Tourists flee game park after witnessing “slaughter”
A group of tourists from the US has reportedly fled, horrified, from a game reserve in Zimbabwe after witnessing a “slaughter” of animals.
According to The Daily Telegraph, tourists visiting the country’s Hwange park saw official trucks piled high with animal carcasses, while others left the park earlier than planned after they reported hearing “automatic gunfire day and night”.
The newspaper reports that the slaughter is being attributed to “Operation Meat”, a campaign to feed hungry villagers in northern Matabeleland – but quotes observers as saying that the operation is actually a cover for a government-backed ivory-smuggling racket.
Johnny Rodrigues, of the Zimbabwean Conservation Task Force, is quoted as saying: “If the aim was to feed this people, it is strange that most of the elephant bulls that are being shot have 60- to 70-pound tusks and are in their prime. Older bulls with broken tusks are not being targeted.”
The newspaper goes on to quote a former senior wildlife warden, who fled Zimbabwe after exposing a poaching ring, as saying that he was not surprised at the revelation: “It follows a pattern that has been established throughout Zimbabwe in national parks, hunting concession areas and private wildlife reserves.
“All the indications are that the country’s game is being plundered and exploited with the connivance and encouragement of senior officials at a regional level, and probably at a government level as well.”
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd
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