S. Africa puts an end to canned hunting

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Spotlight & #10072; Cape Town, South Africa

S. Africa puts an end to ‘canned’ hunting

By Clare Nullis

The Associated Press

South Africa’s environment minister announced longawaited restrictions on

hunting Tuesday, declaring he was sickened by wealthy tourists shooting tame

lions from the back of a truck and felling rhinos with a bow and arrow.

Dismissing threats of legal action by the hunting industry, Marthinus Van

Schalkwyk said the new law would ban ‘‘canned’’ hunting of big predators and

rhinos in small enclosures that offer them no means of escape.

In addition, lions bred in captivity would have to be released into the open

for at least two years before they could be hunted. Van Schalkwyk said a

previously proposed six-month delay would not give lions enough time to develop

self-defense instincts.

‘‘Hunting should be about fair chase . . . testing the wits of a hunter

against that of the animal,’’ he told a news conference.

The new law, which enters into force June 1, bans the hunting of animals that

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 appalling. 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,’’ said Van Schalkwyk—

himself a hunter.

 

 

 

 

International Fund For Animal Welfare/ The Associated Press file photo

Caged lions are shown at a breeding facility in South Africa in 2005 during an

investigation into the captive breeding of the animals for canned hunts. A new

law bans ‘‘canned’’ hunting of big predators and rhinos in small enclosures.

 

 

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