Release of key report on hunting in South Africa

By: Daniela Bonora
6 July 2010
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Animal Rights Africa (ARA) has just released a key report, entitled: ‘Hunting in South Africa: a bloody mess’. The report takes an in-depth look at hunting activities in South Africa. It details how South Africa has the largest hunting industry in sub-Saharan Africa, and is Africa’s most popular destination for foreigners wishing to hunt wild animals. Indeed, South Africa remains the world’s top ‘canned’ lion hunting destination, and the report shows that over 1000 lions were killed in 2008 at a time when most people believed the industry had been stopped.

The report also shows that despite the size of the hunting industry in South Africa, it is poorly monitored and the overall picture of what happens in the hunting industry is made largely invisible by poor record-keeping at provincial and national government level. As a result, animals are suffering extensively.

The ARA argue over whether SANParks is fulfilling its mandate to protect animals within National Parks. They state that international hunters regularly boast that they have killed elephant and buffalo from the Kruger National Park in provincial and private nature reserves that share unfenced boundaries with the Kruger.

Based on the report, the ARA believes that there is an urgent need for a widespread and public debate on the hunting industry in South Africa.

The report is available online at:
http://www.animalrightsafrica.org/Archive/Hunting_in_South_Africa_A_Bloody_Mess_ARA_4_July_2010_final.pdf




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2 Responses to “Release of key report on hunting in South Africa”facebook

  1. R J V Rensburg says:
    July 7, 2010 at 12:00 am

    Dear Michele

    It is with great interest that I have read your article in the press “HUNTING IN SOUTH AFRICA: A BLOODY MESS”.

    I have some comment for you. As the owner of a hunting farm on which I depend for my livelyhood, I would ask you how you and your organization would like to see me survive on eco-tourism. My farm is approx 1400Ha located next to the Botswana border in the North West.

    I mainly cater for South African biltong hunters. My farm is usualy fully booked from 1 April till 31 August. The people that I receive on my farm are all responsible hunters that have been hunting with me for more than two years. I do not tolerate unprofessional hunters or hunting practices on my farm. I have a fully equipped meat processing facility on my farm which most of my clients use to process their meat before they leave. Out of this income I sustain my family, my farmworkers, and I re-invest into re-populating the animals on my farm after the hunting season. I also invest in bio-diversity: I stock animals which nobody hunts because I can afford to keep them out of my hunting income. For example I have about 15 Nyala’s and about 20 Red Hartbeest which nobody hunts because they are too expensive to shoot. I also keep some 5 Giraffe on the farm.

    Now should I stop hunting, I would according to your organization start doing eco tourism. Should I do this I would then also need to upgrade my lodging facilities for which I would need a large capital investment. You know a typical biltong hunter is quite happy as long as there is a roof and a warm bed to sleep in. Also now I would need to compete with all other 200 odd farms in the area which also wants to run eco tourism. Unfortunately my 1400 Ha farm is too small to keep the Big five, so the largest thing I really can have is a Giraffe. Now the question is would I be able to get someone to drive up to my farm which is on a bad dirt road 70km from the nearest tar road,and about 350km from Gauteng to come and watch plains game animals; while I dont have the big 5 here? And would such people pay me R800 per night per person to basically just sustain my income, and to recoup my investment in upgrading the facilities here? I dont think so.

    So now if we stop hunting and we cant do eco tourism what do I do to keep food on my table and those of my farm workers? Well I guess I would need to turn to a different kind of farming then wouldn’t I? So I would need to get ridd of all my game, and then use the funds off that to remove all the natural vegitation here, so I can plant something like corn right?

    So at the end of the day all I can say to you is that in the end you end up losing all the animals on the hundreds of hunting farms out here if you stop hunting, because I am not a rich dot com billionaire that can afford to keep animals on a farm and not make any money off it. I need to eat too. And I can tell you having a farm is not cheap. Keeping everything working is expensive. And if I can not hunt here, I need to plant here – and that is where you lose all the animals you so desparately want to protect. You stop hunting, and you will forever change the landscape of South Africa.

    Regards
    R J v Rensburg
    Sandspruit 33 farm
    North West

    Reply
  2. Ian Matheson says:
    July 15, 2010 at 12:00 am

    Spare us the hysteria mongering, we get enough of this in SA already. Read this link for a more balanced explanation from SANParks:
    http://www.sanparks.org/assets/docs/general/editorial.pdf

    Reply