In an attempt to feed communities experiencing acute hunger, Zimbabwe plans to cull 200 Elephants and distribute the meat from their bodies as food. Not only does this approach completely ignore the much larger issue afflicting Zimbabwe right now and causing the widespread hunger - that being the worst drought seen in over four decades - it is also a severe and devastating disregard for the lives of more than 200 Elephants, their families, and their communities.

The catastrophic impact of culls is well-documented. A cull of 200 Elephant individuals will have grave and enduring implications, not only on the Elephant communities in Zimbabwe, but on human and other nonhuman communities as well. The insinuation that nonhuman life must be sacrificed, as if they are not life at all, in order to offer a feeble bandaid to a much larger, far-reaching issue is hubristic and profoundly dangerous.

Petition will be sent to the Minister of Environment, Water, and Climate in Zimbabwe, Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.