ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 29, 1996 TAG: 9603290037
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE LACY KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Even if you don't know the story of Mark and Delia Owens, even if you don't care about the elephants or the corrupt government in Zambia, ABC's ``Turning Point'' special Saturday will have an effect on you.
The program, ``Deadly Game: The Mark and Delia Owens Story,'' airs at 10 p.m. and gets down to the basic argument between environmentalists and those using nature's best - in this case, elephants - for profit.
What you'll see is the desperation on both sides of the issue and what those opposing forces will do in that desperation. You'll see life and you'll see death.
It asks the question, who deserves most to live: humans or animals? There is no clear answer.
The Owenses began their trek into Africa innocently. They were, as correspondent Meredith Vieira describes them, ``bunny-hugging animal lovers. They wanted to get as far away from any issue.... I don't believe they thought it would develop to the point that it did.''
In 1974, two years after the two budding scientists were married, they traveled to the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, where they studied lions and brown hyenas for seven years. They also received a lot of media attention. Their book, ``Cry of the Kalahari,'' angered the government of Botswana by describing how 250,000 wildebeest died when cattle fences cut them off from water supplies. The Americans were kicked out.
They eventually went to Zambia. They traded the struggle of the wildebeest for the struggle of the elephants. More than 100,000 elephants had been slaughtered in northern Zambia since the mid-1970s by those seeking to make money from the ivory tusks (sold for $150 a pound).
The Owenses not only began their struggle for the elephants, they also began a struggle between themselves and with their own consciences. ``They really did journey deeply into Africa and to their own souls,'' said Vieira from her New York home.
The Owenses begged for government support but found police and military corruption. With support from their biggest sponsors, they eventually were able to buy back most of the scouts - but with that, there was a price to pay.
The pressure became almost too much for the couple. At one point, Delia Owens moved four hours away to do more scientific research, while Chris Owens continued his crusade. Delia Owens described her husband as obsessed, although she never abandoned him and his quest.
That quest eventually came to a standoff with poachers and scouts. Sometimes, people were killed.
Perhaps the most dramatic footage in the special best illustrates the bottom-line question: Which is more important? Camera crews were allowed to travel with some scouts tracking down poachers. Video captured the blatant execution of a poacher.
Vieira was not on that patrol. ``I can sit in New York and think that's going over the edge. But there is a different code for just about everything there.... I think we all like to have a Pollyanna vision of conservation. It does involve real moral issues.''
Another dramatic segment comes from the other side. Cameras followed a group of Americans after an elephant in Zimbabwe, a country that allows sport hunting.
It's an incentive for villagers not to poach, because the village receives $10,000 for each elephant that is bagged. They also get free meat to feed the villagers. It's a program that's working. Elephants are not endangered in Zimbabwe.
But the scene of the hunters killing the elephant, of the elephant blinking its eyes in bewilderment, of its trying to move until the wound takes its toll, is not one that beckons for more. The scenes are graphic, but necessary to carry the message. (Adult viewers may want to send the children to bed).
Vieira, who said she had to be a ``quick study'' for the show, was in Zambia only a few days. The show's producer, Andrew Tkach, was there for months. In fact, some of the footage was shot nearly two years ago.
``A lot of that is because animals are unpredictable,'' she said. ``It wasn't like Kenya where you go into a preserve. A lot of this was on foot. You may go days without seeing anything.''
The Owens' campsite was ``not primitive in any way,'' Vieira said, unlike the couple's accommodations in Botswana. There are people who help them cook and wash their clothes at the river's edge. ``They took stains out of my clothes that had been there for years,'' Vieira said.
But, she added, ``at night, when they handed me a flashlight to go to the bathroom and told me to watch for hyenas, that's when I thought, `These people are freakin' nuts.'
``When I saw the elephant, I was really scared. They say, `Don't move,' but your instinct is to run like crazy.''
Vieira said her impressions of the Owenses were mixed. ``Whatever you think of their morals, their dedication is totally real,'' said Vieira. ``They are very comfortable there. They don't take it for granted, and they're not crazy in the bush. You have to respect them from the vantage point of understanding and knowledge.
``I left with a lot of respect for them,'' Vieira said, ``but also with a lot of questions.''
LENGTH: Medium: 94 linesby CNB