Thieves take aim at trophy stag
Poachers looking to claim ‘‘a nice set of fallow antlers’’ shot a trophy stag worth $7000 but failed to haul the animal away.
The trophy stag was shot on a French Rd property on the outskirts of Cambridge.
Stephanie Hulse heard the bang around 6pm on Tuesday , about 40 metres from her house.
Her husband Ewan Hulse went to investigate, and saw the 113kg (250-pound) animal being dragged towards the gate.
‘‘It was dark so it was sort of hard to make out but I could tell there was an animal on the ground,’’ he said.
But Ewan Hulse couldn’t get to the thieves in time – they had made a run for it.
‘‘I could hear voices, but they must have heard us come through the gate.’’
He said if the poachers hadn’t been interrupted, they would have cut a fence to drag the animal through. It would have been too heavy to lift the fallow stag over the 1.8m fence.
Ewan Hulse has eight breeding stags and about 200 does.
They are bred for hunting at a safari park, which is properly fenced, where people from overseas pay ‘‘big money’’ to come and hunt the animals.
‘‘They would have done it for the antlers because if they wanted meat they would have shot something else. I think they just wanted a nice set of fallow antlers,’’ Hulse said.
It was shot in the stomach, so the head wouldn’t be ruined.
Ewan Hulse is one of the only fallow breeders in the Waikato, and only knows of one other in Port Waikato.
‘‘They’re not as common as the red deer.’’
The family has lived on their 32 hectare property for 22 years, and the incident has left them shaken.
‘‘It’s left us feeling a bit on edge, I was home alone the other night and I didn’t want to be watching TV in case I missed a sound,’’ said their daughter Anna, 21.
‘‘It’s quite a small farm, it’s not like we have one of those huge stations in the South Island where you wouldn’t really notice one or two go missing.
‘‘This is a big deal for us,’’ she said.
She wanted to warn others of the attack so the community could be proactive.
Sergeant Gordon Grantham from the Cambridge Police said if people spot poachers, they must call police immediately.
He said poachers could carry firearms and police would respond if alerted.
‘‘We will ask you to observe and keep us updated on the phone because even if the vehicle leaves, we can find out what direction it’s going and that will determine which way we go,’’ he said.
‘‘Patrol cars have been covering the Karapiro/SH1 area due to the number of stock thefts.’’