# Trophy Stag Hunting Controversy overseas



## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

A different perspective of "trophy" hunting from the other side of the world...

Ryan

Sheikh in stag sire balls-up 
By YVONNE MARTIN - The Press | Saturday, 20 October 2007

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4244045a6009.html

A bitter row has broken out over the testicles of a champion red stag shot by an Arab sheikh during a safari hunt on a South Canterbury property.

Brusnik (the name of the stag) was sold by Rangiora farmer Harry Waghorn for about $80,000 as a trophy stag for Christchurch-based Kiwi Safaris New Zealand, which hosts elite, jet-setter hunting parties.

Except, that is, for Brusnik's testicles. Worth potentially more than the stag itself, they were to remain Waghorn's property under a written contract made last year.

The Press understands that Waghorn, or his agent, was to be notified when the stag was about to be shot, allowing time for the testicles to be harvested soon after death.

The semen, which could be worth $100,000 or more, would then be extracted in a laboratory and frozen for future use. Brusnik was once described as the Zabeel of the deer industry, in reference to the son of champion racehorse sire Sir Tristram.

Brusnik was shot in April last year by Sheikh Mishal bin Hamad Al Thani, of Qatar, a regular guest of Kiwi Safaris.









TROPHY: Sheikh Mishal bin Hamad Al 
Thani, of Qatar, with the shot stag Brusnik.

As well as a trophy head, the sheikh gained entry into the company's prestigious platinum 500 club for shooting a stag scoring over 500 Safari Club International (SCI) points, an American system used for valuing trophy heads.

However, the arrangement over Brusnik's balls broke down. Lawyers have been hired, battle lines drawn and the dispute is now headed for court.

The Hungarian-German stag was shot not in the wild, as the term "safari" may suggest, but on a game estate at Stew Point, on the southern side of the Rangitata River. A burgeoning industry in New Zealand, animals bred for trophy heads are released on such estates for big-paying clients to shoot.

A 2003 press release by an agricultural firm described Brusnik as having an "eat out of your hand" personality. Then eight years old and half-way through a promising stud career, it was valued at about $300,000.

Waghorn's lawyers have claimed that after Brusnik was shot, its testicles were removed and semen extracted without their client's knowledge or authority.

Testicles are usually packed in ice in a chilly bin and sent to a laboratory as soon as possible after death.

A breeding specialist told The Press that semen can be extracted from a dead stag's testicles for up to three days. A booking is usually made several days prior to the stag being shot, so the laboratory is prepared.

In Brusnik's case, about 270 straws were eventually returned to Waghorn (each generally represents one artificial insemination). However, because the semen had been labelled a different name on processing, it was impossible for Waghorn to guarantee to clients that it was from Brusnik.

"It's like having Sir Tristram's semen, but not being able to prove it is his," said one industry insider.

Agents have assessed that straws valued at about $500 to $600 each for a top stag like Brusnik, could now be worth as little as $90 - a potential loss of about $140,000.

Waghorn has been advised by his lawyer not to speak to the media. Terry Beardsmore, of New Zealand Trophy Deer, who brokered the Brusnik deal, also refused to comment.

Kiwi Safaris general manager Mike Freeman is in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on business. Andrew Johnson, of Westervelt Sporting Lodges, which owns 75 per cent of Kiwi Safaris, was going to speak to The Press about the Brusnik affair, but changed his mind.

Instead, Dennis Lynch, the managing director of Network PR in Auckland, rang on his behalf and apologised.

He said they had been advised legal proceedings had started and therefore could not speak with a court case pending.

Kiwi Safaris hosted Abu Dhabi's deputy prime minister, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as part of a 35-strong hunting party at its Sherwood Lodge, in Fairlie, South Canterbury, last month.

The company was started by Freeman and his wife, Ruth, in 1994. It became part of the Westervelt Sporting Lodge Network in 2005, which includes the Poronui Ranch near Taupo. It has developed a worldwide reputation.


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## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

A followup editorial a week later...

*The Sheik who shot poor Bambi* 
By JOE BENNETT - The Dominion Post | Wednesday, 24 October 2007

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4248921a16076.html

Oil at US$100 a barrel may be bad news for motor racing, but it's worse news for deer.

