Villagers demand to eat stranded elephant

i wonder if any of the people saying that the villagers should just go ahead and eat the elephant would eat road kill. there is a reason why the rangers and police stopped people from eating the animal - its dangerous! no one here would eat meat that hadnt been inspected or at least bred and raised according to certain conditions so why throw caution to the wind just cos they are african?

yes, they are hungry. yes, there is a drought and a lack of food and the harvest has been sub par. but eating bush meat would just compound the problem, not only would that village eat the meat but people from several other villages (remember, they dont have refrigerators and such and sharing is the norm so they would call other hungry friends and relatives to join in the feast) and then the local health officials would have a health crisis that they could ill afford considering they are already strapped for cash, man power and resources.

strange thing is, should an article be posted here about people getting violently ill from eating a elephant/hippo/antelope/monkey/whatever the comments would be all "poor ignorant africans need to be educated" and "they should have known better" and "we shouldnt bother because they cant save themselves".

it may seem cruel and unfathomable to prevent hungry people from eating what many here consider to be free meat. but the consequences of anthrax, ebola, rift valley fever, monkey pox and other diseases are far higher than what most people here seem to be able to fathom. maybe y'all should have considered why the police had to be called in to stop them from killing and dividing the animal instead of going "oh, those meanies!"

So many people are saying to make these starving ppl help these dying animals, what a stupid thing to say. How can they move a humongous animal (or in fact 2) when they have no energy supplies? Next time you are hungry (cos lts face it, starvation for us in the west is a much lower possibilty) we'll make all u guys resusitate a hamburger ( cos I'm guessin none of u makin these comments have ever had to kill your dinner). How riduculous is this debate? Let the hungry ppl eat, and the dying animals be put out of their misery.

hey...hungry people can do some crazy shit...if they're hungry then they have to eat its that simple. I bet they're dreaming of jumping on that hippo and elephant like a spider monkey!

is this really even a debate? really..

Starvation and poverty are the enemy of saving endangered wildlife.

i could never deny my children food.

starving people vs one less elephant..
yeah
starving people win
and the hippo can also go
there going to die stuck there in the mud anyway
so why waste perfectly good food for a whole village?

It wouldn’t do any good.

Africa is a very, very harsh environment and can BARELY support a few thousand humans living a hunter/gatherer existence.

Thanks to foreign aid and relief efforts we’ve allowed the population to explode.

We’re entering into a realm where morality and physics are meeting head on. The land itself cannot support all those people. You can’t FARM the land because it’s rainforest….it’s not the same soil or weather conditions as Oklahoma!

So we let them eat the elephant.

They have the energy and strength to….have sex and make more kids.

The environment (sad, but true) cannot support the population already living there so adding more humans only makes it worse.

So….what should we do?

If we "save them" all we've done is keep them alive and allow them to reproduce, which will only make the problem of food worse next year.

There may be no good options for Africa in regards to water/food/starvation.

Do we think things are going be better in Africa in 2025 or much, much worse if the population continues to double every year?

If it was going to die anyway without human intervention, then there is no problem with them killing it early, it will most likely die out in the bush in a few weeks anyway because there isn't enough food even for the animals.

They absolutely should be allowed to eat the elephant. It seems as if the elephant has little to no chance at survival, and these starving people should not have to go hungry. The elephant could possibly feed those people for days, which during a crisis time is a really big deal.

i just love how animals have more rights than humans these days

Let them eat it.

People living their comfy little lives with a fricking Mcdonalds on every corner can't possibly comprehend poverty and starvation.

eating the elephant may seem like a good idea but what most are forgetting that it pretty much lives in the wild - had the police and the rangers stood back and let them feed from it a few days later it would be a scandal cos they would probably get sick from feasting on the bush meat. not to mention that elephants are protected animals in kenya and its illegal to kill them.

Hate to say it but survival of the fittest... if it dies then they should eat it. Very disturbing that this community has reached this level of desperation. Very easy for people to argue to save it but then again, many people are lucky enough to be able to pop to the local supermarket for a snack on a porkpie or nibble on a pepperami before their steak and chips for dinner!

Hungry Hungry Hippos, now with Elephants!!! Special Edition!!

If it dies then eat it, no point wasting food, unlike us who wastes mountains of food every year and are becoming more obese by the minute, who are we to tell starving people what they can and can't eat?

The elephant looks so skinny, its spine showing. It's unfortunate the police had to beat back people whose bones are also visible due to starvation.

awww!! that's a tough one. drought in kenya has resulted in 10million people starving and wild animals dying. i still blame the tragedy on poor governance,but really the rainy season did not come as expected, so another casualty of climate change and global warming.
the people need food aid badly, eating elephants and hippos is a normal occurrence because of poverty, but who will save the elephants? (better to eat the hippo)

Just let them eat it for God's sakes. Hopefully they can find a way to make it last a while too since it's pretty big. And that they get their stomachs satisfied...Why is this happening?

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Being an elephant myself I think they should not eat it!

I don't like the thought of eatting an elephant but if it should die then....Damm what a hard decision. If it can't be saved then put it down. At least this group has conflict with eatting the poor thing.

Biltong!

nothing fun about this story... they should be allowed to eat it.

With so much food on our plates (and in the garbage) this should not be happening. A small percent of the military budget of the industrialized nations could feed people anywhere there is drought and famine. Gorillas are being eaten, and now, it seems, elephants. Yet, in the short term, until we get these people decent food, I agree, it's tragic, but we cannot judge the acts of starvation to feed families.

From what I'm aware Elephant are endangered. Please correct me if I'm wrong. If you ask me the villages should be aloud to eat the elephant if it had died but killing the creature would most likely have got the villages in more trouble than good.

If it had been me in their situation, rationality would come second and I would have killed and eaten the Elephant. Not point letting it go to waste.

yes... how can we judge people who are starving and clearly are oppressed?