Atlanta, GA – September 15, 2016. Media Lodge and Funker Tactical have teamed up to produce a significant new video series – “The Good Fight, A Counter-Poaching Initiative”, presented by Sig Sauer. This 3-part video series will run as an online broadcast on GetZone, as well as Funker Tactical’s and Instructor Zero’s YouTube channels. The show will highlight the many ongoing challenges of the governments and people that are trying to protect the rhino population from extinction and defend against the ever-growing problem of poaching in Africa.
In July of 2016, a team developed by Davide Bomben and Instructor Zero travelled to South Africa on a training mission to help preserve the lives of not only the rhinos, but also their sworn protectors – The Pilanesberg Rangers. In this 3-part series, we follow their 5-day training camp in the middle of the African Savannah where they battle the constant threat of enemy engagement, the unforgiving terrain and predatory wildlife.
“Media Lodge is honored to be a part of this groundbreaking video series dedicated to preserving the rhinos and protecting the Pilanesberg Rangers”, said Jeff Siegel, CEO of Media Lodge. “We hope our collective efforts make a real impact where it is needed most…at the ground level”.
The poaching syndicates in Africa are becoming more sophisticated, militarized and acquiring heavy weapons. Driven by its demand in parts of Asia where some attribute medicinal properties to rhino horn, the black market values a full-grown horn at upwards of one million dollars. This lucrative trade is also used to fund terrorist organizations such as Al-shabaab and Boko Haram, which have ties to ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
Despite hundreds of “Save the Rhino” organizations operating in Africa alone, the poaching problem worsens and is now inching at the doorstep of Pilanesberg National Park, a wildlife refuge that up until recently have been largely unaffected by rhino poaching. Once wildlife caretakers, these rangers have now been forced to take up arms to defend the black and white rhino from extinction.
Davide Bomben, a founding member of the Orion Poaching Prevention Academy, has been operating in the African continent for the past decade and believes that “Conservation without force is only conversation”. Andrew Jackson, the manager of the Black Rhino Wildlife Trust operating inside Pilanesberg, also echoes this sentiment. “These rhinos don’t belong to us. They belong to our children. These men and women are here day in and day out, spending long nights in isolated outposts, risking their lives for this. This isn’t some feel good ‘adopt a rhino program’…if anything, this is an ‘adopt a fighter program’. This is real help. This is real support. We need this.”
The 3 episodes of The Good Fight presented by SIG Sauer will be 5-8 minutes in length and will air on GetZone, one of the largest video platforms in the outdoor space. Episode 1 can be watched here:
http://getzone.com/the-good-fight-counter-poaching-initiative-episode-1/
Advertisers can tap into GetZone.com and the nearly 2 million monthly users with pre-roll video; sponsored content, traditional banner ads and other custom programs. For information about advertising options please contact:
· Central: Christen Everly, VP of Sales, [email protected], 612-306-2274
· East: David Grant, Director of Sales, [email protected], 415-254-2152
· West: Lee Sarles, Director of Sales, [email protected], 612-616-8732
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OK, so a touch of background. I’ve been to Africa more than once and I’ve met the Rangers that fight poaching in SA and in Botswana. One of my real good friends is a retired SA Recce turned commercial diver.
This video is half good and half just self-aggrandizement. Rangers have been extremely effective in fighting Elephant poaching and these boys grew up in the bush. They know their shit and they are fucking deadly like the Mamba. As is atypical in Africa they’re packing FAL’s, not AK’s, but they also rock some pretty decent older sniper systems and they use them to great effect. They know camo like no one else. The Recces actually learned some things from these bush guys and it served the Recces well (I know a few of them too).
No offense to Instructor Zero, but unless he’s buying them gear he doesn’t have a hell of a lot to offer these guys. They’re motivated, good shots, extremely aggressive and generally very proficient. If they weren’t they’d already be dead. Could they use some training? Sure, we call can use a refresh, but these boys are not fucking around. They’re hard as nails and what they really need is gear. Give these guys some NVG’s, thermals and the parts for their rifles plus a decent armorer and they’ll tear the poachers a new 7.62 exit wound sized asshole.
APU work is so much more than guns. There are gov’t funded APUs that operate in the South African Parks and then there are the APUs that operate on the private reserves, game lodges, and land that make up more area than the SA park system.
Look around everyone, unless China is hit with an extinction event, we will be the last generation to see any of these animals anywhere but a history article. Or maybe a zoo.
As long as people pay $100K for parts of an animal for traditional medicine, or to show status, there will be people in Africa who will take any risk to make a decade’s worth of income in one fell swoop. One could triple the number of guys attempting to stop the poachers, it’ll be as effective as stopping the flow of cocaine to the US. We all know how well that works.
The ascendancy of China to first-word status is quite simply a planet killer. The Chinese are emptying the ocean, stripping the land, polluting like you can’t imagine. The planet simply doesn’t have the resources for another billion to live like the US and EU. The war is over, and China has won.
“The planet simply doesn’t have the resources for another billion to live like the US and EU.”
Sure it does. Nuclear power burns clean, GMOs lower the required farmland to produce the same yield, privatized fisheries have shown improvement in stock. You see a billion hungry mouths when the reality is a billion more minds solving problems.
most do not solve problems, but all have to eat and poop, and human nature dictates self/club/group preservation over others. the fact is, like taxable incomes, resources, water, food, fish, land, and even clean air, are limited. Unfortunatley, Africa is reproducing at an even scarier rate than China, faster every year.
million, Are you that naive, stupid, or just a troll? Seriously, grown-ups want to know.
I am glad that the instructors found an application and a purpose for their skills.
If Sig had wanted to do something good, why not a shipment of new equipment to these guys to deal with the poachers? What better advertisement than here is what we did, donated ________, here is what the Rangers did with it, _____________. Like NASCAR use to do before cookie cutter cars, RACE ON SUNDAY, SELL ON MONDAY.