist can prove that the numbers of these animals are growing in population, I take my hat off to them.
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by bradfocl June 10, 2012 9:22 PM EDT
While not the best piece ever by 60 Minutes (which is not what it used to be) it did serve to make that lady look like a raving illogical lunatic and make every sensible hunter call his/her congressman. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
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by madog54 June 10, 2012 8:48 PM EDT
We raise Angus cattle solely to eat them. What is so different here? No one is worried about the Angus cattle going extinct. And BTW the other name for the scimitar horned oryx is the Arabian oryx. They were hunted to extinction in the Arabian peninsula. These Texas ranchers have the right idea about preservation
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by myjumper21 February 3, 2012 1:40 PM EST
Ignorant to think Africa is a place nobody lives except animals. Africas countries are growing, and as they grow the more these animals will become extinct. If we don't focus on saving the animals they will all die out. Leaving them in Africa will be a huge mistake! And taking these animals back to Africa is the stupidest thing they can do. SO WHAT! If some get shot, In Africa they WILL get shot TO! and get hunted by predators who will also get shot.. and killed by other predators because of instincts.
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by MMcQuown February 3, 2012 4:57 AM EST
Whatever the motive, the ranchers are performing a useful function. Unlike Ms Farrell, who would burn down the barn to save the horses. She chooses to ignore the fact that in the wild these animals are natural prey and would be hunted by lions or whatever are the prime predators in their area. At this point I think she is far more interested in creating the world as she thinks it ought to be than in doing what is best for the species. I hope the lawmakers will listen to the professional conservationist and not the hysterical squeaky wheel.
On the other hand, trophy hunters pervert the law of natural selection by eliminating the best, not the inferior, animals.
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by mcraefbg February 2, 2012 6:42 PM EST
Kneedoc,
Email me if you are interested in selling hunts. I am an outfitter in the Hill Country. axishides@yahoo.com
Thanks.
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by Reddy375 February 2, 2012 11:50 AM EST
RIGHT NOW, ranches in TX who bred these species are offering hunts for these animals at low low prices, as after the 4th of April these animals will have no value to them. Animal rights activists clearly have missed the point that unless animals have a vlaue no one will protect them. The ranchers cannot afford to have these animals walking around on their properties, so they will soon be gone from TX. There are already very few in their countries of origin so thats the end of these animals. Stupid Anti hunters, they are responsible for the extinction of these species.
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by hitzamamma January 31, 2012 9:38 PM EST
Just when I was starting to think I liked 60 minutes again....this segment was very lame.
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by NoMonday January 30, 2012 1:20 PM EST
Wow. You will send them back to Africa and watch them ALL die from poaching, encroachment, and predation as they haven't encountered the African predators that will easily slaughter them. To the animal rights activist: you are incredibly naive. I have never hunted, but I know that responsible hunters will spend top dollar to preserve a species they value in the hunt. How is this wrong? We have chickens in wire cages shooting out eggs and being debeaked, fed antibiotics and hormones, and you choose to block an endangered species that is living free and happy on a ranch because a few will get shot? You have the wrong values. These animals will meet a swift end in Africa and YOU will have killed them, all 10,000, instead of hunters. Please let me know what organizations support you so I know to never, ever give them a dime! You should be ashamed.
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by MKCPNJ43 January 30, 2012 12:57 PM EST
I watched this segment last night. I thought it was poor -- to say the least. "Wow -- doesn't this look like Africa" uttered two / three times and NO NUANCE, so appreciation (aside from the perspective of the ranchers) about how, yeah, it COSTS something to SAVE something. The interviewer just wanted people to take extreme positions -- and, failing that (with the exception of the predictable animal rights activist) -- she just added nothing to the conversation. It's the same dumb, dumb, dumb type of rhetoric that is aimed at people (the majority it would seem) incapable of being able to see (and even argue) both sides of any issue. It was the lamest segment on 60 minutes I've ever seen.
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