NAILED TO THE WALL
by Wayne Pacelle
QUARRY QUOTAS
Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) reports a gradual but steady decline in U.S. hunting, the ratios of international trophy hunters continue to grow. The Humane Society of the United States. in its report "Big Game. Big Bucks," has documented a startling surge in recent years in the number of sport-hunted trophies imported into America.
SCI, founded in 1972 by C. J. McE!roy, serves as the hub for the worldwide trophy hunting industry, boasting 32,000 members, 140 chapters, and a museum at its headquartem in Tucson. Its monthly Safari magazine is full of first-hand accounts of members' hunting excursions, plus advertisements for taxidermists, hunting guides and outfitters, and exotic hunting ranches. SCI's national convention--held in either Reno or Las Vegas draws crowds in excess of 10,000 and has an exhibit hall with more than 1.000 guides and outfitters who sell their services for up to tens of thousands of dollars.
SCI's programs include 29 hunting achievement awards, labeled as either "Grand Slams" or "Inner Circles," that appeal to the wealthy hunters' zest for one-upmanship and keep the industry well financed. For example, to achieve the "Africa Big Five Grand Slam," a hunter must kill an African lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo. To achieve a "Bears of the World" Grand Slam, a hunter must kill at least four different kinds of bears, among polar bears, Alaska brown bears, grizzly bears. Eurasian brown bears, Siberian brown bears, and others. The Inner Circles are even more difficult to achieve, and have five levels; to claim the highest, "Diamond" level, a hunter must kill 76 different species. For a hunter to collect all of the SCI's 29 hunting awards, he or she would have to kill a minimum of 322 differert species or subspecies.
In his book Blood Ties, author Ted Kerasote (a columnist for Sports Afield) describes the creation of the Grand Slam for the world's sheep. He quotes Jack O'Connor, one-time shooting editor of Outdoor Life and only the fifth person to achieve this award, as saying, "They're after glory...and the sooner they can get the tiresome business over with and slap those ram heads on the wall, the better they like it" O'Connor alleged that the desire to complete a Grand Slam had created "a tremendous amount of lying, poaching, and cheating."
In addition to thc quantity of trophies collected, there is also a quality issue. SCI publishes an awards book in which it lists the biggest specimens killed. On his trip to Siberia, Kerasote asked Bob Kubick (whose trophy room is 42 by 34 feet), "What happens when the record book pushes people into blasting sheep from helicopters?" Kubick, whose personal wealth once reached S700 million, said, "I don't think the record book does it so much as the thought of the money you've paid, and that you've got to take something home."
During a trip with top SCI hunters, Kerasote documented that Donald Cox, one of SCl's most accomplished hunters and president of Specialty Steel Treating, shot a rare sheep with the aid of a helicopter. One month after returning from Siberia, Cox was given the Weatherby Award, presented annually by the firearms company of the same name to the hunter who collects "the greatest number of average as well as record game animals throughout the entire world...and is a person who has contributed greatly to conservation and hunting education, and one whose character and sportsmanship are beyond reproach."
Though SCI purports to operate by a code of ethics--including a tenet that demands that SCI members honor the laws of the country they hunt in--its members have been nabbed again and again by the thin ranks of game cops who enforce wildlife laws. Take, for instance, its former Louisiana chapter president, Sonny Milstead, M.D., who shot an endangered Bengal tiger on a private hunting ranch in Texas. Or Paul Aspen who illegally killed and imported a Jentiink's duiker from Liberia, a black faced impala from Namibia, two gorals and two serows from Nepal, and two northern huemuls from Peru--all endangered species. Or Dave Samnuel who paid a Sl00,000 fine and spent 30 days in jail for his endangered species killing escapades.
But while illegal conduct by prominent SCI hunters has been well documented, the group's lawful conduct is highly questionable, too. Few laws exist to protect wildlife throughnut the world. and species not protected by international treaties are at the mercy of the consciences of SCI members. And, sadly, there's not much mercy in this gang. Take this first-hand account of hunting in the high arctic by SCI member J. Y. Jones in the July/August 1996 issue of Safari:
Musk ox hunting is like a frontal assault on an enemy position, and we simply marched toward the herd in full view. By the time we neared the herd, we could see the German and Italian hunters already in prone position to shoot. Both apparently are excellent marksmen, because two bulls went down immediately. At their shots, the other animals began milling and mixing, making the choosing of an animal very difficult for Alberto and me....
I settled the cross hairs on what appeared to be the largest bull in the herd and squeezed off the shot....The bull collapsed immediately, rolling only slightly down the gently inclined slope. My peripheral vision caught sight of a second animal struggling in the snow so I knew Alberto also had connected!
Musk oxes, when facing a threat, typically form an outward-facing circle that shields the young in the center. Walking up to these frightened animals and gunning them down with high-powered rifles is about as cowardly and unsportsmanlike as it gets. But it's not much different or more difficult than shooting elephants, rhinos, and a number of other species whose evolutionary, hard-wiring teaches them to confront a threat rather than flee. And what's the sport in being ushered around by a professional guide whose fee is tied to the ultimate success of the hunt?