DutchNews, September 10,
2015
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| Photo: Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation |
A Dutchman who moved to South Africa in 1997 to set up a fruit
exporting business is at the centre of a drive hunt allowing foreign hunters to
shoot wildlife as it is herded past them, animal welfare groups say.
Anton de
Vries, who is one of the owners of SAFE, South Africa’s fifth biggest fruit
exporter, is said to be behind the hunt which is taking place at three three
farms in Limpopo. The hunt master is said to be Dries van Rooyen, who also
works for SAFE, Wildlife at Risk International reported.
De Vries has declined
to comment on the claims when approached by reporters. A receptionist told
reporters from TimesLive.co.za she had been ordered not to reveal De Vries’s
cellphone number. She said the company ‘had nothing to do’ with the excursions.
The SAFE website has since been taken offline.
South African broadcaster Carte
Blanche said it had been told at a meeting with De Vries and local officials
that 13 Dutch and Belgian nationals are taking part in the hunt near the town
of Alldays in Limpopo province.
The hunters take aim from purpose built
platforms overlooking the bush as the animals are drive towards them. In the
first three days, over 50 animals, including baboons, warthogs and antelope had
been killed.
Cecil
The outcry comes just two months after the global furore
surrounding the killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe by an American dentist.
The National Council of SPCAs, the South African animal welfare group, has
appealed for the driven hunt to be halted. Activists have also tried to have
the hunt stopped by going to court.
Driven hunts have been banned in the
Netherlands since 2002 but are not illegal in South Africa. However, the
practice is widely considered unethical and inhumane, news channel Carte Blanche
said.
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Walt Palmer, left, and one of his many trophies.
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