Global News - June 2008
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Concerns mount about professional poaching gangs in South Africa
Mon 30 June 2008 13:00 UK — Africa,Domestic Animals
Professional gangs of poachers have begun targeting animals on the east coast of South Africa.
The local Dispatch Online reported that there is a growing concern among wildlife officials and experts that organised gangs are moving in on the area and killing animals for profit in the region.
One owner of a game reserve, Graham Stanton, explained that men recently arrested for poaching were "not starving people needing food" but members of a criminal gang.
"They work in syndicates and use highly sophisticated equipment which includes items such as hunting bows, range-finders, night vision goggles and night scopes," he told the news site.
"If people stopped buying meat illegally or ensured the meat they bought was from a legitimate source, we wouldn’t have this problem."
Indeed, Ricky Hannan, the assistant director of biodiversity and coastal management for the Amathole region, said that the key to tackling the poaching was to target the butchers that sold the illegal meat.
"If our environmental officer suspects the carcass was obtained illegally we would open a case and investigate it as a commercial crime. If found guilty the butcher could be fined quite heavily."
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