Spotlight ❘ Cape Town, South Africa
S. Africa puts an end to canned hunting
By Clare Nullis
The Associated Press
South Africas 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.
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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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