Elephants to be used in pet food

ELEPHANTS could be culled and used for pet food under recommendations being considered in Botswana.

Tourists visiting the southern African nation, home to a third of the continent’s elephants, could be allowed to shoot the animals to help control numbers, its government said.

Proposals include the ‘establishment of elephant meat canning’ for pet food and ‘regular but limited elephant culling’.

With 130,000 elephants, Botswana has grown into one of the most popular destinations to see the animals – but locals have accused them of damaging crops.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who took office last year, is now reviewing the country’s hunting ban, introduced in 2014.

Eduardo Gonçalves, of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, said there was ‘real risk of the species going extinct’.

‘Allowing elephants in their last stronghold to be killed for entertainment is the last thing it needs,’ he added.