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Salut ,

It sounds a daft question but what are your thoughts ?

I was looking for info on the Withworth rifle when I stumbled on this photo .
It reminded me of a friend who went to Afrika and told me, very pleased with himself, that he shoot a zebra. I did not say anything but I thought it sounded so daft to shoot a zebra that if I had, I'd keep it well quiet.
And now I see this guy with a big grin on his face... Sounds & look plain silly to me .




NB- I am not sabby and I shot my 1st boar before I was allowed to drive

Erm.. well, I can honestly say that's the oddest thing I've seen all day. :G

Would I shoot one? Well, at this moment in time; no. But I guess, like always, it depends on the situation;

Are you hungry and do giraffes make for good eatin'?

Are you an African farmer and a heard of giraffes are wrecking your crop and way to earn a living?

Did one kill your brother, and you've sworn a blood oath of revenge, that will ultimately end with you and the giraffe fighting it out, fist to fist, in the rain, shirtless, while dramatic music plays in the background?

All these things need to be considered?

.....or do you have some spare cash and a strong desire to kill something unusual?

Why is it odd? It's a lot cheaper and easier to buy a venison steak from Tesco than traipse out into the country with a thousand pound rifle and expensive hunting ammo and gear, spending hours looking for one then having to pay someone to butcher it... I don't think anyone in the West really hunts for food except in an elliptical sense; 'the pleasure of eating food I killed myself', so it's about killing in the end. True, some people hunt to control populations but I think the fact is that if deer was inedible you wouldn't get many people hunting them for free let alone paying to hunt them. More to the point, why should the culinary pleasure of killing an animal to enjoy its meat be superior to the pleasure of killing an animal for the sake of the hunt itself or of the trophy? I don't think the animal much cares why you killed it.

In any case, giraffe steaks are tasty (and valuable), their bones are a valuable and beautiful material for things like knife handles and carvings, their hides and tendons are used by local people or to make valuable rugs from, and their tails and their trophies are valuable too. They are not endangered either.

Re-

Did one kill your brother, and you've sworn a blood oath of revenge, that will ultimately end with you and the giraffe fighting it out, fist to fist, in the rain, shirtless, while dramatic music plays in the background?

I must confess I completly fail to concider that angle but I like it very much and it sure brings the picture under a completly new light.
But surely clubbing the bloody thing from the top of a fire-engine big ladder would be a most appropriate way to dispatch the offending long neck b*stard ...
Ok ... lets settle for one of those that Lance-Corporal Jones is always talking about and commonly used by the local spear-chuckers...

I shoot for the pot (non-endangered species!) or for pure vermin control.

I am only a UK shooter but the same would apply for me anywhere.

If its shooting just to see it drop then count me out.

I have never tried Giraffe but would given the chance. I remember Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall saying the same a couple of years ago and pandemonium broke loose, how can you kill a Giraffe, they are so cute and so on.

Ever seen a day old calf? That is as cute as it gets, we still eat them though. The culling of species such as this are both valuable animal management and a source of income as well and I bet you do not get a lot of change out of GBP2500 if you want to shoot one of these either. Personally I cannot understand the desire to kill something as a trophy, may Father always told me only kill an animal if you are going to eat it or it needs destroying due to undue suffering. A rule I have applied all of my life.

Eureka !!

The chap is called Issac Goldstein, he lives in Golders Green and he is an avid Telegraph reader !!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ruled.html




Interesting views from the floor - keep them coming ...

A Telegraph reader eh.........

But Dr Yigal Horowitz, the zoo's chief vet, said this did not mean there would suddenly be a surge in demand of giraffe food products in Israel.

"This does not mean that tomorrow we are going to drink giraffe milk or eat soup made from giraffe necks," he said.

"After all, this is an animal in danger of extinction."

Erm... define in danger of extinction please....

The other thing is the money the shooter pays goes into the local economy as well as the food from the animal itself.

From wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe the conservation staus of the Giraffe is "Least Concern"

and according to http://www.giraffeconservation.org/gira ... hp?pgid=40 there are two sub species of Giraffe which are endangered.