Hunting

Home » ABC to Air Expose on Hunting Safari Tourism in South Africa. WATCH Trailers

ABC to Air Expose on Hunting Safari Tourism in South Africa. WATCH Trailers

Australia will be televising a Canal Plus documentary on Monday night that exposes the game hunting industry in South Africa, where hunting often takes place in fenced off private reserves leaving the animals – who have sometimes been tranquillised or tamed (even bred for the purpose, otherwise known as ‘canned hunting’) – trapped with little or […]

13-03-16 11:49

Australia will be televising a Canal Plus documentary on Monday night that exposes the game hunting industry in South Africa, where hunting often takes place in fenced off private reserves leaving the animals – who have sometimes been tranquillised or tamed (even bred for the purpose, otherwise known as ‘canned hunting’) – trapped with little or no chance to escape.

According to ABC, which will air the documentary on ‘Four Corners’, thousands of tourists travel to SA for game hunting where 70 percent of wild animals live on these private domains.

ABC says: “For $22,000, you can shoot a lion, $120,000 will get you a rhinoceros. Some safari hunts even let you choose the size and colour of the animal, right out of a catalogue.”

Business is apparently booming. According to one hunting guide in the show: “A lot of farmers are leaving cattle-breeding to start breeding game, because it’s a buoyant market. It’s better than the stock market!”

With super-wealthy international clients (one Russian has bought a new house for his trophies), the game owners, guides, auctioneers and taxidermists are benefitting.

“A lot of hunters are collectors, they’ve hunted everything, now they want to add something new, something exciting… It’s like a dress, no woman likes to wear the same dress for three years. They like to change,” says an auctioneer.

According to a taxidermist on the show: “It’s all about the size. The bigger the horns, the bigger the animal, the better it is.”

Monday’s ‘Four Corners’ will take viewers into the auction rooms and animal warehouses where South Africa’s wildlife is being bought and sold. (Last year, a couple of Australian auction houses controversially auctioned off rhino horn items.)

According to Four Corners’ website, the show delves into the “darker world of illegal hunting where lions are tranquillised or partly domesticated to make them easier to shoot”.

The shows airs on Monday 14th March at 8.30pm EDT, and is replayed on Tuesday 15th of March at 10.00am and Wednesday 16th at 11pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, and on ABC iview.

Watch Trailer 1 – ‘Safari Tourism: Paying to Kill’

4 Corners: Game hunting is big business in South AfricaThousands of tourists travel to South Africa every year to go game hunting. It’s big business and every animal has a price. But the hunting doesn’t take place in the wild. Around 70 per cent of wild animals live in vast private domains which are fenced off, leaving the animals little chance of escape. Watch ‘Safari Tourism: Paying to Kill’, Monday night on Four Corners. #trophyhunting

Posted by Four Corners on Friday, 11 March 2016

Watch Trailer 2 – ‘Safari Tourism: Paying to Kill’

Monday on 4 Corners, watch Safari: Paying to Kill – The big g…“A lot of hunters are collectors, they’ve hunted everything, now they want to add something new, something exciting… It’s like a dress, no woman likes to wear the same dress for three years. They like to change.” They’re the big game animals that symbolise Africa – lions, rhinos and elephants. And they’re top of the list for the big game hunters with deep pockets who travel to Africa to hunt and kill.Monday’s Four Corners, from ‘Canal Plus’, takes you on a journey into the auction rooms and animal warehouses where these prized creatures are bought and sold. And into the darker world of illegal hunting where lions are tranquilised or partly domesticated to make them easier to shoot.Watch ‘Safari: Paying to Kill’, Monday night on ABC TV and live streaming on ABC iview.

Posted by Four Corners on Wednesday, 9 March 2016