Subtitles by explosiveskull
[Philip] Let's just be real quiet,
'cause there's a lot of ram today,
[gun clicking]
I hope I get a big one,
Are you ready to shoot a big one?
- Yeah, - Well, we're gonna try,
Looks like there was some deer back there,
Yeah, there's deer everywhere,
[sighs, whispering] Better get one,
[Jasper] You think I can shoot that one?
We have to be able to age him,
We have to be able to tell how old he is
before we can make that decision,
She's gonna walk up to here, she's curious,
- Those are two bucks right there, - Yeah,
[Philip] That's a good one,
Okay, just get comfortable and get ready,
Take your time,
And then aim just to the right leg of the feeder, okay?
You can wait if you want,
but that's a shelter shot right there,
[gun firing]
[Philip laughs]
You put him down, son,
Where's that spike?
[gun cocking]
Oh, he's getting up, Dad,
He's not going anywhere, don't worry,
[gun firing]
You shot the doe,
- That's a spike, - Oh,
Okay, let's go, Hold that,
[Jasper] Yes!
[Philip chuckles] Are your hands shaking?
All right, let's go,
Good job, buddy,
Look at the horns on this guy,
Whoo! Look at that,
That's a textbook shot, Jasper,
Hold this gun like this,
- How's that? - That's good,
I need the head up like this, okay?
'Cause if it's young, it doesn't--
Correct, Let's try that,
Okay, Oh, that's what we want right there,
Smile,
First trophy buck,
[camera clicks]
Okay, go like this,
Too tired? One more, Smile and we're done,
[camera clicks]
- Okay - [sighs]
As they say, that's history,
No more doe and spike coming for you,
You're under the big trophies,
[laughs]
[birds calling]
[gun firing]
[groans softly]
- You got it? - Yeah,
All right, One, and two, and three,
Bring, bring, bring,
One, two, three, Go,
Short deep breaths,
[woman] Make sure that the breathing's good,
Stable,
[local man] Three-eighty,
[rhinoceros snorting]
[John] Here it goes,
[drill whirring]
[whirring continues]
[woman] Use the brush, Use the brush,
- [woman] Injecting, - [John] Yeah,
We gotta run on this on the side, guys, Let's go,
[John] The operation goes very quickly,
It's painless,
Probably less danger
than a human being having his wisdom tooth out,
He will be back with his friends within minutes,
It'll take about two years
before he goes through the same procedure again,
And we know that the poachers prefer
rhinos with long horns and pointed horns,
Every two years to save his life, I think
if he had an opinion to give to you,
he would say, "I'm very happy to sacrifice my horn
in order to save my life,"
There he is, already walking normally,
He looks fine,
[somber music playing]
I truly believe that I have the recipe
to save the rhino from extinction,
Sell the horns, keep the rhinos alive
and breeding more and more,
I will give you a challenge,
Give me one animal that's gone extinct
while farmers were breeding it and making money out of it,
There's not one,
Not one,
[groaning]
♪
[sheep bleating]
That's a dorper lamb,
That's what we do,
We raise babies,
We feed 'em, we keep the predators out of 'em,
and we try to breed good genetics,
in order to raise the next generation,
All right, I've got your friend,
Your little brother, Let's go,
And so those lambs will be three months old when they're weaned,
and they will go to a small packer in Central Texas,
and that lamb will be harvested,
and typically will go into your high end grocery chains,
and then to a few specialty restaurants,
[car honking]
I think we have a problem of people thinking that all animals are pets,
I don't think you can explain that to people,
If they don't understand that you raise a chicken
to kill a chicken, to eat a chicken, um,,,
If they can't understand that,
they're next to an infantile frame of mind
that I don't know how to, how to get in their mind,
All I can tell 'em is I love raising those animals,
I love those lambs,
Even the ones that are gonna be somebody's lamb chops
this summer for July 4th,
But that's what they're for, they're not for anything else,
[speaking foreign language]
The big one, The biggest there is,
Pull him, to the side,
[speaking foreign language]
Get him,
[crocodile growling]
[speaking foreign language]
Keep it on the grass,
[snarling]
[Christo] You are closing his nose, He must breathe,
You can't put your hand there,
Let me close your nose also,
[chuckles]
[crocodile snarling]
[local man] Three point six,
Okay, Thank you, guys,
You know, there's a big industry in our country,
Not just the crocodiles,
The lions, the sables, the buffalo,
Everything is being bred for a purpose at the end of the day,
So, yeah, sure, Some of them will be hunted,
We, as humans, are going to eat it,
we're going to use the skin,
and that's the cycle of life,
[men shouting in foreign language]
[speaking foreign language]
John! John!
