From Diane, Seattle Area Animal Rights Activist
October 2013
[Note from Diane about Thomson Safaris who managed the trip. "They have been in business for several years. They are highly rated and have received several awards. Their prices also fell into the mid-range. The accommodations in Tanzania and the tour guides were wonderful. I also had fabulous vegan meals; eating vegan was not a problem at all."]
I saw a number of places that I can only describe as heaven on earth. I am eternally grateful to everyone past and present who has worked to preserve this magnificent area and the wildlife.....Our wildlife is managed for the single-minded purpose of hunting. It is brutal and archaic and harms humans as well as the animals by promoting a culture of violence. Our state and federal fish and wildlife departments have a lot to learn from other countries.
My recent trip to Tanzania [September 2013] was other worldly. I did not think that places with such vast numbers of wildlife still existed on earth. It made my heart and spirit soar to see thousands and thousands of animals including wildebeest, elephant, lion, cheetah, hyena, jackal, leopard, hippos, black rhinos and more.
Please enjoy some of the wildlife pictures from my trip [click to enlarge].
The tour included Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, and the central and northern portions of Serengeti National Park. Over these vast areas I saw roughly 1000 elephants, 25,000 plus wildebeest, and 5000 zebras. All of the animals looked fit, healthy, happy, and living their lives as nature intended.
Some of the animals were so close you could almost reach out and touch them. You are not allowed outside of your vehicles in the National Parks, so the animals do not flee in fear of humans as long as you remain inside. At night in the camps, the wildebeest and zebras would graze outside of the tents and were so close that you could hear them munching grass. Sometimes they would actually rub up against the tent posts.
I saw a number of places that I can only describe as heaven on earth. I am eternally grateful to everyone past and present who has worked to preserve this magnificent area and the wildlife.
In the U.S. we have the Great Plains which some have referred to as the American Serengeti. We used to have millions of migrating buffalo. We also had vast numbers of deer, elk, pronghorn antelopes, wolves, cougars, bears, beavers, and others.
Unfortunately we have exterminated nearly all of the wildlife, except for those that are managed for hunting purposes. And, what hasn’t been developed and paved over has been planted with monocultures of crops, such as wheat, corn and soybeans. Through the use of GMO’s and pesticides not even insects can survive. Tanzania has preserved their Serengeti and we have annihilated ours.
Our wildlife is managed for the single-minded purpose of hunting. It is brutal and archaic and harms humans as well as the animals by promoting a culture of violence. Our state and federal fish and wildlife departments have a lot to learn from other countries. If you haven’t read it, Jim Robertson has an excellent blog post “Hello Mass Extinction”. It has left a haunting image in my mind.
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