CNN is ‘faking news’ in its efforts to attack hunting sports, say conservationists.
In an article about Donald Trump Jr’s argali sheep-hunting trip to Mongolia in 2019, broadcaster CNN claims that trophy hunting is driving the argali sheep towards extinction. However, the IUCN says that the argali’s conservation status has nothing to do with regulated hunting: ‘The main threats are over-hunting and poaching (for meat); competition, displacement and possibly disease transmission by domestic livestock; and habitat loss,’ says the conservation body.
“‘Trophy hunting’ plays no part whatsoever,” writes Jens Ulrika Høgh of Sweden-based Nordic Safari Club on Facebook. “CNN is apparently making up the news as they go along. Can we see the actual source of this information, please?”
Høgh also takes issue with CNN’s line that: ‘Trump Jr’s Mongolian sheep hunting trip cost taxpayers about $75,000, documents show.’
Høgh says: “I’m sure they would have done exactly the same if the trip had been a scuba-diving vacation to Fiji or a cultural journey to India. The cost had hardly anything to do with the fact that Trump Jr was hunting. This essentially boils down to another negative spin on recreational hunting.”
Here’s our film about how hunting is saving Asia’s urial sheep:
