V.O : Hello and welcome to another Special Assignment, I’m Annelisa Burgess. Tonight we look a controversial new kind of hunting that is sweeping southern Africa. To find the hunters we travelled north to Zimbabwe. Here, the economy is in tatters. Hunting outfits are desperate for new clients – they’re trying harder and harder to attract them. The latest product on offer is leopard hunting, with specially trained dogs. Hunters in the United States and Europe are prepared to pay big money for what they call “the thrill of a lifetime” and “the most exciting hunt ever”. But this form of hunting has outraged conservationists and animal rights activists. They say it’s unethical and cruel. Producer Adri Kotzé and cameraman André Gous have just returned from Zimbabwe where they tracked down the hunters. This is the story they brought back.
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American Hunter: “I think I might have hit him in the back and slowed him and then Warwick let loose with the shotgun a couple of times and then they got down here and he was fighting the dogs, tearing the dogs up and I was able to put one above him down through his neck. I’m just so excited, I tell you, it’s unbelievable, it’s by far the biggest cat I’ve ever taken”
Still of hunter with dead leopard.
American Hunter: “It’s my second trip back to Zimbabwe with the leopard and hounds… (fade out)
V.O : This is the latest hunting fad in Southern Africa: hunting leopards with packs of dogs. The dogs are specially bred and highly trained and once they've been put onto the trail of a leopard, they are not likely to stop until they've cornered the beast. Then the wealthy overseas client moves in to make the kill. And bag the trophy.
American Hunter: “We turned the hounds loose, went over a few of these big rocks, the hounds bayed this cat up probably within twenty minutes.
American Hunter “It was so exciting seeing the dogs and cats fighting. Waiting and waiting and waiting. Oh, that’s a nice cat.”
Still of hunter with dead leopard.
“You know the biggest thing about taking one of these cats is you wanna come out of this thing with no dead dogs, no scratched up clients, scratched up hunters. That just makes a lot of difference. It’s just a very exciting high adrenaline rush hunt.”
VHS Footage : hunters and dogs killing leopard
Still of Safari Operator
V.O : Hunting leopards with dogs has been going on for some time. But its the first time visuals like these have been shown. This video material was obtained by the SPCA , who handed it to Special Assignment. Earlier today, we were threatened with legal action if we dared broadcast it.
Bill Bray is one of the American hunters who came to Zimbabwe to bag a leopard ... with the help of hounds.
Bill Bray : “I have a 48 month period that I have scheduled all of the sheep in the world, all the bears, all the big gangs, everything I could think of. I really consider myself a consumer – I hunt a lot of animals I’ve never seen before and I’ll probably only hunt them one time, so I’m no expert on any one animal, in fact a lot of them I have never laid an eye on until I shoot them, but the dangerous thing here is something I’m not used to. In fact the other day I was charged by a leopard – I’ve shot a lot of things running away from me but I’ve never shot them coming towards me.”
The safari hunting industry in southern Africa is a huge money spinner. But it's also highly competitive. Safari operators are under extreme pressure to come up with new products that will attract the fickle and often easily-bored overseas clients.
Mark Butcher, Safari Operator : (whispering) “Where we looking at we can see elephant, there’s buffalo, there’s Sable over there, Wilderbeast and Zebra down there…”
V.O : Mark Butcher is a Bulawayo-based Zimbabwean safari operator. Just over five years ago, he was at the forefront of a new hunting fad. He started experimenting... tracking leopards with hounds in Matabeleland. He has since conducted more of these hunts than any other operator in Zimbabwe.
Mark Butcher : “I’ve been selling safaris now for fifteen years or something. I was absolutely staggered by the response from the overseas market when we first started to talk about leopards with hounds. I hadn’t seen anything like it and sitting back and and thinking about it it’s actually interesting because I spoke to a lot of guys and said “why are you guys so keen on it?” and particularly the North Americans, but to a certain extent the Europeans too, they have been using hounds to hunt with, as part of their culture since forever. They hunt mountain lions with hounds, they hunt bears with hounds and for them the big question is not whether or not we should be using hounds but why the hell haven’t we done it fifteen, twenty years ago, why has it taken so long for us to switch on to it.”
V.O : As the hunts gained in popularity, other Zimbabwean and southern African safari operators started to cash in on the hype. One of the challenges was to breed the "ultimate leopard hound". Houndsmen imported dogs from the United States and cross-bred them with local dogs. But one safari operator and houndsman based in the Eastern Cape had the edge over his competitors.
Archive Footage, Gary Miles : “These two hounds are crossbreeds, they’re used for the hot scent running and a very important part of the hunt.”