[speaking foreign language]
[cell phone ringing]
Hello? Yes,
[man speaking over phone]
[Christo speaking in foreign language]
Slowly, slowly, slowly,
[men grunting]
[Christo] These are still wild animals,
even if they've been kept in captivity like this,
They will kill you in an instant and eat you up,
So then, once it's closed up,
you load it on, and it's ready for transport
to its next destination,
♪
If you don't come to Vegas,
I think your business will eventually won't make it,
This is the place to come,
And everyone tries to be better than the next person,
Doesn't matter if it's a breed in lions, or buffalo, or sable,
It's a passion to have your wild game
and be able to breed them,
and make sure you get better quality and genetics
and that you're actually proud of it,
[Joe] The Safari Club International Show
is the largest hunting convention in the planet,
We have 2,000 booths that are out there on the floor,
We'll probably run 20,000 different folks through here
from all over the world,
And you'll be able to see anything that you want
in terms of hunting, hunting support,
and conservation,
[Joe speaking over mic]
I know that a lot of people are confused
how hunting and conservation go together,
[auctioneer] Hunt South Africa on a ten-day plains game hunt for two hunters,
[Joe] About two hours ago there was an auction item
that was an elephant hunt,
[auctioneer] Twenty thousand and 22,500, Let's go,
Blow 'em out of the water, 22,500,
[yelling]
And that elephant hunt sold for about $50,000,
And that money will all go back
into conservation,
- [yells] - Sold! Right there,
Eighteen thousand dollars, Eighteen,
[people cheering]
[auctioneer speaking]
And model is not included,
[auctioneer continues speaking]
[woman 1] "I don't know," my little granddaughter says,
"I don't know why my grandma wants to shoot a zebra,"
[all laugh]
So I don't know, I'm losing face with my little,,,
my three-year-old little granddaughter,
because I'm gonna go shoot a zebra,
[laughs]
[woman 2] And crocodiles are really mean,
So I don't feel bad about killing one of those,
Besides that, I want a pair of boots,
And a purse, and a wallet,
And a belt,
[Adam] You can not only pick the species you want,
but you can pick the actual animal you want,
So you can see if you want a male or a female,
Older, younger, color, type of fur,
You can just pick whatever animal you want
from the menu that they offer you,
see the price,
and book the kill,
[Craig] The Safari Club Convention
is the ultimate meat market for exotic species,
And one of the prime attractions
is to get a Big Five grand slam,
And so you shoot one of each of the following species,
Buffalo, which would cost you about $8,000 to $9,000,
leopards for about 20,
elephants for 45,
lions for 50,000,
and the most expensive, because it's the rarest,
the rhino for $350,000,
So there's all this sort of stuff
that encourages this collecting,
this obsessiveness for more and more and more,
and the status is applied to the individual hunter
who achieves those ends,
[Philip] I happened to be at Safari Club
and they were discussing fishing wildlife
and all the bans they kept instituting,
and that there was a rumor that they wanted to put lions on the threatened list,
and further regulate their take,
And I decided at that moment,
that if the Big Five was my goal,
then I had to step my plans up drastically,
[man] Feed is ready,
[gunshot]
Wait, wait,
And take him,
[gunshot]
[laughs]
[Philip] I love it,
[Tim] It's exciting to see people get here,
They're going on a big hunt, so they're excited,
They've earned, you know,
they've worked very hard to earn the money
to be able to go pay for this hunt,
And they come here with anticipation,
and they come here with a lot of nervousness,
because in Africa, it is dangerous,
[Tim] We're right on the edge of a herd of elephants,
Time to get a bull,
You hit him, just keep hitting him again till he's down,
- That sound good? - Sounds good,
Follow me up here,
[Tim] If you go back a thousand years,
you know, the balance of nature was pretty stable,
Unfortunately, man has kind of screwed this up,
And we have encroached on so much natural land
that the species, all the species, now have to be managed,
For instance, too many elephants in Botswana,
On the right, on the right, There he is,
Hit him again,
He's down, He's down,
[laughing]
Of course, we can't do this with live animals,
but it kinda gets you pumped up,
what you're gonna feel on a real deal,
[Philip] Hunter's remorse,
It's not been something I've experienced recently,
But as a child, I certainly remember it,
[man speaking over PA]
[Philip] When I was a little boy, I remember I had a BB gun,
I can vividly remember my mother telling me
you can go shoot birds, but don't shoot a red bird,
What did I do?
I went and shot a red bird,
And I can still remember holding that bird in my hands
and looking at its beak
and just seeing how beautiful it was,
and how it was made,
Right there in that moment,
I realized that
there is no way I could've loved that bird even more,
even though it was dead,
I think a lot of us as trophy hunters,
feel the same way,
We just want that experience to go
and hunt that animal one time,
We really just want one,
[John] There you go,
What's wrong now, baby?
[cell phone ringing]
Yeah, Johnny?
It's not a good morning again this morning,
Oh, fuck, Now what?
It's a dead rhino there,
An adult rhino?
- Yeah, - Fuck,
Has she got a calf, Johnny?
Yeah, she's got a big two-year-old calf,
Two-year-old calf,
Yeah,
[sighs heavily]
Fuck me, It never stops, does it?
Yeah,
Heartbreaking,
Poor calf doesn't know what to do with itself,
[woman speaking in foreign language]
[calf whining]
[flies buzzing]
[John] So I'll just start with the post mortem,
and then I'll decide how to leave them,
That's fine,
Good,
[woman] Good,
[drill whirring]
[somber music playing]
[John] The goal of this farm and myself
is to breed 200 rhinos a year,
I have lost quite a few of my breeding stock,
Disease will always be a factor,
Unfortunately, so will poaching,
The odds are stacked against them,
And, um,,,
I'm always for the underdog,
But more to the point,
I got to know them,
and they are the last animal in the world
that deserves the persecution,
They don't deserve it,
They are the nicest, most user-friendly
animal that wants to stay this side of extinction,
[woman] They definitely are the most magical creatures,
I can sit and watch them for hours and hours and hours,
And they're ancient,
They don't look like they belong in today's life,
Yet, they're still here,
I'm hoping that people get a whiff of cases like this,
what we're trying to do here,
that more of them will start thinking of opening their own breeding operations
so that hopefully together we can
revive the numbers
before we destroy another species
because of mankind,
[John] Almost every other wild animal
has to be killed to get what people want,
Whether that is horn, skin, meat,
Rhino is the only exception,
And that's why I concentrate on rhinos,
Because you don't have to hunt them,
you don't have to kill them,
In fact, you shouldn't, Because they're growing gold for you,
[Richard] The rhino horn belief has been around for millions of years,
Unfortunately, there are more people that believe in the rhino horn
than there are Christians on this earth,
So,,, [laughing]
It's very difficult if you're gonna tell
600 million Christians or whatever
that God doesn't exist,
By the same token, you're not gonna tell people
rhino horn doesn't work,
[John] This horn weighs about four kilos,
In Vietnam, on the black market,
the retail value of this horn would be about a quarter million dollars,
It's more expensive than gold,
or heroin by weight,
The illogical part of it is that
I have four ton of rhino horn
in expensive security,
Which every conservatively,
I could get $60 million,
But we're not allowed to sell it,
When I started this project,
it was legal to sell rhino horn in South Africa,
In 2009,
our government put a moratorium on the trade in rhino horn,
But since the ban, poaching has skyrocketed,
The very crook
who now will kill a rhino and sell it illegally,
if he could sell the horn legally,
he will never kill a rhino,
Who would kill the hen that lays the golden egg?
Maybe somebody's watching for crocs, I hope,
Whoo!
