Proposed 'Crocodile Safari Hunts' Spark Outrage

by Patricia Collier

Animal welfare groups are condemning a plan that would allow tourists to hunt crocodiles in an annual safari through northern Australia.

The proposal calls for allowing tourists to hunt Saltwater crocodiles, a species that has been protected in Australia since 1971. About 600 are already killed for their skins each year by licensed hunters.

Australia exports about 12,000 crocodile skins each year.

According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), territory officials want 25 of the 600 crocs to be hunted in the safari scenario. The RSPCA said allowing visitors to kill the animals would be cruel.

"If the culling of saltwater crocodiles is indeed deemed necessary, it should be firmly in the hands of trained professionals, not rich overseas tourists whose only aim is to bag another trophy to show off back home," said Hugh Wirth, the RSPCA's national president.

"The only factor driving this decision is the dollar and yet again, animals will suffer because people want to make money out of them," he said.

Territory officials tried to justify the plan by saying the hunts would raise money for poor Aboriginal tribes who live on the lands where the hunts would take place.

But Nicole Beynon, Wildlife and Habitats Program manager for The Humane Society International (HSI), described the trophy hunting proposal as "obscene," saying it would destroy Australia's reputation as an eco-friendly tourist destination.

"We are appalled by the suggestion that trophy hunting should be allowed again," Beynon said.

"It means that tourists from America and Europe who get their kicks from shooting brains out of animals will be allowed to come and shoot crocodiles and take them home as trophies," she said.

The plan will not go forward unless it is approved by the federal government, which so far has indicated a lack of interest.

The proposal will be open for public comment until Friday, Feb. 6.

© 2004 Animal News Center, Inc.