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Hunting ethics are always a thorny issue and in many ways, I think they're best left to the individual hunter to decide for himself what and what not he should or shouldn't do...... but we also have to factor in what's sensible and practical.

Looking at this thread makes me think that some of the ideas, whilst very laudable are somewhat impractical to say the least and simply wouldn't work in the real world of African hunting. - I won't go through all of them, but will pick a few at random....... As I hope you'll see, there are very few hard and fast rules.

Carrying everything you need for however long (A Day) - That's fine until you get an old, unfit or infirm client. - Then the rules simply have to change.

Go looking for game on foot. Most African hunting areas are very large indeed and success rates would drop dramatically if you did this instead of driving and looking for game and spoor and getting out to hunt from there. As clients pay soooo much money for their safari, they quite rightly expect a fairly high success rate. - Few people are prepard to spend umpteen thousand dollars and however long, to shoot something like 2 or 3 animals in a week or so.

Shooting on dusk ok. - Every client and every animal and circumstance are different. Whilst you might let someone who has proved himself a great shot, take an impala at dusk, the same might not apply to a client who can't shoot for shit and wanted to shoot one of the Big Five at dusk.

No use of Baits - Despite what some people claim, the success rate for cats would drop to considerably less than 10%...... and frankly, cat hunts would become unsellable. - If the hunting industry can't sell hunts, they go out of business.

returning to a kill made by a predator at a later date. - The chances of doing that, and finding kills in places that are suitable for setting up a shot, on a regular enough basis are extremely remote...... Almost as rare as rocking horse shit.

Setting up your own camp & doing your own skinnning etc. - Great idea, but not very likely with most clients. - Also how far do you take it? - I've been in this business for donkey's years, and have never, ever, seen a client go into a river to recover their own (probably) dead crocodile or hippo.

No shooting from a vehicle or near a vehicle, say 200 plus metres, or from a motor powered boat. - I'd agree with this with most clients for most species..... but not all. For example, how would you shoot a croc or a sitatunga if you were not allowed to shoot within 200 metres of water. - Actually, this, or a similar rule is usually in the game laws of most countries for most species. - Going off topic for a second, Tanzania has a list of animals you can shoot close to water, but someone forgot to put croc on it..... so by the letter of the law, every croc shot in Tanzania is illegally shot.

No high fences. - I've gotta say, I absolutely hate game fences with a vengance, but enforcing this rule would put pretty much every South African outfitter and many from other countries out of business. To say nothing about either ending up with a situation where the PG & DG is wandering round everywhere, including towns or you'd have no game anywhere in the country except the non hunting areas. - Whether we like it or not, and I don't really like it, high game fences are a fact of life and they make African hunting affordable for many who couldn't afford to hunt unfenced areas.

baiting only for certain animals and personal checking of baits ie not have an army checking baits for you. - I think that checking the baits yourself is all part of the fun of the hunt, but a fact of life is that some people don't agree with me and some simply don't have the time to do it. It's not uncommon for some clients who are money rich and time poor to pay for a second vehicle to do all the work to get the cat on bait, while they hunt other species and that client just goes into the blind & shoots the cat. If that's what they want to do with their money, how can anyone tell him otherwise?

The point of this post is to show that in Africa, hard and fast rules for every situation are extremely rare, and one should never say never, and never say always. - Better to try to stick to the game laws of whatever country your hunting in and decide your own code of ethics and not force them on everyone else. - What's right for you, might not be right for everyone.

I have my own little ethical quirks but try not to force them on everyone else. For example, I choose not to hunt cow Elephants, I'm always happy to explain why I consider it unethical, and indeed, it's cost me a lot of money over the years, but I try not to criticise others for doing it if they want to.

Hope that contribution is of help and sincerely hope no-one is offended by my point of view.

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Steve "Shakari" Robinson
Kuduland Safaris (Africa) Ltd
info@kuduland.com
www.kuduland.com

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