Business as usual for trophy hunting industry as SA tops exhibitor list

Despite a deadly pandemic and lockdown restrictions, South African hunting outfitters still topped the exhibitor list at the annual Dallas Safari Club’s (DSC’s) annual convention. 

The event was hosted virtually this year. 

Zebra and various skins at Dallas Safari Club Convention 2020. Picture: The HSUS

According to Humane Society International (HSI) and Human Society of the United States (HSUS), the convention offered hunting trips to kill at least 319 types of mammals in 70 countries. 

Out of the 306 outfitter exhibitors, 104 offered hunts in South Africa, totalling 47 hunting packages, making our country top of the list at 29% of all exhibitors. SA’s closest competitor was Namibia, offering just 15 hunting packages. 

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For HSI-Africa wildlife director Audrey Delsink, this is hardly a record to be proud of. 

“Far more beneficial to conservation and the country’s economy on a sustainable basis is the promotion of wildlife watching – not killing sprees for a privileged few,” she said.

Trophy hunting is killing conservation efforts

“For trophy hunters it’s about the thrill of the kill, bragging rights, killing competitions and awards for the number and variety of species that they’ve killed,” Delsink explained.

In 2014 and 2016, the DSC auctioned off hunts of a critically endangered black rhino in Namibia – a startling offer, Delsink said, given the context of rapid black and white rhino population declines due to poaching. 

Dehorned black rhino female, Paco, lies still while she waits for the antidote to be administered by Dr Jonah Marais during the dehorning of all the black rhinos on an unnamed private game reserve near the Kruger National Park, 8 September 2020. Picture: EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook

“Given the recent revelation that rhino numbers have dropped so dramatically in the Kruger National Park – and with most rhinos in the country and the continent facing a similar poaching pandemic – it’s all the more disgraceful that rhinos have targets on their heads by hunting outfitters.”

According to HSI-Africa, the “trophy-hunting industry generally pays lip service to conservation or uses the term to try to justify and legitimise its existence”.

A four-lion taxidermy at the Safari Club International’s 2020 annual convention in Reno, Nevada. Picture: The HSUS

An Outstanding Hunting Achievement is given to the top trophy hunter, which is someone who would have had to have killed at least 106 animals. 

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This year’s proud recipient boasted killing 23 spiral horned animals in Africa alone. 

Another award is the African Big Game Award, which requires one to hunt African elephant, buffalo, lion, rhino and leopard. 

Many species in this list are threatened or endangered. Other species are also captive-bred, such as canned lion hunting, which is rife in South Africa. 

South Africa’s canned lion hunting industry 

Delsink has blasted canned lion hunting facilities in South Africa, branding them a blemish on the country’s conservation reputation. 

Although the DSC and Safari Club International have both renounced captive-bred lion hunts, in which lions are often drugged and given very little space to hide from hunters, HSI and the HSUS exposed several vendors still offering to broker captive-lion hunts in 2019 and 2020. 

Lion skulls. Picture: Blood Lions

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Many of these vendors returned to participate once again in the DSC’s exhibit. 

“At least 39 South African exhibitors are offering lion hunts in South Africa at this year’s DSC convention. Most are likely to be captive-bred lions,” said Delsink.

There is also a popular achievement among hunters called the Tiny Ten, which includes the blue duiker, which is just 30cm tall, and the dik-dik, which stands at 30cm to 40cm at the shoulder, and weighs between 3kg and 6kg.

The blue duiker, the smallest antelope species, is approximately 30cm at shoulder height and weighs 4kg-5kg. Picture: iStock

“It’s ironic that these animals are poached for the pot amidst disapproval, yet these gentle animals are purposefully killed by trophy hunters’ bows and bullets as collectors’ items,” said Delsink.

Hunting the elusive and tiny dik-dik is now seen as an achievement by trophy hunters. Picture: iStock

Hunting despite Covid-19

Delsink said that although Covid-19 has impacted travel, hunting and game auctions had continued locally. International trophy hunting has dramatically reduced, but had not disappeared, and would likely increase, albeit very late in the hunting season, as restrictions continue to be lifted. 

Ivory for sale. Picture: The HSUS

Delsink said there was an undeniable link between wildlife trade, consuming wildlife and zoonotic diseases, which happens to be the likely source of the Covid-19 virus. 

Trophy hunting forms part of this risk chain, and in Delsink’s mind, because trophy hunting is not needed by anyone to survive, “it is not worth the risk to human health”.

“Zoonotic risks are being downplayed by the wildlife industry and frustratingly, are not being adequately acknowledged by the SA government.”

Delsink said it was also not known exactly when the trophy hunts took place either, as they had to have happened in 2020.

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“I don’t know if they were able to [hunt] or what agreements they have reached with the South African outfitters due to Covid travel restrictions, and it would depend on the length of validity of hunting permits and tags.”

If a pandemic could not slow down trophy hunting, Delsink said there were proposed new levels of intolerance to be implemented in the UK, but that this had not yet happened. There were also bans on certain hunting trophies in the US and the EU.

Carlton Evans Handmade Knives of TX booth at the SCI show 2019, selling products made from mammoth teeth and mammoth ivory. Picture: The HSUS

However, Delsink explained that the trophy hunting industry was “ingenious at finding loopholes to circumvent these [regulations], by simply targeting different markets or inventing ‘new’ activities or accolades to keep the fraternity engaged”.

“This is why we need additional laws and regulations to close off avenues for trophy import and export, particularly for threatened species.”

Trophy on display at Humane Society of the United States/Humane Society International undercover investigation at Safari Club International’s annual hunter’s convention in Las Vegas. Picture: The HSUS

And expos such as the DSC’s take place under the banner of legal trade, regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). 

This means that even endangered species may be traded, but must be regulated. 

“With illegal wildlife trade so rampant, it is of concern that this part of the trade spectrum continues unabated, continuously targeting vulnerable and fragile populations.”

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