A little hole right there,
Ah, it's all good,
[sighs]
[fly buzzing]
[Gysbert] This is one of the last destinations
probably in Africa,
where there is no fences,
It's absolutely open,
You have to work for your trophy,
We believe here that
if you want to hunt, it's all in the foot,
It's walk and stalk,
It's giving also the animal a chance,
So for us, the three things is, if he hears you,
he smells you, or he sees you,
it's game over,
[whispering indistinctly]
[Philip] The buildup to pulling that trigger
in my case, started 18 months ago,
So it's a long buildup to that point,
Preparation, planning, buying plane tickets,
paying the deposit on the safari,
talking with your PH about the plans,
What are we gonna do? How are gonna hunt them?
All this stalking, planning,
And then, finally with the animals coming,
and then the animal's there,
[Philip whispering]
And then you pull the trigger,
And then, boom, you got him,
And then all of that anticipation changes
into a different emotion
of joy and relief,
and excitement, and anticipation,
Because you wanna go over to him and see
what does he look like,
what does he feel like,
what does he,,,
where did he fall,
[gun clicks]
[whispering] Which one here? Look at that,
There's one here on the left, okay?
Wait,
[Gysbert] No, no, no, That's a young bull,
Let's go back,
Let's go, Let's go, Let's go,
Philip,
Let's go,
I think it's too dangerous,
Too many,,, They're too close up, and,,,
[Philip] All the ones I saw had good tusks, the big ones,
[Gysbert] Yeah, but they're female,
It's all females,
We're looking for an old, old animal
that we can harvest for meat,
[Philip] Exactly, Keep going,
[birds cawing]
[Adam] For the better part of two centuries now,
you've had this hunting culture,
first in Britain, and now in America,
that it's somehow rugged and exciting
to be out in the wilderness and hunting,
And Teddy Roosevelt bought into that
when he hunted thousands of animals,
including something like 5,000 mammals,
and started to record all of these kills,
The hunters' accounts of what they're doing
makes me sick to my stomach sometimes
about finding this amazing bull elephant
and putting a bullet in the animal's head,
And that gives them a rush of excitement,
Now, they cloak that in money and conservation,
and helping people,
So, yeah, Roosevelt is declaring all these parks national parks
in protecting wilderness,
but he's also killing thousands of animals at the same time,
because he wanted to be able to do that hunting,
He wanted to be able to consume those wild animals,
The hunting industry is trying to convince people
that the way it was in Roosevelt's time
is the way it still is today,
[Craig] A hunter was somebody who was willing to go out,
spend three weeks walking around on foot,
tracking an elephant, tracking a lion,
to shoot it and take home a trophy,
There was a challenge, there was a sense of sport,
But what has happened in the last 10 or 15 years
has been a growing segment of the hunting demographic,
which refer to as the shooters,
And the shooters may have to spend
as much money as it takes to get a three-week permit,
But if they can kill everything in the first two days,
they'll do it and they'll fly home,
It's that mentality
that really fed the birth
of the canned hunting industry,
Basically, you're going shopping at some import/export place,
and you've got your rug, you've got your mantelpiece,
But it's not sport,
It's just killing,
[gunshot]
[speaking foreign language]
[gunshot]
[crocodile snarling]
[gun reloading]
Shit, I'm out of bullets,
[local man] Come here, come here, come here,
Come here, come here, come here,
Where is it now?
[woman] That is one big ass fucking crocodile,
- Yeah, - [woman laughing]
I'm gonna tell you, the adrenalin has been worth every penny of it,
So we can fetch it out,
Something's coming out there,
It's coming out there,
Oh, fuck,
That's,,, Oh, my gosh,
[woman 1] That's not yours, Is that yours?
- I don't know, - [woman 2] I don't know,
No, but I wanna shoot her, anyway,
[laughs] I'm gonna have two,
[woman 1] That can't be yours swimming like that,
That's impossible,
[woman 2] Oh, no, that is,
- It keeps, like,,, - [man 1] That is,
It is?
Watch, I wanna shoot this one,
[man 2] I'm not, I'm not sure,
[man 1] Is that the one?
Here, I'll shoot it with this one,
Let me put my beer down, not drop it,
[women laughing]
- See? - What's this?
- [local man] See blood, - Blood?
For the last crocodile,
- Oh, the last crocodile, Oh, - Yeah,
It's just waiting for us to get close,
Oh, it's moving its eyes,
Hmm?
Why shoot it again?
[chuckles]
You have to just shoot in the brain,
[gunshot]
[man] All right!
[woman] Now it's dead,
Oh, yeah, motherfucker,
[man laughing]
Now he's destroyed,
[man] No, they'll fix it,
They'll fix it, They'll fix it,
That's what taxidermists do,
[man] That's why you paid him,
[man laughing]
I'm done for the day, It's party time, boys,
[low growling]
How much for that sucker?
That white one? That's a great white lion,
It'll be about 35,
Thirty-five thousand?
How much was Cecil?
[man] Cecil was expensive, I think, 50,000,
Make sure all your tags and things are on,
so there's no mistake on the trophies, okay?
Skin it now, salt it, put it in,
so that we know tomorrow when they start with new animals,
we finish with the day's work,
[Christo] I was in the cattle industry for like 10-12 years,
And because we had a lot of game in the area,
I had some other outfitters those years
which always contact me and say,
"Please, Christo, Can I bring a client over?
We'd like to come and hunt,"
And I said, "Okay, fine, Bring the clients,"
And then I start meeting overseas clients,
And it looked to me like it can become a good business,
So, what we offer our clients is,
there's the lodge, there's a jacuzzi,
And in the hunting area,
you can drive around, try and spot the animals,
You get off and you try and get the client
up to a point where he can have a clear, good shot at that animal,
[gunshot]
Good shot, good shot,
Good shot, buddy,
[Christo] And normally, in the middle of the day,
when it's really hot,
we bring the clients into the blind area
where they can sit down for the rest of the afternoon,
So it makes it really comfortable,
The client can stand straight up and be able to shoot
through that slot over there,
This may be like 25 yards,
We will put some feeders out here as well,
so that the animals can only come into the certain areas
where there's water for drinking,
Then we clear out around all these water points
where the blinds are,
because you would like to see the animals when they come in,
And that makes it an exciting hunt,
And it makes it a natural environment, which is very important,
Why don't you kill? You're just wasting petrol,
Yeah, it's no photo safari here, You got the wrong guide,
You should get a guide which kills things,
[all laughing]
Sorry! Okay, sorry!
