There were more animal lovers than hunters at an experimental hunt last weekend, writes Darran Morgan
At first light in a valley in the foothills of the Drakensberg in KwaZulu-Natal, a line of black men, each with a pair of leashed greyhounds, are advancing in search of prey.
Just about anywhere else in the province one might anticipate trouble at the sight dogs shot down by conservators, police or landowners; acrimonious threat and counter-threat; burned property; and criminal cases of trespass and poaching.
But we’re here to experience what KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service’s Jeff Gaisford calls “an experimental pilot project” to see if hunting with dogs can be controlled.
The line is disciplined and policed by two men on horseback and, when the first reedbuck doe breaks cover metres away from the hunters, a cry goes up and down the line: “Hlala, gxisha, hlala!” The dogs stay leashed and the doe leaps up a rocky ridge to safety.
This unique hunt by black hunters and their dogs is being conducted with a permit issued by provincial conservation authorities.
Hertzog Zuma’s Impendle Hunters Association (IHA) couldn’t have asked for a better, or a less bloody, public relations coup than last Sunday’s hunt on Robert Smith’s 2 000ha farm near Dargle in the Midlands. The 25 hunters and 50-odd greyhounds put up 15 buck over the 5km hunt without a single kill.
Of the 15 animals flushed, 12 were female or young animals and the hunters kept their dogs leashed. Dogs were set on three prime males only, and the reedbuck rams showed a clean pair of heels each time.
The most pertinent criticism of the event is that perhaps the attention shown to the hunt influenced the discipline of the hunters. Observers outnumbered hunters and the hunt was dogged by a number of bakkies and 4×4 vehicles crammed with photographers and video cameramen.
“Well, they wouldn’t attack the females with us around, now would they?” was one comment made by a representative of an animal anti-cruelty lobby group.
Smith would prefer not to have anyone hunt on his land. However, he feels he has no choice but to allow the IHA access. “This, for us, is the lesser of two evils. These people will, if they’re allowed or not, hunt with their dogs.
“If it happens illegally, the killing will be indiscriminate. Organising the hunt as we do now, in the winter when the does have no lambs at foot and aren’t carrying, seems to be working for us. Before, the hunting usually took place over the Christmas holidays the worst possible time for breeding animals.
“I’m afraid the alternatives to allowing such a hunt are completely unacceptable to me.”
Over the past three seasons Smith has had no illegal poaching and his game has bred prolifically. He has experienced an influx of game from his neighbours’ lands, as he claims the wildlife has begun to see his farm as a sanctuary. Stock theft is not a problem for Smith in a district where it is rife.
Zuma confirms the IHA is responsible for the improvement of Smith’s security. He wants to present his case to the province’s landowners through the KwaZulu-Natal Agriculture and Land Union (Kwanalu).
“What’s happening here is amazing,” Zuma says. “And I’m prepared to go to the roots of the landowners’ fears, to convince them hunting like this can work.” But he can’t do so himself. “If I went to other farmers right now to ask for access to their land they would ask, ‘Who are you? Get off my land before I shoot you.'”
Kwanalu security desk spokesperson Koos Marais isn’t quite ready for the paradigm shift Zuma envisages. “What we’ve seen this morning [controlled, legal hunting] isn’t what bothers organised agriculture. It’s illegal poaching with dogs that worries us and the threat that goes with that,” he says.
“Kill a poacher’s dogs and there can be a threat to the farmer’s life, his grazing or timber can be burned. Yes, I can see Smith is fighting this thing cleverly, but morally perhaps this … it’s not 100%. Smith is building good neighbourly relations but it is the individual landowner’s prerogative if he wants to go along with this.
“This kind of hunting is a moral issue for many farmers. I don’t agree personally but I can’t deny Smith has seen the advantages.”
Marais says some Kwanalu members buy game for their own pleasure and they would not be well-disposed to organised hunting with dogs.
The hunt on Sunday sparked a national outcry from people who see the sport as bloodthirsty and barbaric and are determined to see it banned.
But organised hunting with dog packs is not new in KwaZulu-Natal, and the blood sport isn’t confined to Zulus. At least some of the negative criticism directed at the IHA results from a perception that black hunters and controlled hunting are a contradiction in terms.
Trevor English, a substantial landowner in the Richmond district, runs what may be the last bushbuck hunting pack in the province, consisting of up to 40 blue tick or “coon” hounds and beagles. He’s been doing so for the past 30 years and has never needed a permit.
A number of bush pig hunting packs are still run in the Greytown/ New Hanover area by sugar farmers. Here, the dog packs run free and can bring down any game that crosses their path including old, injured, young or pregnant animals.
These packs are raised with minimal human contact and it is impossible to call them off, as the Impendle hunters do.
Jeff Gaisford says he can’t recall any public outcry concerning these landowners’ packs in his 27 years in conservation.
English says until a few years ago, his dogs used to run up to twice a week in the May to August season on Sappi- and Mondi-owned estates in the district.
“But then Sappi and Mondi stopped all dog hunting on their lands,” says English. “I suppose that’s so they don’t have to allow the Mr Dlaminis of this world access to their properties.”
The animal rights groups observing the IHA hunt are not impressed. “Do you realise you are taking part in an illegal gathering?” Megan Loxton, KwaZulu-Natal liaison officer for the SPCA asks journalists. She also tells Nature Conservation officials that they consider themselves above the law by issuing a permit.
After examining the dogs, Loxton says they are obviously in good condition and well cared for. But, she points out: “We’re not here for the dogs, we’re here for the prey.”
Kingstone Siziba, an SPCA inspector who has written a thesis on hunting dogs, says: “If we were to legalise the killing of human beings as long as it was controlled, would this be acceptable?”