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Elephant Poaching

Oct 2, 2017English, Environment, Female

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Preparation
CONSIDER

Have you ever seen an elephant?

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Transcript

Megan Lowther: Uh so I’m going to assume that you’re against elephant poaching (Yes! Definitely!) the same as I am. Good good.

Hollie Chalmers: Definitely against elephant poaching. I don’t see the point.

Megan: There is literally- It’s it’s all profit basically (It’s disgusting) It’s the only reason. Yeah.

Hollie: It’s completely disgusting. It’s just greed isn’t it.

Megan: Yeah. It’s actually, it’s not necessarily poaching, because it was legal, but there was that guy… who- what was it, he he was shooting elephants and then it fell on him as it died. (Good!) Yeah. (Good!) I was likemeaning: “my thought was:” (0:28), “Well that’s risk you take.”

Hollie: That’s what you deserve! (Exactly) Exactly! Karma!

Megan: Oh and another thing, um I was reading on Facebook recently um I think it was this morning actually, that Theresa May (Oh god) was something about you know, um the ivory trade, (Mm-hmm) something about kind of not really wanting to have – um, what do you call it, what’s the wordMegan was trying to remember the word she wanted to say (0:49), restrictions on it anymore? (Right) which doesn’t surprise me in the least (Well no) because of the whole fox hunting thing… and that.

Hollie: Well yeah. (So) Well she doesn’t seem to want to have too much of an opinion on anything, does she?

Megan: I don’t think she- she just doesn’t care about animals. I think that’s the problem.

Hollie: I don’t think she cares about anyone really. (No. So) But no, in terms of elephants, (Mm-hmm) specifically and not Theresa May. (Yes) Yeah it is disgusting. So is is poaching illegal in Africa then? Becausepronounced, “KUZ” (1:15) I thought it was illegal.

Megan: I think poa- poaching is the illegal version of hunting so… (Right) Because I know there are game reserves where you are allowed to to go out and hunt and take things. But I think because- I don’t kn- I know rhinos especially you’re not meant to (Hm) touch them. So there’s a lot of um- there’s almost almost like a military…There’s these rangers who kind of stop people from poaching these animals (Hm) like um because it’s really- it’s a huge problem and the fact that obviously a lot of the time it’s not even- you’re not-Megan corrects herself twice without losing any of her fluency (1:44) they’re not even using the entire body of the elephant. They’re literallyoften used in current English to add emphasis to a statement, but is often used improperly, e.g.: “My brain literally exploded with anger.” (1:48) (Hm) hacking off the tusks (Tusks) because that’s where that’s where the money is. Um it’s such a huge waste. It’s absolutely terrib- terrible. I don’t know, it’s having an impact on Africa itself because um the ele- the elephants obviously, like, it says here that they have a sort of impact on the environment and they can help (Hmm) to shape the land (Yes) So what kind of devastating sub- it’s devastating at the moment, because i hear a lot of excuses for hunting is that you know, “Were controlling populations, and we’re stopping animals from (Yeah) destroying the place.”

Hollie: That’s always the excuse, isn’t it?

Megan: Yeah but obviously it’s the opposite way. They’re killing these elephants and then it’s- it’s stopping um, environmental change.

Hollie: Well it says here, doesn’t it, “the grasslands of Africa might not exist without the elephant”.

Megan: Yeah, it’s literally that big a deal. So it’s something that really needs to be sorted out. (Controlled) Yeah.

Hollie: 100%.

Megan: Mm-hmm.

Consolidation
DISCUSSION

What do you think of big-game hunting?

Do you own anything made of ivory?

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Speakers

Megan Lowther Image

Megan Lowther

English

Stockton-on-Tees

Hollie Chalmers Image

Hollie Chalmers

English

Worthing, West Sussex County


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1 Comment

  1. Human has been hunting animals since primitive times. They had to use other animals to live. However, poaching in this conversation is not the minimum hunting necessary. It is wrong to kill an elephant just to get ivory.
    Because humans have a powerful weapon of civilization, they are in a position that is much more favorable than other animals. As a result, animals may become extinct due to human behavior. We have to understand that we are dangerous to other animals.
    In addition, nature is made up of balancing. If an animal becomes extinct, it will have a great influence on nature, which can extend to humans.
    The reason why humans continue to overfish elephants is that ivory sells high. The money is said to be funded by terrorist and criminal organizations. To stop this, it is necessary to ban the trade of ivory and crack down on poaching. But this method will not go away with poachers. I think that not buying ivory will lead to the protection of elephants.

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