V.O : Gary Miles had been breeding hounds for decades. In this television programme made in the eastern Cape in the mid eighties, he showed off the skills of his hounds in hunting so-called problem animals - lynx, caracal and jackal. He then adapted the dogs for leopard hunting.
Miles and his partner and nephew, Warwick Evans, now specialize in leopard hunting. They take their hounds to Zimbabwe.... where they're in high demand among safari operators.
Warwick Evans, Houndsman : “The problem with hunting in Zimbabwe us you can’t track them in by eye so it wouldn’t be an option to do it without the dogs with the tracking method. In Botswana, we’re obviously in the Sandveld so we’re helped a lot by the bushmen. We do it slightly differently – the bushmen track them in until the trek is fresh enough for the dogs and then you unload the dogs and do the rest with the dogs.”
V.O: The leopard-with-hounds hunts would have continued unnoticed. But just over a year ago, the Zimbabwean SPCA found out about them. The animal welfare organisation was outraged and started an international outcry against the practice. Since then, the SPCA's Meryl Harrison has been fighting a lonely battle.
Meryl Harrison, Zimbabwe SPCA : “People are afraid, on issues like this, of speaking out – people within this country. People have phoned me, hunters have phoned me and said that they disapprove of it.”
V.O : After the outcry, uncontrolled leopard/hound hunts were stopped. But overseas clients, especially the Americans, were hooked. They insisted on hunting leopards with hounds. The Zimbabwean government then agreed to allow trial runs. Nearly 40 permits were issued... and trial runs started a few months ago. They'll continue until the end of the year.
Meryl Harrison : “We were absolutely flabbergasted to find that a backward step had been taken, and that hunts – even “trial hunts”, so-called trial hunts, were going to be allowed.”
George Pangeti, Executive Director, Zimbabwe Tour & Safari Operators : “Why don’t we experiment only because there is demand. But then we are doing it under controlled conditions, under the quota that has been prescribed and under monitoring by the relevant department of National Park Management.”
V.O : There's great concern about what the new hunting fad will do to the leopard population. Renowned conservationist Viv Wilson has done extensive research on big cats in Zimbabwe and other African countries. He's now updating his research on Zimbabwe's cheetah and leopard numbers.
Leopards are not considered endangered in Zimbabwe. But they are listed as threatened by extinction by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Zimbabwe is allowed to hunt 500 leopards a year.
Viv Wilson, conservationist : “Many years ago the director of National Parks felt that there were about 35,000 leopards in Zimbabwe. Those figures were quoted merely because we needed to have some sort of baseline number so that we could get a permit to shoot and export a certain number of leopards and the quota I think at that time was set at 500 leopards… because they felt at that time if they had 35,000 leopards, you could safely take off 500 leopards a year and it wouldn’t affect the population. However, nobody has ever done a detailed survey of leopards in this country so we don’t really have the slightest clue what the leopard population is.”
George Pangeti : “I admit, yes, it is high time we looked at research to find out exactly what are the trends… that I think has to be done but that can be done in parallel to hunting because I don’t believe we should do like other countries have done – to say ‘ you stop hunting until we know how many leopards they have.”
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Hunter : “You know on a ten-day hunt, first day if we’re done in an hour and a half, I don’t know what we’re going to do for the rest of the time.”
V.O : To the overseas clients, using hounds to hunt leopards is a quick, effective way of bagging the sought-after trophy.
Mark Butcher : “Hunting leopards with hounds is far more exciting, far more sporty than hunting by traditional methods ie.bait and blind.”
Bill Bray : “So if you’re hunting out of a blind you’re sitting there and the leopard has no chance, he doesn’t know you’re there, he gets up and bite-boom, it’s not much of a hunt. “
Some hunting outfits market the experience as "the thrill of a lifetime" or "the most exciting leopard hunt ever". They insist that it is a sporting way to hunt...
Marketing Video
Warwick Evans : “The hounds are making a noise – you’re getting in close to a leopard…he roars a little bit so it makes it a little more exciting.”
Bill Bray : “So it was very exciting, it’s sort of dangerous.”
Viv Wilson : “To me sport hunting is when you go out, when you get on your flat feet and you track the animal down with a tracker and a professional hunter and you spend hours walking in the incredible heat and everything else and you find your animal and you shoot it and I believe… I don’t believe that’s a bad thing.”
V.O The big hunting dogs are highly efficient... and some safari operators have boasted a hundred percent success rate. Others say the leopards still have a chance to escape...
Mark Butcher : “These leopards are very experienced in evading animals that follow their trail and they learn this I believe from hyenas and jackals and things, so when those hounds are following the trail we see leopards that frequently, when it gets warm like it is right now, walking onto rocks like those over there where they know that their scent is blown away quickly and the hounds lose the scent and that’s it.”
