Conservation officials and police have joined forces to bust open a huge smuggling network involved in cruel, illicit trade in endangered wildlife.
The network, centred on business associates of infamous wildlife dealer Riccardo Ghiazza, is known to be operating in at least four provinces. In the past month it has been responsible for smuggling at least 13 leopards — animals that are ranked in the highest category of threatened species by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Acting on tip-offs from conservation officials, police from the organised crime unit had swooped on a number of suspected smugglers in the past fortnight. They arrested four suspects in connection with capturing and keeping endangered wildlife without permits and confiscated three young leopards held captive in tiny cages.
The arrests were just the tip of the iceberg. Sandhurst Safaris, the North West-based hunting outfit that has been brokering the deals, offers a variety of animals, including wild dogs, brown hyenas and tigers, for sale. Most of the animals are sold to hunters and the condition they are bought in is of little consideration.
A brown hyena sold by the network in July had to be euthanased after he was caught in a gin trap, snared around the waist, chained and confined for days in a tiny steel cage where he was unable to move. When Limpopo conservation officials confiscated the hyena, he had had no water or food for at least five days and was barely alive.
The officials took him to a place of safety, where they tried in vain to resuscitate him. ”In all my life of seeing animal abuse and cruelty, I could not have been prepared for what we saw,” said a spokesperson for the sanctuary, who did not want to be named.
”A terrible stench came from the container. It was the distinct smell of death and rotten meat. His one eye looked at me — there was no call for help, the look was dead. He could not turn his head or move in any direction.”
Brown hyenas are shy, secretive creatures with blond manes and striped stockings on their front legs. They are only found in Southern Africa, where their natural range has been halved in recent years by the growth of human habitation.
Like many of the leopards that the police and conservationists have confiscated from the network, the hyena had broken his teeth and ripped his mouth trying to free himself of his restraints. A young female leopard confiscated in August was put down because her canines were broken and two other leopards are receiving root canal treatment.
Leopards, particularly inexperienced youngsters, are easy to catch with bait. Those confiscated from the smugglers have been trapped in weld mesh cages and left without food or water. Thirst, hunger and desperation to get away from people gawking at them in their tiny cages drive them to dementia. Physical injuries include bloodied, raw pads on their feet.
The smugglers sell the leopards for between R20 000 and R30 000 each. This is the price of the youngsters —more mature leopards sold to ”canned” hunting operations for trophies can cost more.
One of the smugglers, Harno van Rensburg from Tolwe in Limpopo, was convicted for illegally capturing three young leopards late last month. He was keeping them in an old house and looking for a buyer when Limpopo police confiscated the leopards.
Van Rensburg was fined R15 000 for the offence, R10 000 of which was suspended for five years. Police point out he would have had little problem paying the fine considering he had recently sold two mature leopards to an outfit in the Free State for R60 000.
Sandhurst Safaris, based near Tosca in North West, is a central player in the network. It is a ”big five” hunting venue and offers some 21 different species to hunters. It provides a brokering service for ”excess” animals and youngsters not suitable to be shot for trophies.
Sandhurst has been implicated in ”canned” hunting — where animals are shot in pens or when they are drugged — and advertises the fact that it has ”lion pens with up to 70 lions” as an ”educational facility”. Recent legislation makes ”canned” hunting illegal.
For years Sandhurst has being doing business with Ghiazza, who, in July, was found guilty of cruelty to animals in the long-running Tuli elephant case. At the height of the debacle, Ghiazza stashed four of the Tuli elephants at Sandhurst, which has since continued to supply him with elephants and other animals for export.
Leigh Fletcher, owner of Sandhurst, was on a business visit in the United Arab Emirates last week. Contacted there by the Mail & Guardian, she denied acting as an agent for the smugglers or having anything to do with the deals that have led to the arrests in the past fortnight.
One suspect, arrested in Swartwater in Limpopo last week, has been charged with capturing and keeping endangered wildlife. A young male leopard he had trapped in a tiny cage without food or water was confiscated and sent to a sanctuary.
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Last week three suspects who had arranged deals in Upington in the Northern Cape were arrested and a 14-month-old female leopard was confiscated. The three were due to appear in court yesterday.
In Vaalwater in Limpopo on Tuesday, a sting operation set up to trap another smuggler went awry when the suspect became suspicious and disappeared. The police managed to track down and seize the leopard he intended to sell last Wednesday.
She is a lactating female whose cubs have now been abandoned. Her upper canines were broken and her paws ripped to shreds in her attempts to get out of her mesh cage.
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| Scenes of horror and extreme cruelty. These animals can be considered ‘lucky’ for having been discovered; the reality is far bleaker for most. |
Police and conservation officials say this smuggling network could not have been bust without information from the public. A hotline has been set up to encourage anonymous tip-offs at the following number: 072 122 9567