Hippo meat

Description:

The hippo butchery

October 15 2010

It is the worst case of hippo poaching yet uncovered in KwaZulu-Natal after the discovery of a butchery of hippopotamus meat and skin, a hippo foetus, and an arsenal of cable snares and hooks in the Zululand area. Police made the grisly find in a house on Wednesday during a poaching investigation in the Muzi Pans area outside the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (St Lucia) in northern KZN.

A 30 year old black man was arrested in the vicinity of the house and appeared in court.

The house, in the Mazibomvu area, was taken over by criminals after the legal owners died. The house was being used as a butchery and store by poachers.

In the house police found 32 strips of hippo fat hanging over a plastic tub and four hippo snares made from steel cable.

There was also a crocodile snare with four heavy steel hooks on it. Fifteen cable snares, used for small animals, and 36 strips of hippo skin were also found in the room. These would be made into sjamboks.”

Outside the house, police found a hippo foetus that had been gutted and left to dry. Hippo meat hung from trees.

Poaching has been going on for a long time, but this is the most serious case uncovered in KZN.