Here is what I know: It is illegal for a hunting client to shoot a PAC animal in Mozambique. These permits are strictly issued to professional hunters, and it is they who must actually shoot the animal. A hunting client may accompany them on the hunt but cannot be the one to pull the trigger. Did the district administrator and/or the game scout know the person shooting this crop raiding elephant was not a PH? Were they bribed to look the other way? I don't know, but the safari operator certainly knew this was not legal.
I am told the reason why Mozambique wildlife authorities banned PAC hunts by safari clients in the first place is that too many operators were getting these permits issued (which are at no cost) only to sell them to clients for trophy animals and animals that were not problems at all. It was a way of circumventing the quota system. Unethical operators are still doing it. Now, here is the question I have for hunters tempted by one of these hunts: Do you want to be the hunter that Mozambican officials use to set an example when they start cracking down on this practice? If you don't think it will happen, see my follow-up report elsewhere in this issue on what authorities in Kazakhstan have to say about their plans to pursue hunters duped into an illegal argali hunt in their country. If it can happen in Kazakhstan, it certainly can happen in Mozambique....
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