David Beresford
A string of prosecutions is being prepared in connection with the spreading scandal over the ”can-ned” hunting of lion and other big game in Northern Province.
The police Endangered Species Protection Unit and special investigators for the provincial government have opened 39 dossiers arising from the scandal. Another 90 cases are being investigated.
Professional hunting circles are in an uproar over disclosures about the prevalence of canned kills, where lions – some of them tame and often drugged – are shot as trophies in enclosures.
In an exchange of correspondence with Safari Club International – the American- based hunting organisation which dominates the sport and keeps world records – the Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa concedes that hunting record books have been ”ridiculed” by the scandal and ”stand to fall into total disrepute”.
Safari Club has appealed to the police and conservation authorities for help in identifying canned kills so that they can be purged from their books. They have already deleted 12 out of 146 South African entries from their record lists after determining ”beyond a doubt” that they were the victims of canned hunts.
The furore over canned hunting was triggered in May by a British television programme, The Cook Report, which broadcast footage showing hunters shooting lion in enclosures on game farms in Northern Province.
In a subsequent raid on the offices of one safari outfitter, police and provincial investigators discovered correspondence which indicated how commonplace canned hunting is. One letter, dated February 12 1997, from Safari Headquarters Ltd, a safari firm in North Carolina, says: ”Late this afternoon had a request for two (2) canned lion hunts. One is a doctor and the two hunters want to go at the same time and both want good heavy maned lions, preferably black mane.
”Can you get a couple of zoo lion and what will be the price ? I told them that it is probably about $12 000 to $13 000 each and the hunt will take no more than five days … I don’t like these canned hunts, but hell it is part of our service, I suppose.”
On February 19 the South African safari outfitter replied, assuring the American firm that ”the canned lion hunt is done so well, nobody would know – including some PHs [professional hunters]! The price is $ 17 500 …”
Tame lions – sometimes referred to in the correspondence as ”MGM lions” – are particularly attractive to hunters, because their manes are usually in good condition, enhancing their value as trophies. Wild lions tend to be scarred as a result of fights.
Don Stott, a member of a special investigations unit run by Northern Province, says disgustedly of canned hunting: ”It would be more difficult to hunt an alley cat in Johannesburg.”
He explains: ”Often the hunter is limited time-wise when he comes out; sometimes he is just out here on a business trip and a 14-day live hunt is not possible. And sometimes disabled people, elderly people, or sick people want to hunt a lion.”
The scandal over canned hunting is compounded by the suspicion that many of the lions have been taken by game farmers from reserves. The farms being investigated adjoin private and public reserves – including the Kruger National Park.
Canned hunting does not appear to be the only form of cheating in the sport. The correspondence seized by police and the provincial investigation team in their recent raid on a Northern Province operator includes a letter addressed to a well- known American hunter and regional head of Safari Club International, Chuck Bazzy, last year saying: ”As you may have heard, one of my rhino died. I would like to offer this rhino to Chip.
”What he can do is dart a live rhino to re- enact the hunt, video it and take pictures, then take rhino cape and horn back with him. The rhino is high scoring more or less 24 inches [the size of the horn]. The cost of this will be $18 500 plus $1 500 to dart live rhino. This is a very exciting way of hunting as you have to get very close to the rhino before shooting the dart.”
Stott’s team and the Endangered Species Protection Unit (ESPU) are handicapped by a shortage of resources. The provincial unit has only two officers and the ESPU has 19 covering the entire country. There are fears that canned hunting is going on, undetected, in the Free State, the Northern Cape and Namibia.