Animal rights contradictions in the South African safari industry

Abstract

The role and rights of animals are a highly contested one in South Africa, as well as across the entire world. In this report, however, I will be focusing on situations observed in South Africa, in the Limpopo province, in Hoedspruit near the Kruger National Park. On the one hand, we have the beauty of the bushveld and the animal life that represents this country. Many people, mainly white middle-class people, living in South Africa and international tourists corning into South Africa buy into the naturalized idea of the bushveld. With rhino poaching and the canned lion hunting industry disrupting and threatening this sense of idyllic beauty, these people (tourists and mainly white South Africans) have taken up arms to stand by the rights of the wildlife that so handsomely represents our idea of the untouched wilderness. (Abbreviation abstract)