Louis Theroux journeys to the centre of the controversial South African hunting industry. It's big business, attracting thousands of holiday hunters annually. Keeping wild animals fenced in on farms has made it cheaper and easier to hunt than ever before, but Louis discovers that this industry, instead of endangering species, has actually increased animal numbers.
Staying at a safari hunting lodge, Louis hears that each kill has a price. The potential shopping list is endless, ranging from $250 for a porcupine to $100,000 for a rhino. It's a hunter's paradise.
This is a very popular tourist attraction - particularly among Americans. Louis meets such visitors and tries to understand their motivation to kill for pleasure, joining them as they go hunting.
He meets novice hunter Ann-Marie, who originally only came to accompany her husband but gets caught up in the excitement and decides she wants to try to hunt an animal herself. She tells Louis that, apparently, your first kill is a total rush - although she would worry about killing a zebra as it's too much like a horse.
Two of the local landowners, Piet Venter and Piet Warren, breed animals for hunting and have a perhaps surprising sensitivity towards the animals they've raised. They take particular care to try to ensure any animal is killed swiftly so they suffer minimal trauma. Former vet Lolly Fourie, who allows hunting on his land, explains how he no longer hunts as he gets no pleasure from it nowadays.
Hearing their arguments in favour of the industry, Louis arranges to go on a hunt of his own. Unsure if he really can pull the trigger, as he looks at a wart-hog down the arrow of a crossbow he faces his beliefs head on and must make the decision...
I know I am a bit late, but would like to add the following:
- Most South african's speak other languages than english and would louis have had the same arguments with them in afrikaans they will be able to convey their message more clearly.
- secondly, in order to understand profesional hunting better, he really should do a propper documentary on poaching.
- Thirdly, in order to understand game farming one must investigate the complete picture. People will hunt, whether we like it or not. to control our natural recourses game farmers put forward these fascilities to control the natural numbers in an controlled enviroment. i.e. in order to save the natural protected raw numbers of game we use bread animals to protect them. it sort of a "ring fencing" technique.
- thirdly, mr theroux was worried about the ease of killing. Hunting is made easy to control the nr of kills and to make the suffering less. It is also to ensure that the animals are killed quickly.
So, to summarize... the documentary hasn't captured the essensce of hunting. Poaching should be considered in its brutal and horrific form and also he should speak to proper wild life conservating bodies wich indorce hunting for a better and profesional argument.
rgds
Leon
November 29th, 2009 - 12:11amDivan said...
I live in south africa in the limpopo province and i call on al the so called "skynheilige"british people who thinks killing animals is only for money,to come an live here and see what that money is used for! Africa needs to use di animals to save the animals if not like "oom piet gese het" there wil be now more animals and no money to protect them.
September 30th, 2009 - 11:05pmJim said...
I think most people who watched that programme have missed the point entirely. Well done, ever thought programmes were made where you have to think about more than just what you see on the surface
June 15th, 2009 - 11:49amsquiddles said...
firstly, this documentary has come under criticism for louis's failure to argue with the hunters about their justification of the practice of hunting. Of course, what you need to realise is that if louis does come off too critical of canned hunting (instead of looking as though he is weighing up both sides of the argument) he would just be kicked off the farm. The hunters' arguments are not reduced to propaganda, they are left open for common sense to reason away for the discerning viewer.
Secondly, and more importantly, SA conservationists have managed to put a law in place which requires that a lion that is bred in captivity has to be set free for 24 months before it can be killed. sounds like a stupid law that gives the lions a taste of freedom before killing them, but actually it has made canned lion hunting so expensive that it is no longer economically viable. of course now the issue is finding homes for all the captive lions to make sure that they're not poorly treated now that they're no longer a viable source of income.
June 4th, 2009 - 10:08pmGrantMac said...
i live in South African and was disgusted with this documentary. the said thing is that tourists feed this industry but we has should also stop this crap. it is pathetic that animals are raised to be hunted and and it is soo easy to kill them. this is not hunting! How can people raise lion to be killed, pete you are greedy and money hungry
October 28th, 2008 - 4:09pmAimee S said...
Some of you didn't understand Louis Theroux. He was clearly upset, as much as I was and as many other viewers were,no doubt about it, about the killing and the hunting. This episode was disturbing and difficult to watch, but it highlighted, once more, the emptiness and the stupidity of these Americans, whose "make-believe" attitude drives them to visit "venice"in ... las vegas and hunt in the so-called wild... in a farm ready to provide them an animal for money. I can't stand these values, and above all, I can't stand killing, hunting and harming any animal. I hate the fact that arms are freely allowed in the US and that many Americans possess a huge amount of them.
I had the ooportunity to visit a REAL game reserve in Africa where animals are protected and respected, and it was a true spiritual experience to watch a giraffe drinking in a pond or a kudu suddenly appearing in the bushes... Beautiful. When you watch these animals, you can only admire the beauty of God (or Nature's) creation and not say a word, and not touch of course.
Again- The ones who hate Louis Theroux don't understand him or his sense of humour (I love it! and great British accent...). In this episode, though, humour was absent and it's easy to understand why.
August 25th, 2008 - 9:49pmB. Slagt said...
