Allan,

I am curious. Were these people ALL arrested for Rhino Poaching or were some arrested for illegal trade in Rhino products? And is there a difference in the offences?

Also, are these two guys going to the States only PH's or are they registered Outfitters?

If they stated to the court they wanted to market they had to show just cause.....what was this cause. And marketing in the U.S.A. would not have been sufficient. So it must be known to the press WHERE they are going to market.

Just curious.......please enlighten us a bit more, since you seems to know much more than us down here in S.A.!

Charl,

All I know is what has been reported in the South African newspapers. Tielman Erasmus is the only one who was listed as a PH in the original report. However, as you know, the SA licensing system for professional hunters only consists of a two week school, so I think it would be easy to pay someone off to get the necessary paperwork.

The nuances of the differences in the offenses concerning the poaching laws were not covered by the local media reports. However, if you can find out the details from the lawyers in your family, it would be good if you could post them here.

Since there are only the three big hunting shows occurring during the time frame they are requesting, there seems there are no other real options. However, since they are not listed as exhibiting at any of the aforementioned shows, it is dubious as to how much 'marketing' they can effectively do.

This whole thing is interesting since there was no mention of it in the English language press. Why wasn't there a translation posted of the Beeld story on the News24 website? I wonder if they think the Afrikaans community is going to support them in their rhino poaching enterprise?

Wishful thinking on their part, I reckon.

Like I said, their request is laughable. However, it is a good cover story to mask the real purpose of their intent to travel to the States.