Just keep in mind, we don't feed no Americans
if they don't shoot something,
[laughing]
[woman] I would love to have a giraffe,
I probably would shoot it myself, too,
I wanna hear some more,
He says it's too expensive
and we don't have room for it in our house,
I will find a room for it in our house,
even if I probably would have to build onto the trophy room,
which I don't want to,
[woman laughing]
[grunting]
It's a beautiful animal, I got one of those last year,
I still have a warthog and a baboon
and a bushbuck,
a bushpig, a caracal,
So the list is still pretty big,
and we have the rest of this day and two more days to hunt,
So we'll try to do our best to get most on the list, but,,,
it's not as easy,
It seems like once we're going for them,
they're a little skittish,
[Christo] Now we'll just try to get all this grass out of the way,
Wash all of the blood off,
You try and start a plain's game,
You know, animals which I get the feeling,
and get used to our bushing environment,
All right, good, Smile,
[Christo] And then eventually they got the experience
to allow them to go after the Big Five,
This is the most expensive one,
Damn, that was a good shot,
- Aw, beautiful photo, - And one, two,,,
- Kiss? - Yes,
[camera clicks]
Oh, that's a nice one,
I'm happy she got her second one,
And oil's up $2,
[man] What?
- [woman] Oil's up $2, - Oil's up $2,
Let's add another one to the list,
Let's add that bitch to the list,
[applause]
[auctioneer] Likely to start really low,
And when we say one naught one million here,
500,00 now,
[auction spiel]
We have now, I got a one, two now,
[auction spiel]
I got one 750 now,
I got one 750, Do we have one 750?
[Christo] Every outfitter, if he has a lot of clients,
will run a good hunting business,
You kind of shoot out your animals,
so you have to buy in new blood,
The breeding is very important,
because that's where the money is,
The money is in the breeding,
[auctioneer continues spiel]
[yelling]
We've had buffalo go for between $4 million and $5 million,
And also sable bulls go for $4 million or $5 million,
It's good for the industry,
Very big demand and a good market for it,
[auctioneer] And two million six hundred thousand, And done,
[applause]
[Craig] You have the capitalist system,
the profit motive,
making money off wildlife,
So it's remarkable development
that in South Africa
they went through an incredible period
of removing nature from their countryside
in the 1800s,
And they literally removed everything,
It's only been in the last 20-25 years
that there has been this recognition
that they could take private land,
and private owners themselves could profit
by restoring these areas,
Now, until recently, this land was mostly used for livestock,
But a lot of people decided, "Well, we could get more revenue
if we do game ranching,"
You'd actually get much more money than raising cows,
In this model, you're filling the market
by first killing rare ungulate species like sable and roan
that are still attractive for hunters,
And you can also start breeding your buffaloes
so they have abnormally huge horns,
And then, as the market saturates,
people are thinking, "Well, you know,
I've got all this land,
and we could bring back Big Five,"
Now you actually have got a restored ecosystem,
And so this has been a success story,
There are far more lions now in South Africa now
than there were a hundred years ago,
There's far more predators in general in South Africa
than there were a hundred years ago,
Initially, it may have been because this would have involved
the slaughter of some animals,
but then [swoosh] you could go towards a more naturalistic thing
that would not have happened otherwise,
If we're only gonna restrict
what we view as "domesticated animals"
to those species that have been domesticated
hundreds or thousands of years ago,
then we're just gonna see a lot of those species go away,
And I think that there are a few species like rhino
that there should be rhino farms,
And one needs to recognize
that what they've achieved in South Africa
should not be lost,
[Christo] This was a breeding buffalo bull,
This buffalo bull was bought for millions,
And eventually,
he was done breeding,
And we had to put him out there for hunting,
So we got,,, A Canadian client came over,
and he was very happy to harvest
such a beautiful trophy,
So nothing goes for waste, Nothing,
Even that animal,
And we hope we will have like maybe,
there's 50 or 70 babies of him running around,
But eventually, one day,
he going to be honored
to put him up on a trophy room,
where someone can go walk in and say,
"You know what? That was a top breeder,"
And he'll still be honored today
if you look at him and see this was a great trophy,
He makes a real great trophy,
[man] Do you ever get attached to a lion
that it's hard to release it for a hunt?
Is there some animal like that
that you're like, "Oh! This one I,,,"
All animals,
Doesn't matter what animal it is,
If you love animals, you'll get attached to them,
You go out there everyday,
you see this animal, you're feeding him,
The buffalo, your sable, Of course,
But there will be a time when you have to let go,
Cut,
[chuckling]
You must cut that,
[Christo speaking]
[voice breaking]
[sniffling]
[Philip] Okay,
- [gunshot] - [elephant groans]
[gunshot]
Yeah!
Busted a hip, Did you see that?
Congratulations,
[laughing]
- Had him running away, - Yeah,
[Philip] Oh, my,
[elephant groaning]
[Gysbert] He's done,
[elephant groaning]
[elephant moaning]
Maybe if you come to this side?
- Where? - To the chest,
- Right through there? - Yeah,
[gunshot]
[elephant breathes heavily]
Okay, let's stand a little bit back,
Then we can both finish,
[elephant moans]
[chuckling]
[Philip] Cigarette?
[spits]
[strained breathing]
[Gysbert] Is he an old one, Philip?
No, just a bull,
It doesn't have,,,
the trophy quality of a big elephant,
and it will never grow big,
So, yeah,
[flies buzzing]
[somber music playing]
♪
[speaking foreign language]
[Philip] Yeah,
The OU's elephant
is an elephant that we have to hunt for the community,
As part of their quota,
they get some animals that they can harvest for meat,
Fifteen years ago, people poached animals
because they want meat
and there was no value to the animal for them,
Now they know they must protect the wildlife,
It's not only the meat,
it's actually money going back to their pockets,
[speaking foreign language]
[indistinct chatter]
♪
[speaking foreign language]
♪
[Philip speaking]
[Philip laughing]
[goats bleating]
[flies buzzing]
[Chris speaking in foreign language]
[speaking in English]
[Chris] Break the door where people are sleeping?