Viv Wilson : ”I believe, knowing dogs, and knowing leopards, I reckon once you got the leopard’s scent, I reacon that once you’ve got the leopard’s scent, the dogs have got the leopard’s scent, I would believe there’s almost a 99% chance that that’s a dead leopard.”
VHS Footage
And once the leopard is chased into a corner, the guns come out....
Mark Butcher : “Anybody who thinks that a leopard up in these hills that we have around here is helpless doesn’t know leopards – these leopards that we hunt up here are smart, they’re strong, they’re fit, they’re incredibly aggressive, they are more than able to look after themselves.”
Viv Wilson : “A trapped leopard under those circumstances is a very very aggressive animal but he still won’t stand much of a chance against a bunch of people with guns and against a whole lot of dogs. A leopard has got virtually no chance.”
Mark Butcher : “Yes I’m sure that it’s cruel but it’s no more no less cruel than any other method of hunting and we can anthropomorphise about how a leopard feels when it’s being hunted, but we don’t actually know that.”
The SPCA's campaign against these hunts is not only out of concern for the leopards. They are also worried about the well-being of the hunting dogs.
Mark Butcher : “There have been incidences where dogs have been mauled … most injuries are small. I’ve been mauled, many professional hunters in this country have been mauled by leopards – that’s not an uncommon scenario for professional hunters or professional hounds because that’s what these hunters are. We go into close quarters with dangerous animals and we take injuries.”
Warwick Evans : “I can’t say to you that they don’t get hurt, they do get the occasional clout from the leopard if they get too brave and get in too close but it’s not nearly as bad as people say.”
Meryl Harrison : “I was shown a pack of hounds that came from South Africa and many of them had lacerations on their paws and ears and their noses and the owner of the dogs told me, quite happily, that those were caused by leopards. “
Milton Mapokotera used to be a dog handler for some of the safari operators. He claims that he was fired because he spoke out about alleged abuses. According to Mapokotera, some houndsmen use electric collars with powerful electric currents to train the hounds.
Milton Mapokotera : “These electric collars they put three channels – they put number one, which is a small, number two which is a medium then number three is the highest one. If you choke with this highest one the dog with the collar on will fall down straight away it’s so powerful.”
Meryl Harrison : “Because these are scent hounds, they go into the bush and they’ll follow any scent so they’ve got to be “trained” to follow leopard scent, and that is done with an electric collar.”
Warwick Evans: “I don’t use electric choking collars on our hounds but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing, it’s probably the best way to train a hound, especially a young hound because with an electric collar you can punish it immediately as it’s doing it, as it’s chasing the wrong animal when you’re training it.”
V.O : Dead impala are put out to attract leopards. The hounds follow the leopard tracks from the bait. Some safari operators allegedly also use the controversial method of tying live goats to trees - to lure leopards. Although this method is not limited to leopard/hound hunting, it has added to the controversy surrounding the hunts.
Warwick Evans : “There have been live baits used in the past I don’t think it’s taking place anymore – it’s also a matter of opinion as to whether people are like that or not, I mean nothing likes dying whether you walk up to it and shoot it or whether you put it out as live bait, I’m sure no animal likes to be killed.”
V.O : Now, listen to what the American hunters say about live bait.
VHS footage : “So we came down the ways and probably been out an hour and a half…and came across one of the goats that had just been killed. In fact it was still breathing.”
Milton Mapokotera : “When they are putting these live goats they just tie the goat around the tree and they leave it.”
Mark Butcher : “If we can get leopards to eat goats as bait instead of impala that’s less impala we need to shoot and that’s not necessarily live or dead. “
Milton Mapokotera : “Some they can spend maybe 5 maybe 7 days actually still alive and the jackals will be actually eating until they actually die.”
Spoken extract from pro-hunt video : “The charge that hunting leopards with hounds is unsporting because it is 100% successful is probably the most common, and inaccurate…”
V.O : Butcher would not allow the Special Assignment team to join a leopard with hounds hunt. Instead, he agreed that we could use this video. It's the same video that was used to lobby Zimbabwean cabinet ministers to allow trial hunts. Unlike the video the SPCA gave Special Assignment, this footage paints a rosy picture of the hunts. There are no visuals of leopards being killed... or of the dogs being mauled. There's also no reference to live bait.
Mark Butcher : “Look, there is no question that we have come under the limelight so, we have nothing to hide, we have been completely open.”
Meryl Harrison : “They obviously don’t want transparency otherwise why weren’t we invited, why weren’t we informed right from the start?”
