I encountered the following on NextHunt's Facebook page:

On Sunday afternoon Claudio Chiarelli and his son Max were killed by a National Parks Ranger they had come to assist in Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools National Park in a case of what appears to be mistaken identity. Claudio was a professional hunter and once held the concession for Chirisa Safari Area which until recently was a veritable wildlife paradise. He lost the concession and today the area is desolate, bereft of life and will soon be a sterile dustbowl. It will almost certainly never recover. Like many local safari hunters marginalised by the collapse of commercial hunting triggered in large part by the international outrage following the ‘Cecil the Lion’ debacle, Claudio was trying to help stem the ongoing slaughter in the Zambezi Valley which is motivated by the demand for meat and ivory. Once huge herds of buffalo are now a recent memory and the elephant are being pounded. Left to their own devices the government law enforcement agencies are at best useless and at worst corrupt and part of the problem. Claudio and Max, for no personal reward whatsoever, were doing what they could to help. It cost them their lives. Where now is the loud-mouthed anti-hunting brigade? Will the media so much as take note of the fact that these two men died trying to save animals that are under siege in a non-hunting area. For them there was never any question of personal gain; they did it because they, like most true hunters, love the animals they occasionally pursue and kill.

While the deaths of the Chiarellis looks like an accident there can be little doubt the crime syndicates sponsoring the poaching will cheer this development. The unemployed professional hunters who are now poking their noses into the National Parks are a problem the criminals could do without and if this scares them off then the task of wiping out what is left will be made much easier. Where now the ‘bleeding-heart’ liberal do-gooders who claim to have the answers? The silence is deafening.

There is more for the ‘Cecil the Lion Screamers’ to celebrate. In August last year professional hunter and guide Quinn Swales died in the jaws of an angry lion while protecting his photo-safari clients on a walk in Hwange National Park. Swales and his colleagues knew this male and were well aware he was aggressive but they knew of other, more pressing, existential dangers, again thanks to the media and the charlatans posing as conservationists.

When charged initially by this 500lb killing machine he used a ‘bear-banger’, a pathetically harmless explosive device, to scare the predator off but this did not deter the animal which pressed home the attack and killed Swales while the tourists looked on. His heavy calibre .375 rifle which would have saved him was never fired. Coming merely a month after the world press went into an apoplectic rage over the lawful killing of a lion by an American dentist there is absolutely no doubt Swales’ judgement was impaired by the sure knowledge that his life and that of his wards, was less important than the lion’s and if he pulled the trigger he would join Doctor Walter Palmer and Theo Bronkhorst as the third most loathed man on planet earth. The ‘Screamers’ were quiet when Quinn Swales went to an early grave.

There is more. Throughout southern and central Africa wildlife areas are following the same sad path as Chirisa. Vast areas of marginalised wildlife land is unsuitable for photographic tourism. This may be because the areas lack the ‘big-game’ crowd pullers, varieties are too limited, access is too difficult or there are security concerns. The only hope for the animals in these domains lay with the professional hunters who protected them because nobody else wanted them. Unfortunately the anti-hunting media offensive has been highly effective and the clients who drove the industry are understandably reluctant to risk being publicly pilloried for partaking in a recreational activity that has been branded heinous by the lying mainstream media bullies and their acolytes. So they are staying home, the hunters cannot sustain themselves and therefore the protection is denied. The denouement is certain and it’s very sad.

As for the lions, well they also have little to cheer. A conservancy in south-west Zimbabwe is just one private sector initiative that has been highly successful in using managed hunting to drive a profitable business that has also been a marvelous conservation success. To the point that the owners now have a surfeit of lion and sans hunting they have to find a way of reducing the population to prevent a predatory imbalance that will impact negatively on other species in the protected area. Culling has been discussed and alternative avenues are being explored but the fact is viable and sustainable conservation is only foreseeable where it is profitable and if this area can no longer pay its way it too will implode and the game will die.

