The problem with these cull hunts is, they are considered highly illegal by the Kenyan Government. We have on good report that a major investigation is now underway into the marketing of these hunts and that clients who are caught run the risk of spending hard time in a Kenyan jail. This is no joking matter. Do not pay for a hunt in Kenya, no matter what kind of story you are told about loopholes in the law that allow foreigners to "help" Kenyans reduce surplus animal populations.
What's illegal here is not the killing of the animals, or the export of the horns and hides afterward. The animals are indeed surplus animals that need to be killed, and they are being legally killed by Kenyan nationals. All that's illegal is the payment of a fee to go afield. In the eyes of the Kenyan Government, this turns "culling" or "killing" into "hunting," and that is against the law. We have that directly from a gentleman by the name of Ali Haji Jama of the Kenya Wildlife Service, who indicated in a March 25 e-mail to us that he was writing on behalf of the director. "Please note that the prohibition of hunting vide the Legal Notice No. 120 of May 19, 1977 is still in force," he wrote.
A major concern here is the possibility that a scandal will erupt around these hunts, setting back a careful plan to bring back legal safari hunting in Kenya. The hunter who goes to Kenya on one of these hunts, we hear, just may find........(continued)
