An Eastern Cape hunting operator has been named in an international and domestic investigation into the export of hunting trophies to the United States.
In dramatic evidence to the US District Court in Nebraska, an employee of a worldwide American-based booking agency alleged that conservation authorities in both SA and the US were investigating Frontier Safaris, a hunting operation in Alicedale owned by Barry Burchell.
A source with the Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs (Dedea) said the investigation was the biggest of its kind in SA’s hunting industry.
The evidence by Gregg Severinson, head of Cabela’s Outdoor Adventures, forms part of a defamation case being heard in the Grahamstown High Court in which Burchell is suing his former Texan business partner, Scott Anglin, for R12 million.
Neither Burchell nor his lawyer, Port Elizabeth-based attorney Rob Parker, responded to requests for comment.
Burchell’s wife Lizelle said: “Write what you like, nobody is interested. It is boring … you are a little Jack Russell barking at the bus. I am not interested in talking to you.”
Burchell used Cabela’s booking agents in Nebraska, through which he sourced most of his American hunting clients. However, after a fallout with Anglin, the Texan informed Cabela’s that Burchell was “guilty of criminal activities”, “notoriously abusive to his own employees”, “unethical” in his hunting practices, and did not pay his bills, according to case documents.
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