Three arrested after police find dead warthog in boot
A ROUTINE stop of a vehicle on the Shaw Park Road near the Fish River lighthouse on Monday morning resulted in police arresting three men for alleged poaching after two dead warthogs were found in the boot of their car.
Warrant Officer Tertius Neethling of the Port Alfred dog unit stopped a white Toyota Corolla and, upon searching the vehicle, found the two warthogs and five hunting dogs.
“This is excellent work by WO Neethling. [The] dogs [were] handed in at the SPCA. Thanks Anel,” said Dudley Waters from Panther Farm Security.
“We have been having major problems in the Riet [River] and Kleinemonde valleys and it’s difficult to apprehend these poachers, and even more so when they get dropped off and fetched,” Waters said.
Provincial police spokesman Captain Khaya Ntonjeni said the men were charged and were due to appear in the Port Alfred Magistrate’s Court this week.
“They are not known offenders to us. WO Neethling was busy with patrols, he did not have a tip-off, it was a stop-and-search and they were caught at 3.30am. They are detained at Port Alfred station,” Ntonjeni said.
Waters said: “Poaching is all over – Southwell Road, Riet River Valley, Kleinemonde West, Lushington Valley, Nyala Valley, and especially farms alongside rivers”.
He said an area of concern was Mansfield Private Reserve, which was being hit hard by poachers.
Waters said he believed that some of the poachers were not only killing for their table but also for sale. “It takes constant combating and we want to send a message that we won’t tolerate any illegal hunting,” he said.
On Monday afternoon, Waters apprehended a youth who had been caught with tortoises, a protected species, with the intention of eating the animals. Being a juvenile offender, Waters had to let him go after informing the boy’s mother. He urged the community to call authorities if they saw people crossing roads with large packs of dogs.
“The dogs are well trained; informants have told me that the hunters often starve the dogs so that they are better in the hunt,” Waters said.
He said hunters would typically hunt species like warthog and bushpig by sending dogs down their burrows and letting the dogs chase the animal out before the hunter speared the animal. Some antelope like impala they manage to chase and corner against a fence, Waters said.
“Poaching increases on a growing moon and often increases near the end of the month, when hunters know people have money and they can sell the meat,” he said.
“There are guys that have been arrested and the courts are dealing with them,” Waters said, but illegal hunting remained a constant problem.
He said the public could inform him any time they saw any suspicious activity or groups of people with large packs of dogs.
Call Waters on 083-475-8414 to report any sightings.