Been receiving emails about a possible bogus hunt in Hwange National park, please be advised as to date there are NO ration/management/control hunts in the Zimbabwe national parks, please be warned:

Hunts are being offered by: Allison Smith, alsafari@yoafrica.com
PH in question: Lorrie Van Aasvagen
Area: Sinamatella camp, Hwange

Regards

Martin Pieters
Chairman ZPHGA

Thanks Martin.

I think this also puts to rest another claim from another outfitter being discussed on the forums as being untrue.

Martin, nice article in the February "African Outfitter."

Interesting that the outfitter Saeed refers to is now totally silent.

The scary thing is that i think these kind of hunts are going on . Legal or not. A mass e mail went around this area a year or so ago offering this type of hunt. I replied to all and questioned it as I knew it was not legal. Two people I know came to the rescue of the outfitter from the RSA who was hunting in Hwange. Said they had been and all was good. Scary.

Again a South African relatively unheard of company, hunting in Zimbabwe offering questionable hunts. Is this because the Zim partner is someone to be avoided and the Zim PH's and outfitters know this?

These illegal hunts are still going on as we speak. Mostly it is unscrupulous South African operators (but also some Zim PH's) who are mostly working through the "untouchable" govt ministers. The vast majority of these ministers are on the U.S. banned list.

What U.S clients need to realise is that they can be prosecuted in the USA for dealing with these people - the fine is up to $500,000 under Bush's Executive Order! Any trophies from hunts such as these will be confiscated by the USFWS - this will not form a part of the fine!

These perpetrators, clients and operators, will be tracked down and booked - rest assured!

John,

Send me their names. I am not afraid to post the names and contact details of anyone and everyone involved.

Plus, I will send it out on Facebook and Twitter to my 6000 friends and followers with a request for them to send it to all their friends. I have many prominent outdoor media members on that list.

Remember, you can't un-ring a bell. And, the cockroaches of deceit have never been able to stand the spotlight of truth.

http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/feb7_2011.html


Click on ZCTF Report February (15th one on the list). One section of the report concerns the hunting in Hwange.

Martin,

Your input here is most valuable. Please keep it up.

465H&H

As with any crime...until serious penalties are upheld this type of behavior will continue, sadly.
Or maybe the antbear holes just need to be filled up when these guys get caught...
Brian

Did not a similar thing happen in MOZ last year???
PAC hunts being advertized by a South African when they were illegal...

Here is the text from the latest Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force report. It can be viewed at the zimsituation.com link that Kathi posted above.

There is some discrepancy in the spelling of the South African's name. It isn't clear if he is Lorrie Van Aasvagen or Lawrence van Aswegan, but whatever his name is, he is in cahoots with Allison Smith in conducting elephant hunts inside Hwange National Park.


HUNTING IN HWANGE NATIONAL PARK

We have received a report that 5 elephants and 3 buffalo were shot by sports hunters at Main Camp in Hwange National Park during the last week of January this year.

Lawrence van Aswegan and Allison Smith, safari operators believed to be based in South Africa have been offering hunts of Non Trophy Elephants INSIDE Hwange National Park. They claim that Parks and Wildlife Management are selling these hunts as part of a culling programme in order to raise money for parks.

It has also been reported that only female elephants are to be targeted which makes matters even worse because many of the females have calves. The females move in family groups as opposed to the males which very often wander around alone. To target females means destroying family units and leaving orphaned babies behind. This is extremely traumatic for the families of the elephants shot and there have been numerous instances of elephants traumatized in this way, attacking humans. We have emailed National Parks to try and get confirmation of this but we have not received a reply.

National Parks claim that Zimbabwe is over populated with elephant, citing the numbers at around 100 000. If there are so many, we can't help wondering why it is necessary to shoot elephant inside a protected national park.

While I in no way condone any hunting in NPs that is not completely legal and above board I am surprised surprised at the Task Force's lack of knowledge about basic elephant biology and hunting laws in Zimbabwe. First of all it is completely illegal to shoot any cow that has a dependent calf at her side. Second of all if your elephant population is over carrying capacity in the park it is useless to shoot cows outside the park unless their is a migration out of the Park to the hunting area. The task forces position appears to be one of the anti-hunting stances.

465H&H

I find it amazing that a few South African crooks and their antics will probably spell the end of hunting in Africa.

The legitimate operators in Zimbabwe have very little voice, and the likes of us have no influence at all.

