There are many people around the world (especially in the Western world) who are opposed to hunting.  This may arise from a personal aversion to hunting or from a belief that nobody should be allowed to hunt at all.

Our comments here do not reflect on any form of hunting in any other country than South Africa.

In South Africa the situation is vastly different from, say, that in Europe.  In South Africa one finds a huge variety of antelope, many of them very large such as Eland and Kudu.  Before the coming of the Europeans, the situation regulated itself as lions and other predators would hunt the antelope, selectively.

That the situation changed was not due to the supposed "bloodthirstiness" of the Europeans but was simply a matter of technology - the rifle.  This made it easier to hunt anything from lions down more easily than with spear or arrows.  The appalling mass slaughters of game that took place in some other African countries following independence are a sad testament to the misuse of the rifle.

Today lions are no longer found in the wild but only in game parks large enough to sustain predation.  Outside the parks, however, South Africa teems with game.  Farms here do not much resemble their counterparts in Europe and encompass much country which is eminently suitable for game.  While leopards are still found outside game parks, they tend to be found only in the more mountainous areas.

Without natural predators this game would multiply out of control and degrade its own environment to the detriment not only of these antelope themselves but also down the food chain. It has, thus, become necessary for man to fill the void left by the large predators and become a selective predator.

At Richard Holmes Safaris we take our responsibility for caring for the environment very seriously, ensuring that a healthy regeneration of the antelope population goes hand in hand with protection and conservation of the veld/habitat.  This goes hand in hand with the hunted game meat being a valuable, affordable, healthy and available source of protein to the South African population.

We do not encourage anyone to hunt who does not wish to do so but those who do, may hunt in the knowledge that they will be responsibly guided by us and will be helping to maintain the balance of nature and in part feeding our human population.