Yeah,
[Chris] These are recurring problems then,
Can't carry on like this,
Somebody's gonna get eaten, It's just a matter of time,
Maybe it's better people cry by the dead lion,
We don't cry by the dead person,
Better that way,
[speaking foreign language]
We go to extreme lengths
to keep animals from being shot
on the Problem Animal Control Program,
Probably 95 percent of the time
we can get the animals out of the communities
and get them back into where they belong
and try and keep the two separated,
'Cause they don't mix well,
And people are killed every year
by elephant, and hippo and crocodile, and lion,
It's part of life,
Part of life here, anyway, certainly,
Lions come in and just absolutely destroy a guy's livelihood,
and he doesn't have a way to sustain his future,
Maybe he ends up in the bush,
putting up wire snares and poaching,
At the end of the day we're fighting a poaching war,
[man] We are trained to recruit people,
We do the anti-poaching campaigns,
Trained to,,,
to teach people and explain to them
the importance of animals,
The problem is, the people, they're suffering,
So they're forced now to get into the bush
to make a living,
Stay, stay,
Stay, Be a good boy,
Be a good boy, Stay, honey, stay,
[David speaking]
Yeah, David, you don't,
Let me tell you, you definitely don't,
[dog barks]
That one over there was only 14 months old,
I think two of them were pregnant,
And then another cow with a young calf was also wounded,
She still has a bullet in her brisket,
Whether that will prove fatal or not, we don't know,
Fucking sick,
They can give you 10, 12, even 13 calves in their life,
That is all wiped out
in one moment,
[flies buzzing]
[dog panting]
[man] The bodies were actually mutilated,
Means that there's definitely some locals involved,
I'm suspicious about the camp master,
Because the rhinos, they know him,
and he knows how to go and stand in the middle of them
quietly,,,
and then maybe, you know, two guys,
one banging that side and one banging this side,
That's how I pictured it in my nightmare,
[John] So where does that leave me?
[Charles] Yeah, but,,, What I was saying is that
we're going to have a harder thing convincing
the pro trades--
You mean the anti-trades?
[Charles] Yeah, the anti--
Convincing the anti-trades, you mean?
[Charles] Yes,
Charles, I know that,
I know that better than any of you, I'm there,
I'm in the fight all day and every day,
So I know that,
I'm not pro and I'm not anti,
Both of those approaches have merit in places
and not merit, because the motives
behind the commercial acts
are very seldom conservation-based,
They are profit-based,
and they sell it to the public on the basis of--
- It pays, it stays, - It pays, it stays, Yeah,
I'm not an emissary for your cause, Not at all,
Just be for the rhinos, not for my cause,
It's all I fucking want, Be for the rhinos,
Try and keep them alive,
It's all I'm fucking asking everybody,
[Charles] You and I can sit and have a discussion,
Let me tell you something, Anthony Bones said,
if you are anti-trade,
the you are anti-legal trade,
Then there's two things I want you to think about,
Firstly, you are keeping the money away from me,
which I need to protect my rhino,
Secondly, if you are anti-legal trade,
by implication to me,
you are pro illegal trade,
And those are the poachers,
[Charles] The fact of the matter is that--
Fact of the matter is,
in ten years' time, if there's not legalization,
you won't see one fucking rhino here,
They'll all be dead or gone,
That's the fact of the matter,
[dog barking]
[man speaking in foreign language]
[door banging]
[gun clicks]
The husband had been going into the bush and shooting elephants,
That network over the years, probably,,,
over the last ten years
would have accounted for a couple of thousand elephant,
at least,
So, yeah, They're bad guys,
Done a lot of bad things,
[man] Tell this fucking lady now
we are not tired of this mien,
We are going to leave her with,,,
[man speaking foreign language]
[Chris speaking English]
[speaking foreign language]
[speaking English]
[speaking foreign language]
You've known your father a long time,
The future in the bush ain't no future,
There's no future,
Otherwise you can die, leaving your family behind,
Or to be jailed,
And you are a young guy
with plenty of future to your side,
I know if we stay like this, we will end up,,,
[speaking foreign language]
That's not going forward,
[Chris] We're fighting this war for the community,
This community,
And another community further away
want these elephants, too,
They're worth a lot of money,
and they will go to all lengths to get what they want,
So, yeah,
You need to look in the mirror every morning,
I make a point of it,
Every single morning I look in the mirror,
because we've got to make sure that
we don't cross the bounds,
uh, that,,,
We can't lose our humanity for humanity,
I think that's really important,
It gets harsh, and you do things sometimes that,,,
when you saw it, it will scare people,
But we've,,,
We have to do what,,, We have to keep this fight going,
It's a war to save elephant from extinction,
[John] How many rhinos are poached
in less than a year?
Twenty,
When I fired the previous security company,
I really had a suspicion
that some of them were involved in the rhino poaching,
One of the people in that team I really liked
was the second in command,
a chap by the name of Thomas Chowke,
That is our friend Thomas at the time that he was here,
I've got a very reliable report from the police
that Thomas was in on the poaching,
That is, emotionally,
the worst part of this was you're friends now,
You're the friends of your rhino,
You feel you can't trust anybody,
[man] I won't be able to guarantee
the zero losses on this property,
But I can say to you that most of those incidents which are mapped there
are as a direct result
of having the wrong people on site,
with not the right equipment, not the right training,
not being highly motivated,
[John] So we will now change the policy completely
to an elite reaction unit,
I don't necessarily want them in a body bag,
I would like to upset them
for them to say, "No, no, no,
We don't wanna go to that place,"
[man over radio] We have a case of shots being fired,,,
[man] While a lot of the politicians are praying for peace,
we are praying for war,
More conflict is probably needed in this arena
to sort out the problem,
[John] Quite frankly, I feel poor,
because they're all very expensive,
Radar seems to be somewhere
between ten and 20 million grand,
This chopper here is costing me nearly a million a month,
Then there's the underground men,
and the bloody information men,
and, and, and,,,
Eric, would that have come through
so long if you tapped it on the top of the face,
I mean, why did they come in here?
