NPR

Botswana Weighs Lifting Hunting Ban, With Eye On Reducing Elephant Population

A government group recommends elephant hunting resume within limits, and also calls for the animals to be slaughtered for meat used in pet food production.

Botswana, home to the world's largest elephant population, is moving toward culling the numbers of the giant mammals by lifting a wildlife hunting ban, after a group of Cabinet ministers endorsed the move.

In June, President Mokgweetsi Masisi tasked a government subcommittee with reviewing a moratorium on trophy hunting put in place by his predecessor, in 2014. On Thursday the group said it had decided to which prohibited hunting the pachyderms on public lands.

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