In your recent email of CFU (Commercial Farmers
Union) Calling (August 7th), under the column Executive News, your
writer included a lengthy list of all the people who would be
subjected to loosing their jobs or have their business's closing if the
ban on hunting went ahead.
However I was surprised that at the same time, there
was not a word about the hunting industry in Zimbabwe perhaps cleaning
up it's act?
Fundamental to ethical hunting is the idea of a fair
chase - let those responsible put their house in order first.
This would mean the end of illegal hunts, canned lion
hunts, the use of live animals for bait, the hunting of nocturnal animals
using off-road vehicles and high powered lights, electronic
"calling", and
the hunting of leopards using packs of dogs.
The late well known conservationist Viv Wilson, was
quoted as saying "the leopard doesn't stand a chance" - proven perhaps
by the fact that leopard hunts using dogs, advertise them
as being "100% successful".
The Confederation of Hunters Associations of South
Africa policy on Ethical Hunting and Fair Chase states "A recreationally hunted animal should
exist as a naturally interacting individual of a wild sustainable population -
baiting is hardly a natural interaction, neither is setting packs of dogs
on leopards.
Hunting of wild life in Zimbabwe is unlikely to be
banned, but at all costs it must be ethical, transparent and free of
corruption.
Meryl Harrison
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