Later this week Claudio and Max will be laid to rest outside Harare in the adopted country he passionately embraced. Both were hunters who died for the love of wildlife and wild places. Their numbers are dwindling. When will the ‘Screamers’ fill the void?

Hannes Wessels
Zimbabwe

One of the better posts I have read in a while, albeit tragically saddening.

Great post. Sad for those who lost their lives trying to conserve the wildlife and habitat, and sad for the direction this is ultimately headed. Unfortunately, this will fall on deaf ears with the antis.

I am told that about 700 showed up for the memorial today.

Apparently a well known anti-hunting NGO's new motto is: "Never Let a Serious Crisis or Tragedy Go to Waste!" (IMO)

Shame on this particular anti-hunting NGO (located in the UK) for trying to take advantage of this terrible tragedy! Apparently the death of an ole lion named Cecil is much more tragic (from their perspective) than the intentional and brutal murder of a young man who has dedicated his life to protecting and conserving Tanzania's threatened wildlife.

So in lieu of joining the rest of the world in mourning the tragic loss of Mr. Gower who was tragically murdered while participating in an anti-poaching patrol, this particular anti-hunting NGO prefers to focus on his employer's (Friedkin Fund) role in implementing and engaging in legal, ethical, and sustainable hunting practices.

Please share this post with your NON-HUNTING friends. It's time that the hunting community take a page out of the anti-hunter's playbook - NAME and SHAME!

Hopefully, the NON-HUNTERS monitoring this forum (and there are many) will take note of the following article published by a spokesperson acting on behalf of this well known yet despicable anti-hunting NGO:

***
Remember Roger Gower, the British Helicopter Pilot Tragically Killed in Tanzania While on an Anti-Poaching Flight?

Roger was employed by the Friedkin Fund aka the Friedkin Conservation Fund. That organization surely does good work in Tanzania in terms of “assisting” local authorities with their anti-poaching activities.

But a Tanzanian academic at the University of Dar es Salaam had this to say:

“What is Friedkin Conservation Fund? Thomas Friedkin started a game hunting company in Botswana in 1972. In 1989, he chose to hunt in Tanzania and after purchasing a preserve there, began Tanzania Game Tracker Safaris (TGTS). TGTS make profits by selling game hunting for fun trips. The company "returns some profits [from killing animals and donations] through the Friedkin Conservation Fund, a non-governmental organization established in 1994."

Trophy hunters and all the Friedkins of this world think, with their heads on the ground and feet in the air, that by killing elephants for fun they are helping preserve elephants.

It is not only elephants that the trophy hunting industry kills. They also illegally bait and kill lions.”

But now here comes the real sting -

Thomas Friedkin seemed close enough to the former President of Tanzania to have allegedly been issued a “Presidential Permit” to hunt a total of 704 animals for Friedkin’s friends and family in 2014. A Presidential Permit is issued in excess of any quotas assigned to hunters by the wildlife authorities, comes without the necessity of any trophy fee payments, and can only be issued under highly controlled circumstances including scientific research, educational purposes, and feeding starving people. The animals on the Friedkin family permit include 8 elephants as well as lions, leopards, zebras, hippos, crocodiles, hyenas, jackals, impalas, wildebeests, porcupines, roan antelopes and klipspringers.

This permit was revealed by Tanzanian weekly newspaper Raia Mwema that appears to have a copy of the Presidential Permit.

So on the one hand, the Friedkin organization projects a public image to be engaged in anti-poaching activities while allegedly being handed special quotas by the former President to hunt for their own enjoyment? And running at least one commercial trophy hunting company?

Perhaps Raia Mwema and Mr Navaya ole Ndaskoi overstated their cases. Let’s hear from the Friedkin Conservation Fund and Tanzania Game Tracker Safaris?
****

Southern Africa - WHERE NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED!