I fully agree with Chris his comment on april 22nd.
Louis Theroux made a fine documentary showing both sides of human and wildlife.
Where men appears destruction will follow. Sad to understand that for now the only solution seems to commercialize the hunt to preserve wildlife in the end.
I have got an idea how to even further enhance wildlife preservation and at the same time fulfil the need of men to hunt, kill and outsmart inferior species on this planet.
Set up a commercially based hunting firm where people who wish to spend fortunes and seek adventure can hunt and kill poachers. That is under professional guidance with the best of arms.
Poachers might fight back which makes it a real treat and challenge for the hunter.
To me this seems far more awarding than shooting off defenceless animals from close range which animals are lured to a waterhole. At the time the pressure on wildlife by poaching in those regions is balanced, humans can start migrating animals from regions with over population.
But I guess my idea is just fiction, for those so called brave hunters are merely sissies who would pee their pants if they would have to face real danger.
April 22nd, 2008 - 4:56amChris said...
seems like a lot of you fools don't really understand what this programme is but decided to jump to your own pathetic conclusions anyway. Louis Theroux is one of the country's best journalists and this programme isn't about him going around killing animals -- it's an expose that raises awareness about people who pay to kill animals for nothing more than trophies. Throughout the programme Louis challenges those who do and continuosly questions there morals and ethics. To call Louis a murderer is foolish and ill-informed and to insult the BBC as well is pathetic. Watch the programme, I can't understand why you would assume something purely from it's title.
April 8th, 2008 - 5:44amVirginia Abreu de Paula said...
Mr. Louis Theroux is a killer. He invades the habitat of other beings, only to kill them. It seems, you think that only because the animals are not humans, it's okay to hunt them. It's NOT. Animals suffer just like us. Therefore, there is no difference between Mr. Louis Theroux and other murderers. I am disappointed with BBC for giving it four stars. This is not to be accepted and BBC should apoligize for promoting cruelty. This guy should be in prison. That's where he belongs.
April 8th, 2008 - 4:59amBRENDA said...
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING AND I TOO HOPE HE IS EATEN BY A LION! I GUESS WALKING UP TO AN ANIMAL AN KILLING IT MAKES SOME FEEL LIKE A "MAN"!! LMAO
April 8th, 2008 - 2:34amJami said...
Oh please! This is nothing but glorified canned hunting! Shame on them and anyone else who feels it is somehow justified to shoot at amazing wildlife enclosed in fences, no matter how large! What is the matter with people?! This is how far we've come by the year 2008?! Disgusting. And shame on you BBC for buying it!
April 8th, 2008 - 1:08amMichele Pickover said...
Although this programme revealed the trophy hunters for the bloodthirsty, unfeeling idiots they are and a South African "game industry" who turn sentient beings into commodities and who will kill any animal (possibly even people if they thought they could get away with it)for money, ubfortunately Louis Theroux failed to unmask the true nature of this evil industry. For example:colonial and exploitative notions of conquest and control of "dark Africa" that are embedded in trophy hunting; the dehumanisation of the workers who have no choice but to work in this industry; the very real link between slaughtering healthy animals and a critique of killing animals as food; an interrogation of farming wild animals - these farms are not ecologically viable as they are unnatural and have no ntural predators; trophy hunting is not only cruel but it is impacting negatively on biodversity and on gene pools; historically trophy hunting wiped out populations and led to extinctions - nothing has changed and there are certainly more humane, sustainable and more ecologically sound ways to save animals from extinction. Finally, not to question implicit statements within the programme that Africans are merely destructive and incapable of preserving nature and animals, it is an insult to Africans and perpetuates racism.
April 8th, 2008 - 12:58amSwanie said...
NOTE to self: NEVER watch BBC again!
April 8th, 2008 - 12:15amShannon M. said...
Trophy hunters AND the breeders of these poor animals without a chance of escape are the lowest scum of the earth. They don't even make the bogus claim of conservation, they are proud of their bloodlust. They are psychopaths and should be locked up. I think I like Denise's idea better!
April 7th, 2008 - 9:24pmLinda said...
This is barbaric and inhumane. A news network should be embarassed and ashamed to broadcast this kind of behavior. This is not a sport. Get some dignity and humanity. You can support better stories than this.
April 7th, 2008 - 5:11pmAlison Bramley said...
A disgusting programme. These people have no idea what they are doing to the environment by hunting. And standing in a hut and shooting a defenceless animal close range is NOT a trophy or a sport. It is complete cowardice. 'Hunters' deserve to be killed and mounted on the wall themselves. One quote was, 'you will eat the meat, but you won't kill the animal'. Shooting an animal close range to mount on your wall is not killing for survival or feeding. It is truly disgusting and makes me ashamed to be human.
April 6th, 2008 - 11:12pmDenise Bennett said...
I've given up watching BBC because of its political pro government bias. This is the finally straw. I hope this man gets eaten by a lion. He is a hideous sub humnan.
April 3rd, 2008 - 12:07pmAnni Hogan said...
Totally hideous. What on earth is going on with the BBC?????? Everytime i turn the TV on some animal is being killed. Ever thought of evolving???????
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