This Afghanistan Veteran Now Hunts Poachers In Africa

[Calliegirl]

My newest hero.

Nearly 100 elephants are slaughtered every day for their tusks. Without action, this iconic species, and others, will be gone from the wild within a decade.
So that is where former U.S. Army officer turned anti poaching enforcer Kinessa Johnson steps in.

Recently she joined the ranks of Veterans Empowered to Protect African Wildlife (“VETPAW”) as an anti-poaching advisor. Johnson and her fellow post-9/11 veterans train and support African anti-poaching rangers to prevent the extermination of keystone African wildlife, and the disastrous economic and environmental impact it would have.

The purpose of VETPAW is extremely noble and in the video below you can watch their founder Ryan Tate, who himself served in Iraq, talking about how it got started and their mission to save elephant’s from extinction…

This Afghanistan Veteran Now Hunts Poachers In Africa [8 Photos] | The Roosevelts

 

[Clueless Git]

This is a good thing because shooting poachers is far cheaper than fixing the poverty that drives the poaching trade.

That and that it's a good reason to show some pictures of some hot white chicks holding far better guns than their quarry can afford.

Personaly I'd prefer to have seen that the hot chicks with guns had been sent out to hunt the demand, rather than the supply, end of the poached goods chain myself.

I do fully appreciated that there's a big difference twix shooting poor black fekkers who get paid $25 for a pair of Rhino balls and rich yellow fekkers who can afford to pay $30k for a single Rhino gonad though.

 

[Calliegirl]

They don't actually shoot the poachers (unfortunately), they teach the rangers how to track them down and apprehend them. And most of the poachers have more fire power and equipment than the rangers do.

 

[yakherder]

The sociological and economic issues are indeed relevant. In the meantime, laws that aren't enforced are just suggestions. I've got no sympathy for these guys, though it'd be nice if we could slip some operators into China and start taking out the buyers.

 

[Clueless Git]

They don't actually shoot the poachers (unfortunately), they teach the rangers how to track them down and apprehend them. And most of the poachers have more fire power and equipment than the rangers do.

WUTT???

One bunch of poor black fellahs hunting down another bunch of poor black fellahs (while the hot chicks in the photos read cosmo) isn't going to give anyone an erection.

My sole grievance here being that the publicity photos of battle ready hot chicks holding state of the art fire power seem to have been intentionaly misleading.

 

[Clueless Git]

They don't actually shoot the poachers (unfortunately), they teach the rangers how to track them down and apprehend them. And most of the poachers have more fire power and equipment than the rangers do.

Under separate heading ...

A superiorly armed bunch of poachers, with big bucks on their minds, allowing themselves to be apprehended by an inferiorily armed bunch of Rangers?

Just saying, it seems a bit unlikely.


Not having a go at you here, Callie, btw. It's just that there is so much inherent racism (black butts worth less than white butts) in nearly everything to do with Africa that it gets my bile ducts full to overflowing.

 

[yakherder]

I'm sure she'd love to hunt them directly just as much as the various spec ops doing training in Africa would love to be hunting LRA and Boko Haram directly instead of teaching someone else to do it. It's political correctness and restrictive rules of engagement keeping them back, not their own personal desire to put black lives on the line first.

 

[Clueless Git]

I'm sure she'd love to hunt them directly just as much as the various spec ops doing training in Africa would love to be hunting LRA and Boko Haram directly instead of teaching someone else to do it. It's political correctness and restrictive rules of engagement keeping them back, not their own personal desire to put black lives on the line first.

M'point there was that they can afford 'sexy' guns for the hot white chick publicity photos.

Not so for the poor rangers that have actualy have go to get their black butts shot at though.

 

[Mischief]

Seems to me she's too heavily muscled to be so easily dismissed as a "hot white chick", as though she were a model posing in a skimpy bikini with a firearm that she doesn't know how to handle. I suspect she could take out 99% of the members of this board, with or without the weapons.

 

[Andy_T]

Seems to me she's too heavily muscled to be so easily dismissed as a "hot white chick", as though she were a model posing in a skimpy bikini with a firearm that she doesn't know how to handle. I suspect she could take out 99% of the members of this board, with or without the weapons.

According to some comments on the original postings, she was a mechanic in Afghanistan. Still. Guess she nevertheless would be badass.

But ... I am not too sure how happy I am with the message "Let's go kill some bad guys. They're bad, so killing them is good"

Sounds too much like the philosophy of your average hollywood revenge action flick. Simple solutions to complex problems.

And something your average omni can feel really good about. After all, these are SPECIAL animals, not just your average cow and pig.

How DARE those evil rich Chinese guys have them killed???

 

[yakherder]

VETPAW kicked out of Tanzania

And that's that. I guess they should have focused on the mission instead of trying to become celebrities.

 

[Calliegirl]

I didn't realize it was going to be an Animal Planet TV show.
What a shame, they could have done some good if they hadn't been so enamored with fame. I wonder if they would have gone at all if they weren't going to be filmed.

 

[yakherder]

I didn't realize it was going to be an Animal Planet TV show.
What a shame, they could have done some good if they hadn't been so enamored with fame. I wonder if they would have gone at all if they weren't going to be filmed.

There was a list a mile long of qualified applicants, and the pay is quite good. There is a high demand for all sorts of mercenaries right now . I'm sure the mission will go on, just through a different organization.