My newspaper last week showed a photo of a red deer stag that appeared to be sleeping but was actually dead. It had been shot. The bloke who shot it was standing heroically behind it. He was fat. His mother would no doubt describe him as big boned, and he might tell you his problem was glandular, but to me he looked like a slob. He was also a prince of Qatar.

If I was Qatari he could probably do nasty things to me for calling him a slob. But I am not Qatari and I have no plans to become one, so I'll stick with the word. His double chins had double chins.

Imagine a Middle Eastern princeling and you see him in one of those graceful white robes that they favour when chatting with Condoleezza about the purchase of another squadron of F111s. But Sheik Yawallet was on holiday. His holiday clothes consisted of a pair of track pants and an XXXXOS polo shirt that did him no aesthetic favours.

In contrast with Sheik Yawallet, the stag was sleek and beautiful, but that was probably little consolation to it. It also had huge antlers and these were the opposite of consolation.

In the wild such antlers would have conferred status on the stag. In the strange world of international shooting, however, the antlers just made the stag a desirable target. Anyone who shot it would earn over 500 International Safari Club points, and qualify for the Platinum 500 Club. What members of that club do when they meet, I don't know. Boast, I suppose.

But anyway, because of those antlers Bambi was transported by truck to a game park near exotic Timaru, and Sheik Yawallet was transported by private jet from the Middle East to the same game park in order that the two could meet.

The meeting took place some time last year. Bambi, apparently, had an eat-out-of-your- hand personality. Sheik Yawallet, armed only with a high- powered rifle, a Range Rover and a packed lunch, shot it.

At which point out came the champagne, the congratulations and the Nikon. Flunkies arranged the corpse in a decorous posture, then winched Dead- eye Dick out of the vehicle, posed him behind the victim, and took a series of snaps that at this very moment are probably boring the Qatari royal family to a coma.

The whole business invites a host of questions, the first and most obvious of which is why. Why should Sheik Yawallet have flown halfway round the world to shoot a semi-tame deer? One equally obvious answer is that he could afford to. He was born on top of a society that sits on top of an oil field. As a result he has been the life-long beneficiary of a torrent of cash.

But why didn't he stay at home and shoot camels? Camels are indigenous to the Gulf and the locals have found numerous uses for them including racing. I've seen racing camels in training. A malnourished Pakistani infant is strapped to the hump as jockey and then the camels are set to run across the desert, their necks stretching ahead of them like geese reaching for apricots. Owners and trainers follow in airconditioned Nissan Pathfinders and billows of dust.

If you ignore the child jockeys, who are discarded when they grow to weigh more than a couple of stone, camel racing is indistinguishable from horse racing. And just as we don't shoot horses for sport, so Arabs don't shoot camels. Instead they come here to shoot deer. The reason is antlers.

Antlers represent masculinity. Their only purpose is fighting. Big antlers give a stag supremacy and the right to mate with does. Did the sheik want to mate with does? Let's be charitable and presume not. So why did he want to kill the deer? The only possible answer is a notion that had its heyday when human beings lived in caves. The notion is that if you kill a powerful beast you acquire some of its potency. The idea is primitive, superstitious and fetishistic. And it's big business.

The story was in the paper because a squabble has arisen over Bambi's semen. Apparently semen can be extracted from a stag's testicles even after death, and Bambi's semen is valuable because it contains the blueprint for big antlers. But an administrative bungle meant that the semen was wrongly attributed, so its owners can't sell it for what it's worth. And what it's worth is multibucks because with oil approaching US$100 a barrel there's going to be a lot more sheikhs wanting to come here and shoot Bambi's offspring in order to feel like men. The whole business makes motor racing seem positively subtle.


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## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

Anyone see the parallels to the High Fence Shooting Operations?

Hmmmm :eyeroll:

Look how the editorial compares it to shooting Bambi.. Is this how we eventually want our media to relate High Fence Shooting with Fair Chase Hunting? It's only a matter of time if we continue to allow these types of operations to exist...

The irony is striking...

Ryan


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