That's your opinion only. Some hunters consider themselves as part of the wheel of life and the ultimate in game conservationists. What would you say if a game park only gave hunting permits to species that were over-populated and were having food-scarcity issues? Would you look at it the same? What do you say to the park rangers that have to go out and machine-gun entire herds to save the species on the park? Are they more or less morally defective than the man (or woman) that pays for the privilege?
The parks don't give permits out for endangered species. And they know how many of a species can survive on the park with the limited resources. In all cases, a legal, permitted hunt is a cull that provides income to the park.
But then, you wouldn't know anything about that, because all you see is a haze of moral righteousness that is colored by your myopic ethno-centrist view of the world. Grow up and get out and see the rest of the world.
I've been around hunters, I've been on a deer hunt when I was a kid. I know hunters.
Here is the thing, giraffes are not as plentiful as say gnus (wilderbeasts), they are big game. And a lot of these African countries are corrupt, if a rich person wants to pay a fee, they will take it. And then you have to look at how much money is going to game preserves by the local and national agencies.
How do you think elephants and rhinos get killed and chopped up by poachers?
Park rangers who go out and machine gun herds to cull them might want to take another approach. Like taking a certain number and transferring them to another country whose stock is low, and said game reserve in that country could transfer stock that the first game reserve is low on. Overpopulation if it is a prey species usually means that there is not enough predator species around. If reserves gave licenses to hunters to kill them, and the food was used to feed them and the locals, I could see that.
Big game hunters don't consider themselves part of the wheel of life, they are after big game, it's about the trophy aspect, about the ego.
Also, being part of the wheel of life, there was a balance in the states, until in the early to mid 20th century hunters went hard and killed off tons of grey and red wolves, foxes, cougars, Lynxes, Bobcats, Hawks, eagles etc. predators. These all kept certain prey in check---a balance. And now, with far less predators and far more prey species---squirrels, deer, etc we need hunting seasons. Man has to now play the predator role due to killing off the actual predators.
Also, look at what happened to the passenger pigeon. It has been said that the flocks were so big that they numbered in the billions, and took hours to pass by. And what did hunters do? They basically killed off the flocks. Same for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, and I believe for the Carolina Parakeet as well (that was also due to habitat loss as well, I think).
