***LOCAL PICKUP ONLY, due to the fragile nature of this item we cannot guarantee it will arrive safely.
Is It Ethical To Have A Giraffe?
The initial idea of hunting safari animals usually has a negative connotation but there’s much more to legal hunting than most people realize. It is illegal to transport meat from Africa into Canada and the U.S. due to safety concerns, so what happens to the meat of a hunted safari animal? While the hunter is only allowed to take back the hide, head, and horns/antlers the rest is given back to the local tribes and communities, or sold in markets to the local populations. Communities and tribes use every part of the animal so nothing goes to waste. A percentage of the fees used to pay for the legal hunting go back to conservation efforts for the hunted species. Local governments regulate privately owned big game plots and decide how many animals are allowed to be legally harvested and where depending on population numbers. Data from the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) suggested that populations of giraffes increased in areas where sustainable hunting of giraffes was permitted. Reasons being that hunters typically target older more seasoned males that have already contributed to the gene pool, making way for fresher bloodlines. In some instances, it is because the animal is injured and needs to be put down, like the taxidermy giraffe we ran into a few years ago that had acquired a broken neck from fighting with another male. Even then, not all safari taxidermy is the result of sustainable hunting, several of our unique pieces were from zoo or animal conservation deaths, like our juvenile hippo skull for example. At Black Moth our goal is to further educate ourselves and others on the misconceptions and logistics of sustainable hunting of safari animals.
So What's Garth’s Story?
Garth is a male Angolan Giraffe who was purchased in the 90s as a retiring museum piece in Missouri. He was then inherited by a family member who reached out to us about selling pieces from their vintage taxidermy collection.
Here are a few links to read more about the practice of sustainable giraffe harvesting:
https://giraffeconservation.org/facts/what-are-the-main-threats-to-giraffe-why-are-their-numbers-declining/
https://safariclubfoundation.org/giraffe-populations-show-benefits-of-sustainable-use-of-wildlife-in-africa/