A phone call today with the chief ecologist confirmed that NO ration/management quota has been issue for 2011. They are still in deliberation at this point, as soon as we know of national park's plans as to the off take, I will make a public and legitimate post

Regards

martin

I met with Lorry Van Aasvagen today and he admitted being offered 'cull' elephant inside Hwange, but to date, has seen no permits and has not conducted a safari inside the park, we will closely monitor the situation

Martin

ZCTF and Johnny are notoriously anti-hunting. Be warned when quoting him!!

quote:

We have received a report that 5 elephants and 3 buffalo were shot by sports hunters at Main Camp in Hwange National Park during the last week of January this year.

Whether he is anti-hunting is not the point.

The point is whether or not the above statement is true.

Alan,

I think what is true is that no one has any idea what is happening in Zimbabwe today.

Fairgame, I feel that that statement is uncalled for, we have gone through 12 years of hell and still we survive, under the current situation we can still hold our heads up and do our best.

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Alan,

I think what is true is that no one has any idea what is happening in Zimbabwe today.

We have a winner.

quote:

Originally posted by martin pieters:
Fairgame, I feel that that statement is uncalled for, we have gone through 12 years of hell and still we survive, under the current situation we can still hold our heads up and do our best.

Not denying that mate and remember that Zambia was hung out to dry for some years. The rot has set in. There are outfitters and PH's you have never heard of and so called new concessions, and now hunting in your parks etc?

Do not worry too much as it has embraced Zambia and the likes of you and I are simply powerless to do anything about it.

As long as hunters are willing to trade legalities to save a dollar these problems will continue. On another forum I brought up the fact that outfitters were running ads to hunt in Zim and were not registered and there PHs were not licensed in Zimbabwe. Through PMs people that hunted with unlicensed PHs told me how great they were. No regard for the law. One even had the nerve to say he hunted in a national park.

With the internet it takes about 15 minutes to see if somebody is legitimate.

My hat is off to the legal Zim operators like Martin, Buzz, the Duckworths, RossJ, and many others. Without these guys Zim would be a wasteland.

Mike,

After all the negative publicity Zim hunting receives, it is refreshing to see the good guys being acknowledged. The legit guys who still try and do things as they should be done. Hats off to those chaps. Add Roger Whittall, Zambezi Hunters, Watson/Walker to the list. At the end of the day, the future of Zimbabwean wildlife and hunting is dependent on their resilience.

David

quote:

Originally posted by David Hulme:
Mike,

After all the negative publicity Zim hunting receives, it is refreshing to see the good guys being acknowledged. The legit guys who still try and do things as they should be done. Hats off to those chaps. Add Roger Whittall, Zambezi Hunters, Watson/Walker to the list. At the end of the day, the future of Zimbabwean wildlife and hunting is dependent on their resilience.

David

And the rest of the brave.

Lorry? Van? Arsewagon? Someone's having a laugh here.

Yes, here is the thread posted right here on AR:

Ele Hunts

The outfitter has not responded to questions, and has not responded to his claims of dealing with laws in Zimbabwe when it was Rhodesia, even though he appears to be a reltively young man.


It is a smart strategy, sell some hunts, make a few friends, and when the stuff hits the fan, go slient for a while, and then come back posting more hunts.

I think anyone who deals with this outfitter or the PHs he books for is asking for trouble.

404J:

A couple of points need to be clarified, IMO, regarding your post.

First: LDK is not an outfitter he is a booking agent.

Second: He was offering a hunt in Binga not Hwange.

Finally: He did mention earlier that he would be at the NWTF convention this week and weekend and have limited access to email, etc.

I am not defending his offering nor his hunting and booking claims. In fact, I raised them on the original hunt offering thread. I am suspicious of the offering for multiple reasons already discussed.

Regards,

RCG

Thanks RCG for the good points

I didn't make a clear distinction between an outfitter and a booking agent

I will edit my post to take out the "silent" note, which isn't fair- I did not notice the mention of his absence

And last- I painted Zim and PAC/management/cull hunts with one brush.

Thanks-

I thought I could go back and edit my post- I guess I can't- I basically retract most of it in fairness for the poster to respond when he gets back on the board- and the response may end up being 100% spot on, in which case I am dead wrong.

Thanks

Alan - You have 6000 friends? I must say I am impressed if that is indeed the case.
Prominent outdoor media members as well. Double impressed.


Larry Sellers
SCI Life Member

quote:

Originally posted by Alan Bunn:
John,

Send me their names. I am not afraid to post the names and contact details of anyone and everyone involved.

Plus, I will send it out on Facebook and Twitter to my 6000 friends and followers with a request for them to send it to all their friends. I have many prominent outdoor media members on that list.

Remember, you can't un-ring a bell. And, the cockroaches of deceit have never been able to stand the spotlight of truth.