Government finalizes new laws on big‑game hunting

Associated Press (South Africa)

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/20/africa/AF‑GEN‑South‑Africa‑Hunting.php

February 20, 2007

Byline: Clare Nullis

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) ‑ South Africa's environment minister on Tuesday announced a long‑awaited clampdown on big‑game hunting, declaring he was sickened by wealthy tourists shooting tame lions from the back of a truck and felling rhinos with a bow and arrow.

Shrugging off threats of legal action by the hunting industry, Marthinus Van Schalkwyk said that the new law would ban "canned" hunting of big predators and rhinos in small enclosures which offered the animals no means of escape.

Lions bred in captivity would have to be released into the open for at least two years ‑‑ rather than the six months proposed in draft regulations ‑‑ before they could be hunted to allow them to develop self‑defense instincts, he said.

"Hunting should be about a fair chase ... testing the wits of a hunter against that of the animal," he told a press conference on Table Mountain. "Over the years that got eroded and now we are trying to re‑establish that principle."

South Africa is famous as home to the Big Five ‑‑ lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo. Its flagship Kruger National Park attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Some 9,000 privately owned game farms and other government‑run reserves also offer visitors a taste of the wild.

But it has also become a choice destination for wealthy gun‑toting tourists willing to pay more than US$20,000 (euro15,200) to take home a prized "trophy" in the form of a lion or rhino's head.

The new law, which comes into force June 1, bans the hunting of animals which have been tranquilized. It outlaws bows and arrows for big predators and thick skinned animals like rhinos ‑‑ one of the practices singled out by Van Schalkwyk as particularly shocking. And it bans the use of vehicles to chase the animal until it is too tired and terrified to flee for its life.

"To see people who are half drunk on the back of a bakkie (truck) hunting lions which are in fact tame animals is quite abhorrent," Van Schalkwyk ‑‑ himself an avid hunter ‑‑ told The Associated Press.

But conservationists said the law would be difficult to enforce and did not go far enough as it stopped short of an outright ban on the intensive breeding of lions, leopards and other predators.

"The big thing for South Africa would be to stand up and say 'we are conservation leaders and this industry is immoral and unethical and we are not going to allow it,'" said Louise Joubert of the San Wildlife Trust, which campaigned for tougher regulations.

She said it made little difference whether a lion was freed for six months or two years before being hunted because once it had got used to being reared and fed by people, it was hard to break that trust.

Joubert said there should be an outright ban on intensive breeding projects, which often remove cubs from the mother at birth so the lioness mates more quickly, and often cull female cubs as male lions fetch a higher trophy price.

"We have asked for an outright ban. If it means that four to five thousand lions have to be euthanized it would be a tragic day but it is the only way for this country to get a grip, so be it" she said.

The South African Predator Breeders' Association, which was set up last year to lobby against the regulations, has warned that breeders may be forced to put down the estimated 3‑5,000 lions they have reared if they are unable to offer them to foreign hunters and can no longer afford to feed them.

Earlier this year, it threatened legal action against the government to claim for compensation. Association officials did not return phone calls asking for comment Tuesday.

However, the Professional Hunters' Association of South Africa, whose members accompany foreign clients, said it welcomed the new regulations as a chance to clean up the image of the South African hunting industry by clamping down on lion breeders who account for only about 3 percent of game farms.

"A small sector has given the whole industry a bad name," said Stewart Dorrington, president of the hunting body.

An 6‑7,000 foreign tourists visit South Africa each year on hunting safaris, each spending roughly US$18,000 (euro13,700), Dorrington said. About 55 percent of hunters are from North America and the rest from Europe and other countries.

Van Schalkwyk said the regulations marked the start of a "clean‑up of the hunting industry" and would in due course be extended to other animals like antelope species.

Hunting is an integral part of South African life because of its cultural traditions and importance to the economy.

"We gave our firm intention more than two years ago to deal with the issue," he said. "Many of the lion breeders thought they were empty threats and did not take it seriously. This is a practice that cannot be defended in any way," he said.

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