Mark Butcher : “Interestingly one of the animal rights groups that’s been the most vocal, we invited them on one day.”
Meryl Harrison : “If they’re so sure that what they’re doing is correct and ethical, then why not let everybody know about it?”
Safari Huntsman 1: “Because they refused point blank, the individuals we spoke to refused point blank to come out (a) and (b) they said that nobody else within the organisation would want to come out.”
Meryl Harrison : “I even contacted one of the safari operators whose wife sort of smiled and said “yes we were expecting you to make that sort of request.” A message came back saying that I could attend one of the hunts.“
Mark Butcher : “And then the following day they sent out e-mails around the world saying what a horrible thing this hunting leopards with hounds was.”
Meryl Harrison :: “Since then we’ve found out hunts have taken place, over 7 leopards have been killed already and not a word to Zimbabwean National SPCA… They want to produce facts showing that this is totally acceptable so that nothing that is going to be shown that is controversial in any way.”
V.O : Initially, strict conditions were set for monitoring the trials. Every hunt had to be video taped. AND a national parks official had to go along. But Special Assignment is in possession of a document in which the monitoring conditions have since been changed. Video tapes can now be accepted as the sole basis on which to decide the future of leopard/hound hunting.
Meryl Harrison : They want to produce facts showing that this is totally acceptable so that nothing that is going to be shown that is controversial in any way.”
V.O : To Hitler Tshuma of Bulawayo, it's all a question of money. Because he's poor, he says, it's illegal for him to use his dogs to hunt animals.
Hitler Tshuma : “It makes me very angry that the Americans can hunt with dogs. They only do it for pleasure. I have to feed my family, but I’m not allowed to do it.”
George Paneti : “There is a difference between a dog that has been trained to track a leopard and a dog that follows any animal it sees.”
Meryl Harrison : “The way the law stands is that if somebody in the rural areas is hunting to feed his family and he takes 6 or 7 dogs out into the bush and he is actually apprehended, caught, his dogs are usually shot, confiscated, he’s thrown in the cells for the night with a fine. But if somebody’s coming out here with US dollars no problem, doors are open for them, and they’re allowed to hunt using hounds.”
V.O : Traditionally Zimbabwe's tourism industry has been the third largest earner of foreign exchange. In 1999, hunting brought in 70 million US dollars. But now, many of the lodges stand empty... and tourist numbers have dwindled.
George Paneti : “Our tourism figures have declined over the past two years – probably down by 40%. Some areas – arrivals – have declined obviously, because of the land distribution programmes that we are undertaking and also the perception that our country is not safe.”
Meryl Harrison : “Obviously tourism is down and the hunting industry is taking a bashing – it isn’t the only industry in this country but I really don’t see why standards should be lowered.”
V.O : The SPCA says that the Zimbabwean government is desperate for foreign currency. That's why they've bowed to pressure from overseas hunters and allowed the trial runs.
Bill Bray : “The political instability here really has nothing to do with tourism. Money’s important – it gets back to economics with this country and Robert hasn’t interfered at all. “
Meryl Harrison : “We know we’re short of finance and wonderful, we can have all these foreigners coming into the country and bringing much needed finance, yes.”
George Paneti : “It is not true at all, because we have been experimenting for a long time. It is coincidental that we have introduced them when the country is undergoing economic problems but there is no relationship between the two, and we do not do them simply for the money. “
V.O : It was the abundance of wildlife that once attracted overseas tourists and hunters. Zimbabwe was widely regarded as a model of conservation.
But since the land resettlement programme started, the country's wildlife is under threat.
On just one conservancy in the Zimbabwean lowfeld, 127 animals have been killed or maimed in poaching incidents in the last year. Among them, 21 Eland, 26 Zebra, 29 Kudu and 18 warthogs.
Viv Wilson : “People need land, there’s no doubt about that in my mind. However, one of the things that’s not taken too much into account is the wildlife that’s suffering. “
Mark Butcher : “There is no question that a lot of the wildlife on private land has been affected very negatively by the land invasions and by political events going on.”
Viv Wilson : “In a country like this where you have many many other problems at the present time, the leopard is the last thing that’s on anybody’s mind.. If they experiment, then we should draw up some proper conclusions at the end of the day and not only look at the mighty American dollar.”
Mark Butcher : “A leopard is extremely valuable to us as a flagship species promoting conservation of other species (a) and (b) it’s a very valuable one for us to market overseas.”
Viv Wilson : “We mustn’t look at it and say the return to the country, the return to the safari operator is so many thousands of dollars. We should also look at it from the conservation point of view and say “What effect is this going to have on the leopard population if everybody throughout the country hunted leopards all the time with dogs?”
VHS Footage