Two Eastern Cape businessmen have paid a R1000 fine each and have forfeited their valuable state-of-the-art compound bows and arrows after pleading guilty to illegally hunting buck on a game farm near Grahamstown, writes Adrienne Carlisle.
Grahamstown Magistrate Sarel Strauss sentenced Eugene Brown, 28, and Wickus Putter, 36, to a fine of R1000 or six months imprisonment after they last week pleaded guilty to illegally shooting a Blesbuck with their bows.
The men did not have a permit to hunt the Blesbuck, nor did they have a licence permitting them to hunt with a bow-and-arrow.
They also pleaded guilty to poaching the buck on Glen Melville Farm near Grahamstown without owner Nolan Sparg’s knowledge or permission.
Grahamstown stock theft detective Inspector Riaan Landman on Tuesday told the Daily Dispatch that Sparg’s neighbour and local butchery owner John Coetzee spotted the two men decked out in full camouflage outfits hunting on Sparg’s farm.
Coetzee had immediately phoned the police and had assisted in the arrest of the two men who had already loaded the carcass of the buck onto the back of their bakkie.
State prosecutor Advocate Buks Coetzee said the two high-tech bow-and-arrow sets, jointly worth in the region R30000, were forfeited to the State.
The still-fresh carcass was donated by agreement to a local organisation that houses and assists people with drug and alcohol addiction.
Read the full story in Wednesday’s print or online edition of the Daily Dispatch.
15 Comments Already, Leave Yours Too
What a pathetic sentence. Illegal poachers are destroying our nature and they get off with a petty slap on the wrist. This is not the kind of picture our law system should be painting for other poachers. I hope you two chaps are reading my comment because I think you are disgusting!
And yet abalone poachers get huge fines, I agree with Rose – “punishment” too light!
These guys got off very lightly. They should have been fined R15k, not R1k. I’m glad their names were published because they Every poacher should be dealth with the same way, including those who “take their 19 dogs for a walk” on private land.
What the h3ll is going on with my PC!?
What mu previous post should have said was…
These guys got off very lightly. They should have been fined R15k, not R1k. I’m glad their names were published because now bow shops and hunting farms can keep a lookout for them. Every poacher should be dealth with the same way, including those who “take their 19 dogs for a walk” on private land.
Rose, Joe, Whitman
Could the proliferation of cross bows be attributed to the ”gunfree south africa” campaign and is this perhaps its unintended consequences?
However i agree that the sentences appears light, therefore we should approach the Department of Environmental Affairs to persuade them to revisit the Act in that respect.
They both should have been lined up on a wall and shot with their own bows. Maybe then they would realise the pain and suffering an animal feels when it’s executed. The are both Rsoles.
It doesn’t matter how this animal was poached, it’s the fact that it was poached, that is the problem.
You guys should all get your facts straight before you criticize !! Also, Patrick Sekoe, it was no cross bow !! There is a difference ! They had permission to shoot there, but it turnout the guy that gave them permission – was the wrong guy and he lied to them BIG TIME !. It so easy to call some one names or jump to all short of conclusions on a blog when you do not know the real person on the other side of the story ! Were any one of you there? Do you really now what happened and do you know that John Coetzee who found them, were arrested of BIG TIME pouching not more than 2 years ago !! ???
I do believe that John Coetzee was stealing Nyala’s from one farm to release them, him self, on he’s own farm, so that hunters can come and shoot it on he’s farm !! It cost more than R10 000 to shoot an Nyala ! How is that for poaching !! !! !! Now he found 2 guys, shooting 1 buck, ( with permission from the wrong person )….. now I can prove a point!! John Coetzee is a total fraud !!
hhhmmmm. similar lack of Grammar from Sarie & Marina — either the same person or same family ……. you are aware that your IP address doesn’t change, sweetie?
@ Marina:
Maybe you should question the judge that found them GUILTY before you get so uptight. Hunting in general disgusts me anyway. Look at something in the eyes and then pull the trigger – very brave for the holding the weapon against a defenceless animal.
Correction * the one holding the weapon
Ek neem aan Rose jy eet geen vleis. Hoe dink jy word daai arme diere dood gemaak?
Al wat ek wou se is, dat julle nie weet wat aan gaan nie en om te oordeel is maklik as julle nie da was nie.
Was jy in die hof ROSE ??? Ek vra weer !!! Ek dink…. jy is disgusting Rose om so te oordeel voor jy enige feite op die tafel het. Dit is mense soos jy wat veroorsaak dat die wereld is wa hy is. Dink jy jou Bees Fillet of hoender val uit ‘n boom? Ek neem aan jy het net jou hele lewe Tofu geeet?? Julle oordeel voor julle die feite agter mekaar het. Het julle nog nie agter gekom dat die media sterkies by die stories laat nie???? Worry eerder oor jou eie lewe.
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