They walked from that bottom road there,
all the way up here, into this camp,
to come and poach these,
Why?
Just 'cause they're fucking with my head, or why?
You feel very helpless, you know,
Good morning, darlings,
Let me scratch you,
This one is four-months-old,
[Pam] I don't think anybody ever thought
any private person
would have 1300 rhinos,
And next year we're gonna have 200 more maybe,
But I suppose it's an addiction, probably,
[man] And where do you think it's gonna stop?
When he kicks the bucket, I guess,
Then hopefully one of his sons will carry on,
He won't stop before he's six foot under,
My dream is to carry on what my dad's doing,
It's to carry on with the rhino breeding,
Unfortunately, the irony,
I wouldn't breed rhino, because it's too expensive,
and it's very high risk,
I mean, we've had death threats here at the house,
If I see what he's gone through in sort of the last 15 years,
his financial position has got gradually worse and worse
the more rhino he's acquiring,
I have invested $50 million in this project
with virtually no return,
[helicopter whirring]
This project will come to an end
unless it is making money,
I can go on selling my assets,
but it is not sustainable in the long run,
I used to have six resorts,
I used to have over 3,000 beds,
All the resorts have been,
and this is the last one that will be sold on auction,
[auction spiel]
The first time,
For the second time, 24 million,
Thank you, ma'am, It's yours,
[applause]
[John] After taking various advice,
I believe that I don't have any option
but to take the government to court
to lift the moratorium,
If I don't, I will run out of money,
and my rhinos will be killed by poachers,
Go,
Sure,
We believe that the poachers would have shot
an elephant today,
and we hope to meet them on the road,
and explain to them that
this no longer happens in this area,
[chuckles]
[gun reloading]
[Chris] There was a sting operation in the district south of us,
where a lot of the armed poachers come from,
And what had transpired was,
a guy whipped out a knife,
tried to stab the police officer,
He was shot,
Uh, he died
shortly after that,
Uh, yeah, I don't know,
It was a bit strange, 'cause the next day,
I had to go and shoot an elephant
on behalf of the council,
But walking up to that elephant,
which is an incredibly dangerous thing to do,
and you have this huge adrenalin rush
as you're walking up to it,
It's,,, Your heart's going, your head's going,,,
You need to cleanly shoot this animal,
And as it falls and it's,,,
falls to the floor after your shot,
there's just this huge drop of emotion,
for me, anyway,
And,,,
it's,,,
to me,,,
really sad,
It turns from this beautiful animal
into this floppy mess of gray skin,
To me, shooting elephant is hard,
I understand it's gotta be done, and I have to do it sometimes,
But it's a tough call,
Yeah, it's an emotional thing, killing an animal,
I think maybe that's part of the hunting,
Where people
have this huge buildup, and then this emotional switch,
[stammers] I get that,
So I understand maybe if others get it,
and maybe it becomes a passionate addiction,
I don't know,
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday Dear Philip ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ And many more ♪
Cheers,
[clapping]
You mind?
Who's all wild?
You spilled it,
What are you, some kind of wild animal?
[woman] Mom, Dad, y'all watch,
Philip's opening his gift,
Oh, I remember what these are,
[laughing]
"Birthday cheers on your quest for the Big Five,"
Something Merlot,
[woman] Something,
In some kind of chocolate, Is that what that is?
- [woman] Happy birthday, - [Philip] Thank you,
[kiss]
[Philip] Unfortunately, this is my birthday present, I guess,
They've listed the lions as threatened,
and all lions as threatened,
and another species as endangered,
So effectively, lion hunting is over,
Now, when this all goes into effect, I don't know,
We're just a few months out,
so maybe we're okay, maybe we're not,
Maybe we have to go to a different country,
maybe the whole trip's ruined, I don't know,
So I think the thing that makes me the maddest
is this service director Dana Ash,
says that, and I quote,
"that it's a privilege, not a right,
for us to bring back these trophies from other countries,"
I don't think he was elected by anybody,
I think he's an appointed bureaucrat,
and he has no right to tell me
what my rights are,
and what the privilege of being a US citizen is,
I'm gonna be the first hunter in there for the hunting season,
And we planned it that way,
So I'm going as early as I can in this coming year,
But, um,,,
that might not be early enough,
[indistinct chatter]
[speaking foreign language]
That's the bottom line,
[speaking foreign language]
[Pieter] There are about 150 farms in South Africa
that have permits to keep and breed lions,
About 70 percent of all hunters
are coming from the US and Canada,
And right now the importation of lion trophies
will be much more difficult,
And that will give my industry a severe blow,
If we can't get hunters
to hunt our lions,
we slaughter the lions and sell their bones,
[Christo] What other alternative is there
if you cannot look after your animals,
and there's no value to your animals?
How will you look after them?
Where will you find the money to feed them?
If you take away the value of it,
I have to get rid of it,
There is no other option for me,
Walk away from my place,
let people shoot them, euthanize them,
What else?
What can you expect me to do?
I can't just let them open the camps
and let them run out free and kill people,
[low growling]
[Will] Just once in a while,
an individual animal
can capture the public imagination
and change public attitudes,
[news anchor] Worldwide outrage
over the death of Cecil the lion,
killed at the hands of an American dentist,
[Will] Cecil's death created
a sort of public ground swell of opinion
that's been translated into real action,
You know, I eat hamburgers,
But that was not a hunt, that was a murder,
And this guy must have quite a collection of animal heads,
because here he is posing next to a bear he shot,
He killed like half of Noah's Ark,
[audience laughing]
[announcer] Killing a lion for sport?
Not in the era of Instagram and Facebook,
Not to a generation brought up to relate to Simba,
We'll always be together, right?
No, we won't,
I'll be murdered by a dentist from Minnesota,
See that constellation?
The one that looks like a white guy in his 50s
with a fake smile?
[man] Walter fucking Palmer,
You hunted Cecil the lion like a fucking cowardly bitch,
Dentist Palmer, welcome to the court of public opinion,
I'm really happy that social media
is getting this story out there,
You gotta stop talking about it, I'm gonna get really angry,
What would happen if you were being hunted, motherfucker?
