Elephant Hunt

This morning I began work at the studio by researching the life of Jumbo the Elephant for an idea I have for a short film. As I was meandering around I went further into the history, wondering how Jumbo, the famous circus elephant, was captured. It seems his capture came as part of the ivory trade with his parents being killed and Jumbo being caught for export. I then had a look at the ivory trade and researched how elephants were hunted and killed. I thought, as many of you probably thought, that elephant hunting was now illegal and only practised by rogue hunters outside of the law. Um, it seems that is where I am mistaken as I found this website and have been gobsmacked for the last fifteen minutes reading articles on the site. I would really advise you visit the site and do whatever you feel needs to be done to change this horrific 'sport'.

http://www.safaribwana.com/HUNT/elephant07.htm

The site tells you how great it feels to bring down a beast (nice choice of word) the size of a London bus (not that hard with a big gun, should it really make you feel strong?). It is a challenge. Go enjoy yourself! If that's not for you, you can try murdering another animal of your choice, perhaps leaving cubs without a mother, just to make you feel nice.

This has made me angry and I apologise if this blog entry is not as in depth as it could be but now I need to go and do something about the absolute horrific nature of some individuals. I will today write my short film, not about Jumbo but about the injustices being carried out today towards living, breathing, intellegent animals who deserve people standing up for them.

Animals in Norway

I was surprised last week to find out the area I live in is known for horse meat. Shocked and horrified...yet what is the difference between eating horse and eating lamb? There is no difference, it is just what we are culturally conditioned to. Eating horse is disgusting but so is eating any corpse of an animal, raised and killed in an oppressive and painful way. As the horse eating came as a shock to me I thought I would find out more about where I live and below are some extracts from the Norwegian Animal Welfare website. Even though these are just facts (no comment on the suffering of these creatures), they still to me make sad reading.

Fur farming

The Norwegian Fur Breeder´s Association organizes the approx. 600 fur farmers in the country. Norwegian farmers produce mainly fox and mink pelts. Saga Furs of Scandinavia does the international marketing of all Scandinavian fur. Oslo Fur Auctions is a main participant in the Norwegian fur trade.

Farm animals

Norway produces eggs, chicken and turkey for own consumption. Usual high intensive breeds are used. Battery hens is the usual production system in egg production. The Centre for Poultry Research aims at serving the poultry industry.


Geno is the Norwegian association for breeding and keeping of cattle. Geno´s cow breed, NRF, is genetically composed to serve a combined dairy and meat production.

Fish farming, fishing and marine mammals

Norway hunts both seal and whale. The Ministry of Fisheries provides information about marine mammals. In March 2004 the Norwegian government presented a Report to the Storting on whaling and sealing (White paper to the Norwegian parliament) explaining Norway’s policy on marine mammals.
Farmed fish is Norway´s second biggest export product. Salmon is the most usual fish bred in captivity. Norwegian Seafood Federation publish facts and figures about fish farming.

Wildlife

Angling and hunting is popular in Norway. This includes small game hunting, big game hunting, as well as freshwater and seawater angling.

Statistics Norway provides plenty of statistics on hunting in Norway.