With the advent of modern agriculture and technology, it is no longer necessary for most people to shoot their dinner. Yet the taste for the sport of tracking and shooting an animal has persisted, and in some countries, hunting is carefully regulated to maintain a sound balance between predator and prey.
Working with the local environmental agency, a new resort in the United Arab Emirates hopes to entice hunters to come and “kill for the pot” at their high end desert lodge near Al Ain. For a steep sum, they can hunt for deer and gazelle, which will be cooked by trained staff at the end of each day.
Throughout most of Middle East and North Africa, hunting regulations are so poorly enforced that men can shoot a bonnet full of birds or a wolf without any government reprisals.
We’ve seen this time and again in Lebanon, Kuwait and elsewhere. Hunting without careful oversight can lead to devastating losses – like the one million migratory song birds killed for a pickled dish in Cyprus.
Some argue that hunting should be banned altogether, while others claim that total bans are unrealistic and lead to poaching.
Most Green Prophet writers could not be persuaded to pick up a gun and shoot anything – especially not animals that are hanging on tenterhooks in the wild.
But there is clearly a market for hunting, and if we have to choose, we would prefer a regulated hunting environment that involves more than trophies for rich men’s walls.
This appears to be what Mourouj Hotel and Resorts will offer when their new boutique lodge opens in September, 2013. Although nothing about the development promises to be “green.”
Visitors will have their own private pool complete with jacuzzi and sauna in 15 “royal villas” in the water-strapped desert, for which they will pay a whopping $3,763 a night.
This price includes hunting excursions and the use of resort weapons.
While deer and gazelle will definitely be available between September and April each year, according to The National, there’s also a chance that hunters will be able to shoot birds.
“It will be prearranged hunting in coordination with the UAE Environment [Agency] and it will of course take into account safety and security,” Tarek Elsherif, the managing director of Mourouj Hotels and Resorts, told The National.
He added that they hope to attract customers who normally flock to Africa and Asia to spend all their money out in the desert instead.
:: The National
Image of desert gazelle, Shutterstock
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Having hunted their natural predators to near extinction, white hunters would keep the antelope population from exploding, except wilderness areas are shrinking from the pressure of growing native populations.