We'll never forgive what you did,
[announcer] In the wake of public outrage
over the killing of Cecil the lion,
the three largest US airlines are instituting bans
on carrying trophies as freight,
[Will] Somebody is paying for this thing to function,
Someone provides the clothing,
the scopes, the outdoor gear,
And it makes the big corporate players in this
think very carefully
about how closely they wish to be associated
with certain practices,
And I think that that will change,
and it will change fast,
And people will say, "Mm-mmm,
I don't wanna be a part of this,"
[protesters chanting] Save our lions!
[man] Ban game hunting!
[crowd] Save our lions!
[man] Ban game hunting!
[crowd] Save our lions!
[man] Ban game hunting!
[crowd] Save our lions!
We will shame these people,
We will ostracize these people,
We will put such pressure on our governments
so that they've got nowhere to go,
And it isn't just lions,
A certain gentleman that breeds 1200 white rhinos in South Africa
spends 5,2 million grand a year
feeding them and looking after them,
says he can no longer afford to pay for all of that,
He'll have to cull those animals,
unless he can sell the rhino horns,
And we've got to say enough is enough,
We won't allow that to happen,
We won't allow South Africa to abuse its position,,,
[Craig] Welcome, I'm here tonight to moderate a debate
between two very prominent conservationists,
Will Travers of the Born Free Foundation,
and Mr, John Hume,
[John] I'm very keen to hear what he's gonna say,
He's far more experienced than I am
in wooing the public,
Don't forget that that's what he does,
He woos the public,
and that's how they collect money,
and that's why he's so good at it,
[applause]
[John] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,
I'm a retired property developer,
and now custodian of 1,403 rhinos,
If I can sell the horns,
my 1400 will become 2,000, 3,000
and 10,000,
I cannot see what is wrong with that,
when my rhinos are happy alive,
Come and see them where they are,
I have the recipe,
but it takes a lot of money,
I have a way to raise the money
without going begging all over the world,
All I need is for it to be legal,
I don't think there's any legitimate case
for you having these animals in large numbers
in private areas of owned land,
where you can harvest them, where you can profit from them,
where you can put them into the international market,
where it can lead to more destruction,
[applause]
Excuse me, sir, I don't think you understand Africa,
You simply don't understand Africa,
How many consumers could you supply from your rhinos?
I trim my horns every two years,
So I can produce with my current rhinos,
one ton of horn a year,
Rhino, What about the rest of the population?
They must do the same,
That's why I wanna give them to the communities,
I wanna teach the community,
There's Sumatran rhino, Indian rhino,
Once you flood,,, "flood" your market,,,
So you want me to give up and let my rhino all die?
[woman] It's all about your rhino,
What about the global rhino?
Let the global rhino do the same thing,
You have to speak for all rhino,
not just yours,
[applause]
[Will] The "if it pays, it stays" principle,
the commodification of wildlife,
Elephants will stay if we can sell their ivory,
Lions will stay if the wealthy elite can shoot them for fun,
And rhino will stay, albeit on ranches
very similar to Mr, Humes',
if their horns can be sold to remote, distant, deluded buyers,
What a vision of nature that will be,
Contained, confined,
commercialized and counterfeit,
[growling]
[somber music playing]
[drill whirring]
[reporter] South Africa is yet to decide
on a push to end a global ban
on buying and selling rhino horn,
The move could open up a $2 billion market,
and also determine the fate
of the critically endangered species,
[woman laughing]
Oh, my gosh,
[Philip] I got this one,
[man] You got this one?
I'm coming back,
[people chanting and clapping]
They like to talk about the numbers,
they like to talk about conservation,
They're just greenwashing, basically,
the fact that they enjoy killing,
And that's basically psychopathic behavior,
We're seeing a lot of progress for animals,
The change is coming,
We're gonna put an end to this,
I'm actually a conservation hunter,
We're very conscientious about what we do hunt,
and we don't hunt any endangered species,
I'm against all hunting,
Just all hunting, no matter what?
No matter what,
No matter the results or,,,
All hunting,
From the conservationist point of view,
the money that comes in from hunting
in those areas where those conservancies are,
is actually what's keeping them there,
You honestly think your money goes anywhere
except into someone's back pocket?
- Were going,,, - You are breeding corruption,
Were going to go to the school that we paid for,
Were going to go to--
So go build a school,
If you wanna build a school,
I'll shake your hand, I'll come build it with you,
- No problem, - I'm just saying--
Why do you have to shoot an animal to go build a school?
I'm just saying that's part of our industry,
- That's not the same, - It's an option,
Murder is murder,
- It's not murder if it's an animal, - Yes, it is,
Did you murder the chicken that you had for lunch?
I don't eat meat, sweetheart,
- Oh, good, - I'm vegan,
- I don't eat meat, - Okay, Okay,
'Cause I have regard for all species,
and all living, breathing things,
Shame on you!
Cowards!
- [drums beating] - [protesters chanting]
[Craig] It's human nature to be empathetic with the individual,
And so the animal rights organizations,
that's their thinking,
is the individual,
As if that's somehow gonna protect the entire area,
It's gonna protect the whole ecosystem, And it's not,
So they think in terms of Bambi, or Simba, or Fifi,
'Cause we can see Fifi, and we know Fifi,
and we send out photographs of Fifis to our donors,
Then that's great, okay?
