Larry Higgins, President of Safari Club International (SCI), noted the resignation of Stan Burger from the position of President of the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA) earlier this week. He said that the global hunting community would miss Burger’s dedication to the cause of protecting hunting. Higgins called on the hunting community to carry on Burger’s passion for focusing on the threats to hunting.
President Higgins stressed the need for the various organizations in the hunting community to work together in order to deal with the growing threat of the anti-hunting zealots. He referred to a recent article in National Geographic written after a South African professional hunter was killed by an elephant last week while doing his duty to protect his hunting party from dangerous game. The article was callous about the hunter’s death and used it as an opportunity to slam hunting.
Higgins said, “Today we are dealing with heartless and cruel people who know nothing about wildlife conservation and seem not to care about a human death. There is something horribly wrong with this misguided approach to the values of human life and death and wildlife conservation.”
Last year, under Burger’s leadership, PHASA made a decision to distance itself from hunting lions within enclosures. SCI followed that decision by saying that it opposed hunting of any animal within an enclosure if the hunt did not meet SCI’s fair chase standards. These standards include the following requirements:
- The animals hunted must have freely resided on the property on which they are being hunted for at least six months, or longer.
- The hunting property shall provide escape cover that allows the animals to elude hunters for extended periods of time and multiple occurrences. Escape cover, in the form of rugged terrain or topography, and/or dense thickets or stands of woods, shall collectively comprise at least 50% of the property.
- The animals hunted must be part of a breeding unit that is a resident on the hunted property.
- The operators of the preserve must provide freely available and ample amounts of cover, food, and water at all times.
- Animals that are to be hunted must exhibit their natural flight/survival instincts.
More recently, the SCI Executive Committee approved a decision by the SCI Record Book Committee that it would require an affidavit for Record Book entries of predators hunted within an enclosure. The affidavit must be signed by the hunter and the guide certifying that they have met the fair chase standards for estate animals.