For the benefit of our non-hunting friends who are unfamiliar with the Friedkin Conservation Fund, I have provided an excerpt from their website:

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ABOUT US

Friedkin Conservation Fund (“FCF”) operates as two separate but related entities – one is a Texas based nonprofit corporation that is registered as a 501(c)(3) entity in the United States, the other is known as “The Friedkin Conservation Fund of Tanzania” and is set up in Tanzania as a charitable Trust.

FCF was established for the purpose of conserving more than 6.1 million acres of Tanzania’s protected wildlife areas. In order to achieve this objective, they operate anti-poaching operations working closely with the Wildlife Division of Tanzania. FCF also sponsors innovative community development projects and manages a Geographic Information System (GIS) for mapping and research to compliment the anti-poaching initiative.

Our Mission is to:

- Provide proactive assistance to the Tanzanian Government and the people of Tanzania with their efforts to conserve their network of protected areas

- Engage rural communities in the conservation of their natural heritage and empower them to alleviate some of the conditions that contribute to poverty

- Monitor, research and facilitate initiatives in sustainable utilization of natural resources

***

Obviously, the Friedkin Conservation Fund is an organization that does much more than “assist local authorities with their anti-poaching activities".

if you subscribe to the notion that a world without hunting reinforces the anti's push to outlaw civilian ownership of firearms this makes perfect, if really sick sense.

Regarding the anti-hunting NGO's spokesperson's statement "A Presidential Permit is issued in excess of any quotas assigned to hunters by the wildlife authorities, comes without the necessity of any trophy fee payments, and can only be issued under highly controlled circumstances including scientific research, educational purposes, and FEEDING STARVING PEOPLE. The animals on the Friedkin family permit include 8 elephants as well as lions, leopards, zebras, hippos, crocodiles, hyenas, jackals, impalas, wildebeests, porcupines, roan antelopes and klipspringers", apparently the spokesperson is UNAWARE that most of Southern Africa's population is undernourished (aka - starving). Almost without exception (hyena being the only possible exception), all of the resulting meat was donated to the local, protein starved villages. (IMO) And to the skeptics, yes, local villagers do eat elephant, lion, leopard, zebra, hippo, crocodiles, jackal, impala, wildebeest, porcupine, roan antelope, and klipspringer.

I very much doubt TGT enjoys or needs to enjoy the privileges of a Presidential License, which other than it not being easily obtainable, is only issued to visiting dignitaries and or cases related to research/museum but most definitely NOT to feed the "starving multitudes" nor in excess of hunting quotas.

Unless something within the Game Laws, which I don't know about has changed, there is no such thing as an Elephant quota in Tanzania.
Methinks the "spokesman" is living on Cloud 9 and more than likely grinding an axe.

There are two very important issues, not detracting from the very sad and unfortunate death of two hunter conservationists.

1. Anti hunters are not pro conservation - they are anti killing of any animals by what they deem to be fun or pleasure by hunters. One clouds the issue that when you debate with them you think they are concerned conservationists. They are not they are weekend armchair warriors who may or may not have visited some luxury spa/lodge and spent three nights with a jeep jockey with a whole 3 weeks training and by knowing the names of 10 birds 3 trees and some of the game is considered an expert. ( trust me I trained some of them for some of the most well know lodges in africa ).
They are mostly nice people and well intended but grossly misled by the anti hunting evangelists with hidden agenda's.
2. The anti hunting evangelists are often prostituted research people or jeep jockeys who have spent more than a year guiding in luxury lodges, these jeep jockeys will also often go on to be film makers or photographers, they have observed a huge money making opportuinity in the hearts of the bleeding heart anti hunting masses. They will exploit any chance to extract money from the well intended be it the death of some unknown lion in Zimbabwe or the sad and tragic death of unsung hero's. Each represent a business chance.

So until SCI DSC HSC and every other hunting association dedicates more than 80% of their budget to informing the masses about conservation hunting the opportunity remains for the evangelists who will continue to milk the minds and pockets of the well intended misinformed.