But Fifi might be in the right middle place
if she's right in the most protected area,
and you're ignoring everywhere else around the periphery,
And all people are cutting away
and they're felling forests,
and they're clearing land,
and they're bringing their livestock
right next to Fifi,
And it all goes,
They're ignoring the fact
that local people are being killed by lions,
being trampled by elephants,
they're losing their crops,
that they do not share their value system,
If you cannot empathize with the local people,
then you're not gonna be at all successful
in protecting in the long term,
On the other hand, you have the hunters
who are convinced
that where they operate
they're the last bastion of support
to protect these areas,
But to an animal welfare organization, no,
No animal must die,
The reality of hunting is that,
yes, there are a few places where hunting does make a difference,
But in many areas, the economics don't add up,
They're not generating enough money,
The land is being lost,
especially in the most corrupt countries,
We've seen that happen over and over
in many parts of Africa,
where they go out and say, "Everything is fine,"
No, it's not fine,
Things are declining,
[Chris] What we do is run the camp
and kind of manage the on-ground management
of the anti-poaching in the area,
And we get a daily rate
when foreign hunters come in to hunt here,
which really subsidizes
the money that I have to run my anti-poaching,
You can imagine all that dust and dirt and rain, and,,,
Our firearms take a bit of a hammering,
That's why we like these AK action,
'Cause all the AK built in Israel,
you can't really go wrong with them,
- [laughs] - No, no,
[Chris] We're fighting to save this,,,
for the community,,,
while people kill it,
It's,,,
It really is pretty weird,
We're fighting to save something
so that somebody else can kill it,
It just comes back to,,,
control, ethic, morals,,,
sustainability,
You can assimilate the two,
the poachers and the commercial hunters,
but the difference is the poachers,
they shoot anything for their teeth,
Literally anything,
And they will shoot every last one that there is,
because there's a commercial driven desire for these teeth,
On the hunting side,
if done correctly,
where there's a very carefully measured off-take,
um, I can live with that,
Killing every last animal? No, I can't live with that,
Won't do that,
That's just wrong,
[Martin] You loaded up?
- [Philip] No, - [Martin] You gotta load up,
[Martin] You never know what we can bump here,
[gun reloading]
- [Philip] I'm not really after a buffalo, - [Martin] Okay,
Yeah, I mean, you know what, we're gonna need baits,
So we've got three more places to bait,
But it's your call, You know, I mean, I could--
How much am I paying for the hippo for bait?
Four seven-fifty,
- And how much for a buffalo? - 5,500,
Okay,
[Philip clears throat]
[Philip] Okay,
[Martin] When you're ready, take it,
[gunshot]
This is one of now probably 17 baits
we've put up so far for Philip,
We've used hippo, zebra, impala,
And our biggest problem is they're rotting really quick,
They're only lasting two or three days, so,,,
Hopefully, cats find this in the next two days while it's still fresh,
and give us a little luck,
[Philip] You know, the Bible says
He gave man dominion over all the animals,
And that dominion comes with a responsibility,
But it also means it's the right to use,
And so, I think that is a big part of it,
And it's a big part of appreciating God's creation,
Some people think, "How can you go out
and shoot God's creation?"
That's a totally false statement,
False point of view,
God said we have dominion over the animals,
That means we can do what we choose with them,
It's a very powerful statement that's in the Bible,
[gunshot]
[Philip] Give me the rams,
[gunshot]
I think it does make it more special for me as a believer
to go out there and pursue these animals
and know that God placed them,
And when I put my hand on that lion,
I can promise you,
at that moment, as with all of my life,
anybody that believes in evolution is a complete fool,
I just don't understand how people can't understand
that God raised that animal into existence,
[flies buzzing]
[sighs]
[flies buzzing]
[whispering]
[Philip] A thought came to mind as I was coming here,
and beginning to feel the emotion
and the anticipation of this big hunt,
I've been a hunter my whole life,
They say I fell out of the hunting vehicle
when I was two or three years old,
and landed on my head,
Maybe that's what wrong with me sometimes,
And, you know, I lost my dad a few years ago,
and he was a hunter,
At the time, I was a little angry with him,
the way he would treat me,
He would do funny things to me
to make me learn to hunt,
We'd be in a pickup,
and whether it was a rabbit or a deer,
summer or winter,
we'd be driving along, and he would see some game,
And all he would do is turn the engine off
and sit there and not say a word,
And I would have to find the animal,
get out of the vehicle, and go take a shot,
But he challenged me,
My dad challenged me in many ways,
That was just one way,
And,,,
[chuckles]
I think that he would be really tickled
to be able to tell people
back home at the coffee shop,
and when I say "coffee shop" I mean the Dairy Queen,
that his son is out hunting a lion,
I think if he was around he would've really got a big kick out of that,
[chuckling]
[whispers] It would be better if he was a little bit up,
- It'll be out, - Yeah,
It'll work, but if you can make it up a little bit,
Down just a bit,
Right there,
[blow dryer whirring]
[drill whirring]
Look at his hair,
That feels right,
You wouldn't believe it, but hair patterns are very important,
It's not gonna look alive if it's mangy,
I actually have nothing for myself,
I've never kept a piece of work,
Ever,
One day I'll probably end up buying a skin from a zoo,
one that's expired,
and create my own little private museum,
Even if it's private, it's still something
that will preserve it when it's long gone,
Which is inevitable the way we carry on in this world,
People are killing animals for the wrong reasons,
Like poaching, using them for,,,
completely irrational,,,
What do you call it? Illogical reasons like medicine,
It doesn't work,
It's just a fantasy,
And besides that,
the dissipation of their natural habitat,
they've got nowhere else to go,
They come into conflict with people,
They always come second,
So there's that too,
Animals will end up one day behind cages
like we have in zoos, but on a larger scale,
or just fantasies that people talk about,
"One day there were these animals,,,"
So this might do justice to them at least,
At least that's what I aim for,
'Cause if they do become extinct one day,
then there's something to show the world what they look like,
Yeah, get the clear quickly,
♪
[thunder rumbling]
[John] I really feel as if they know
that they're in danger,
They know
that they're not equipped to avoid extinction,
It is humans that have messed up their lives,
We are to blame,
And it makes me understand
that I cannot give up,
[thunder rumbling]
Why should we save any species from extinction?
It's almost like, why should we breathe?
It's because it's us,
Surely we want
our world to survive,
We want our world to be a better place,
- [gunshot] - [birds screeching]
Fantastic, buddy, Excellent shot,
[sighs] My gosh,
[sobbing]
You laid down the sticks, didn't you?
[chuckles]
That was a good idea,
You don't want those to get a hold of you,
I promise you that,
Those teeth are just,,,
absolutely magnificent,
What a mane, Look at that red,
And black,
Black on its ears,
Green eyes,
And he's an old, old male,
Really a one of a kind,
I made the decision several months ago
that I was coming to hunt lion
and this is my trophy,
There's not any bureaucrat that can take it away from me,
[sniffles]
Okay, Martin, can we set him up to take some pictures?
[camera clicking]
[car trunk closes]
[somber music playing]
Subtitles by explosiveskull
♪