Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. The misinformation you have just heard on the floor: You are not going to save any animals, you are going to help kill animals. I have been to Africa eight times. I have tried to conserve, and I have done so. Areas that I have been hunting, like Namibia, the loss of the animals is because of poaching, not for the ivory, but because of the food, because there is no value to the animal, so they will kill it and eat it, the local people. You are not going to help it out, because there is no value to that animal other than food if you don't have trophy hunting when it is worth more. If I was to kill a buffalo over there, all I get is the head and the hide. They get the meat. All you are going to do is prohibit it being imported into the United States and making you feel good, but it is not going to save the animal. In fact, the animal is going to diminish. That has been proven regardless of what you may read. We are the real conservationists. It is going to let everybody else around the world go hunt in those areas, probably without any safeguard or investment. This may sound good, it may help somebody out in their district, but it is not going to save the animals. I suggest, respectfully, you ought to go and witness what is occurring over there by those that live there and are destroying the animals if we do not hunt them, because there is no value. I believe I am a great conservationist.…”