Movements such as the Conservation Imperative and Conservation Force remain the leaders in trying to battle this endless wave of anti hunting sentiment. Guys like Ivan Carter , Aaron Neilson etc are all doing great jobs as well but with limited funding ( compared to the anti's and animal welfare groups ).

On TV programs such as Gator Boys etc they show hunting and killing of wildlife (Gators) to no outcry , surely there is a lesson to be learnt on how to get wildlife utilization out there into the mainstream. The future King of England has supported trophy hunting , The ex King of Spain was a hunter , The future President of America ( God Willing ) sons are hunters , we have so much for us but our passion has always been a divided movement.

A last word on the death of two conservationists who were also hunters - in the same way War Veterans are sidelined , so will the victims of conserving wildlife be marginalized while the death of an old lion will be exploited by the opportunists. May God hold a special place for those killed in the line of duty no matter what duty it was that they were serving to make our world a better safer place for our children.

Additional information regarding the Maswa Game Reserve located in the Simiyu region of Tanzania:

***

Maswa Game Reserve

Located along the southwestern boundary of the Serengeti National Park, Maswa is the dry season refuge for many Serengeti animals. The Simiyu, Mbono, Semu and Mongomawe rivers form the main drainage courses providing water for the game in the dry season. In January and February, the epic wildebeest migration passes through Maswa feeding on the spring grasses.

Maswa is home to buffalo, lion, leopard, roan, Coke’s hartebeest, East African impala, Thomson’s gazelle and Robert’s gazelle. There is also an abundance of zebra, Defassa waterbuck and warthog, as well as topi, wildebeest, East African bush duiker, dik-dik, baboon, bushbuck, eland, klipspringer, greater kudu, Bohor reedbuck, steinbuck, hyena, jackal, ostrich and roan antelope.

Anti-Poaching

The Maswa Game Reserve borders the world-famous Serengeti National Park and at times during the year the great migration passes through Maswa's boundaries. Wire snares target the migration and indiscriminately kill animals. Friedkin Conservation Fund (FCF) rangers in Maswa clear extensive snare lines during their patrols.

FCF rangers encounter bushmeat and ivory poachers on a fairly regular basis. Elephant poaching is especially prevalent with over forty carcasses identified by FCF rangers in 2010. Other major concerns are illegal charcoal production and domestic livestock overgrazing along the boundaries of the reserve.

FCF has a very high concentration of field personnel based in Maswa with twenty full time anti-poaching personnel there on a year-round basis. One of FCF's microlights is based here and is proving to be very effective in assisting anti-poaching efforts.

***

In an effort to be "fair and balanced", please find below an excerpt from the "well known anti-hunting NGO's" website:

***

Predator/Livestock Damage Mitigation Project in Kenya

Over 100 lions a year are killed in Kenya as a result of retaliatory killings by rural communities, particularly in areas where community land adjoins protected areas like National Parks and National Wildlife Reserves. These communities are now suffering from debilitating losses of their valuable livestock to predation incidents. This vicious circle needs to be broken. Not only to safeguard the community, but also to ensure that healthy populations of wildlife can co-exist with livestock on community land.

Here the big benefit of such peaceful co-existence comes into play. It paves the way for additional future sustainable employment for the communities themselves from eco-tourism and conservancy ventures. We need a sustainable scheme that compensates the communities reliably, fully and promptly for any livestock losses to predation whilst, at the same time, ensuring that their livestock enclosures (bomas) are adequately protected. Our project has been developed in collaboration with the Maasai communities themselves and has their full support. They will run the scheme themselves. Maasai Elders will decide the rules of their constitution. Once bomas are adequately protected with flashing lights,experience has shown that predation incidents drop by a margin of at least 70%.

We are delighted to say that this scheme has met with the full approval of the Kenya Government.

***

As per my limited research, the above project represents their only "in country" wildlife conservation initiative in Southern Africa. If this is not the case, I offer my sincere and humble apology to their organization.

So, my friends, if you have any surplus Christmas lights, perhaps you should consider forwarding them to their attention.