http://allafrica.com/stories/201202230267.html


Namibia: 150 Springbok Shot in Breeding Season
By Tanja Bause, 23 February 2012



ONE hundred and thirty springbok were shot on the farm Solitaire in the Maltahöhe district between Friday afternoon and Saturday evening.

According to Walter Swartz from a neighbouring farm, the hunters arrived on Friday and started hunting the animals. The meat was removed in refrigerated trucks belonging to Butchery on Wheels at Okahandja.

A permit was issued by the Environment and Tourism office in Windhoek to JW de Beer for the hunting of 150 springbok between October 2011 and September 2012 on the Farm Solitaire.

A special mention on the permit states that the springbok were to be shot between February 17 to 19 2012 and transported to Okahandja by Butchery on Wheels.

According to Swartz the issue is not with the permit but with the reasoning behind killing 130 springbok in a tourism area which is ecologically fragile.

"This time of the year there are many baby springbok and many pregnant females. I am sure there are a number of babies now in the veld dying. It is the wrong time of the year to harvest like that," said Swartz.

Chris Kruger, the manager of the Solitaire farm, said the hunt is not unusual and happens every year.

"We have a 4 000-hectare enclosed farm and inside we had approximately 800 springbok, which are too many for the grazing and the land so we had to cull like we do each year," he said.

According to him, officials of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism inspected the farm's fences and counted the animals before issuing the permit.

According to the permit office of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, they issue the permit and it is up to the permit holder to decide if he wants to shoot the allowed number of game all at the same time or throughout the year.

Rudi van Vuuren of the N/a'an ku se Wildlife Sanctuary said they use that area for the release of rehabilitated cheetahs and that such a cull diminishes the natural prey of the carnivores, which forces them to start preying on sheep and cattle.

"If this happens the cheetahs will be condemned as problem animals whereas humans caused the problem in the first place by a mass slaughter of the cheetah's natural prey," said Van Vuuren.

That is totally rediculous that Van Vuuren wants the small farm owner to keep his springbok available for rehabilitated cheetahs released near his property. He must be like our own liberals who want free lunch at the expense of others.

By the way, Okahandja has a shop that sells some of the best biltong available in Namibia. If going that way, I always make it a point to stop by and pick up some to enjoy.

Geoff

Why would you say hunting ? It is shooting, culling, or killing!!!!

I just went hunting for the weekend and saw 800 springbok and shot 150. WOW!!!

Mike