Zoo sells antelope to hunter
4:00AM Tuesday Sep 01, 2009
By Kathy Marks

From The New Zealand Herald

A public zoo has sold endangered antelope to a member of a party lobbying for the right to set up game reserves for commercial trophy hunting.

Last month the NSW Environment Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, said a contract between Taronga Western Plains Zoo and Bob McComb, of the Shooters Party, stipulated the 24 blackbuck antelope would be used only for breeding.

However a Freedom of Information application by Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has revealed the contract stated the zoo accepted no responsibility for the animals after they left.

Rhiannon accused Tebbutt and the zoo of misleading the public.

The Shooters Party has a bill before Parliament which would allow private game reserves to be set up for safari hunters and permit hunters to shoot native animals in national parks.

McComb acquired the antelope over the past three years, paying $200-$370 a head - less than half their value.

Tebbutt has ordered a report into the zoo's animal trade, which it has been forced to suspend. The report will consider what further animal welfare protections should be put in place.


A zoo spokeswoman said: "The zoo is at its heart dedicated to animal welfare. There is no history of mistreatment of animals that have been transferred from its care."

But she acknowledged it had been incorrectly stated that the contract said the antelope would only be for breeding.

McComb said he bought the antelope to breed them but he did not rule out hunting them in future. The zoo said it received a personal assurance that they would never be shot for sport.

The Greenies would rather them all be "euthanized" than that any might get hunted in the future.
If the blackbuck could volunteer to get out of the zoo and go to the ranch, they all would.

If they are selling off......I may be able to get that pet monkey I've always wanted

Just come to Texas, we've got thousands of the little buggers running around. They're quite fun to watch, almost like little impala or springbok the way the bound around.

Maybe someone could point out how well the endangered blackbuck is doing in Texas were they are actively hunted.

Lee Rhiannon is one of the most prominent members of the lunatic fringe in Australia - she hates anything and everything even remotely related to guns, hunting, fishing, etc. and will say anything to try and get her twisted views forced upon the people of Australia.

quote:

Rhiannon accused Tebbutt and the zoo of misleading the public.

- this is almost laughable as Rhiannon has built an entire career from misleading the public and the following statement:

quote:

and permit hunters to shoot native animals in national parks.

- is clear evidence of that. The Shooters Party bill is to allow suitably licensed hunters to shoot FERAL animals in National Parks NOT native animals. Rhiannon and her allies, such as the RSPCA, have been inventing a huge lie that, if the bill is passed, everything in the parks, whether native animals or bushwalkers, will be shot on sight by hunters. This woman is a menace to society.