Don't be a poacher
11alive news has a short profile on U.S. Army Veteran Kinessa Johnson. Johnson served a tour in Afghanistan. After four years as a weapons instructor in the Army she decided to take a new career path:
Last November she decided to join Veterans Empowered to Protect African Wildlife (VETPAW) as an anti-poaching advisor.
"(VETPAW) was searching for a female to train female park rangers so I applied and was selected," she said.
According to their
website:
VETPAW provides meaningful employment to post-9/11 veterans, utilizing their expertise to train and support Africa’s anti-poaching rangers to prevent the extermination of keystone African wildlife, and the disastrous economic and environmental impact it would have.
Kinessa Johnson's
Instagram account is filled with some pretty formidable images where, according to her, she gets both support and quite a bit of
sexist flack.
'I must say that I find it extremely disheartening to see so many bashing my ability based on my gender,' she wrote.
'I work with so many awesome and capable female park rangers here in Africa, who put their lives on the line every day right next to male park rangers, and I think these comments are also disrespectful to these amazing women.'
It's important to note that Johnson is not hunting wildlife poachers. This isn't an
assassins organization.
"I'm a technical adviser to anti-poaching rangers so I patrol routinely with them and also assist in intelligence operations," she said.
"Most of the time anyone that is in a reserve with a weapon is considered a threat and can be shot if rangers feel threatened. Our goal is to prevent trigger pulling through strategic movements and methods of prevention.
According to Kinessa John's Instagram account, she is working in Eastern Africa in Tanzania. The world of poaching and anti-poaching is fraught with danger. Good luck.