Botswana threatens to deport 20,000 elephants to Germany

Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi has threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany as the countries argue over the import of hunting trophies.

“No joke,” he told the German tabloid BILD on Tuesday.

Masisi attacked the German federal government, and the environment ministry in particular, led by Green minister Steffi Lemke, for seeking to ban the import of trophies despite Botswana’s overpopulation of elephants.

“It is very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion about our affairs in Botswana. We are paying the price for preserving these animals for the world,” he said.

Botswana, home to about 130,000 elephants according to the president, has sent 8,000 to Angola already. “We would also like to make such an offer to the Federal Republic of Germany,” announced Masisi. “We won’t take no for an answer.”

“We want our elephants to roam freely. The German weather is bad enough for them,” he added. “If you like them so much, then please accept this gift from us.”

“It is very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion about our affairs in Botswana. We are paying the price for preserving these animals for the world,” Mokgweetsi Masisi said. | Monirul Bhuiyan/AFP via Getty Images

Officials from the southern African country already protested a potential U.K. ban on safari hunters importing trophies, warning in March they would send 10,000 elephants to Hyde Park in London.

The animal rights organization PETA supports Lemke’s plans to restrict and possibly ban the import, calling trophy hunting “a hobby of rich, jaded people who have more money than morals.”

“The horrendous sums that amateur hunters spend on a hunting trip do not end up with the poor population or with a national park administration, but almost exclusively in the pockets of tour operators and hunting farm owners,” a PETA spokesperson told POLITICO.

Botswana should ban trophy hunting entirely and instead rely on photo tourism to generate revenue, the spokesperson added, pointing out that living animals would do more for the country’s image.

Botswana’s president described his country’s elephant situation as serious. Elephants were trampling people to death, crops were destroyed and villages devastated.

He also invited the minister to inspect wildlife protection in Botswana. His country does more “than any other country in the world,” he stressed, adding that a move to ban importing trophies would worsen poverty.

The German Association for Animal Welfare called the government’s plans “long overdue” and shared a 2022 report with POLITICO, which argues that such hunts, in fact, exacerbate existing inequalities within society instead of diminishing them.  

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was unavailable for comment. Cough.