Singaporean hunters who enjoy the primitive thrill of the chase

JOHOR - Most Singaporeans love hunting down a good meal while on holiday, but a few take it quite literally. They travel to hunt game, using guns and bows and arrows.

Hunting venues include Australia and New Zealand, while others go as far as South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe, says Mr Guy Hoh, 40, a Singaporean hunter who organises hunting trips abroad.

The owner of shooting consultancy Blaze Sporting Clays takes three to six groups a year on hunting trips, primarily to southern Africa. He has also been to the United Kingdom and Argentina to hunt.

Hunting, he says, is a "participatory experience" as opposed to other safaris where tourists are simply viewing animals from inside a vehicle.

It may not be for everyone, he adds. "But when you hunt, you're involved. Most of my clients are very hands-on, driven people and they might be slight adrenaline junkies."

Mr Hoh started hunting as a child when his father, a Malaysian, took him to Malaysia to hunt flying foxes, squirrels and pigeons. That sparked a love of hunting in him and he began leading his own trips in 2003.

Doctors, engineers, lawyers and entrepreneurs have joined his hunting parties, but families have also taken part, with one couple taking their 11-year-old and 14-year-old sons along.

He says that like him, most of his clients enjoy hunting because it challenges them and not because of the "blood sport aspect of it".

He adds: "It's more because they get to do something in nature that's very, very different from their normal life. It's a beautiful experience and until someone does it, they don't get what we are talking about.

"Most people who do it for the first time are quite surprised at how enjoyable, exciting and fulfilling they find it."

Still, all his clients were unwilling to be interviewed, citing negative perceptions of hunters in Singapore.

Another Singaporean hunter, Mr B. Tay, 63, says: "Hunting itself is a culture and one that a lot of people don't understand. They think it's just wanton killing but it's not."

Mr Tay, who has hunted deer, dingo and wild boar in Australia and New Zealand, as well as on private land in Asia, says he cannot quite explain the thrill of hunting, except that it is "something ancient built into our DNA".

He began hunting when he was a student in Australia in the 1970s and began bounty hunting for farm pests such as wild boar to earn extra money. He now goes on one to two hunting trips a year, mostly alone.

He admits that there is a "sudden sadness after I kill an animal because I took a life", but that he gives thanks for each animal he successfully hunts, as it is a tradition among many hunters.

Despite this, he says the hunt is enjoyable. "It's not the quarry but the chase," he says.

Hunters here also tell SundayLife! that there are strict rules that govern the ethics of hunting.

One is that an animal's suffering must be minimised and so, the first shot should kill it.

Mr Hoh, who is a professional shooting instructor, insists that all his clients have at least five to 10 shooting lessons with him before they leave on the hunting safari, to ensure a base level of competence in shooting with accuracy and safety. Lessons are conducted at the National Shooting Centre in Old Choa Chu Kang Road.

Mr Y.M Tan, 49, who has hunted wild boar in Australia, says that it is important to make the distinction that they are "hunters, not killers".

He adds: "Killers would shoot anything that comes by and not care how long it takes to die in the forest."

He says it is for this reason that bow hunters usually take "a heart or lung shot", so that the animal dies quickly.

Mr Tan hunts with a traditional bow and arrow instead of a shotgun because it lets him appreciate "how hard it was for our ancestors to gather food with the most primitive equipment".

He began hunting with a gun when he was a student in the United States in the early 1990s, but was introduced to hunting with a traditional bow and arrow by a Singaporean friend. He now hunts once or twice a year, going with other hunters in groups of two or three. The group members separate once they are in the forest and each man hunts alone, he adds.

Another tenet of the hunter's code of ethics is that a hunter should never hunt more than he can consume.

"If I am not going to use or consume what I'm hunting, then I won't hunt. I don't kill anything I won't eat - that's not right," says Mr Hoh, adding that on most hunting trips, the meat is cooked and distributed for consumption within a few hours.

He says that meat can also be dried or turned into sausages if it is not going to be eaten immediately.

Mr Tay agrees and says: "I make it a point to stop if anyone in my hunting party has shot an animal. We stop, skin and cut the animal, and cook a meal."

Mr Tan feels even more strongly on the matter and says: "If a hunter discards the meat, I consider it poaching."

A third - more surprising - tenet of a hunter's code of ethics is that most hunters are staunch conservationists and will never hunt any endangered animal.

In fact, the only animals Mr Hoh and his clients hunt are those specifically allowed by the authorities in whichever country or reserve they go to.

"The land we hunt on is reclaimed from former dairy farms and turned wild again. To maintain the population demographic of all the animals without destroying the land, every year some animals have to go," he says. "Normally in nature, they are eaten by predators such as leopards and lions, but all these apex predators have been poisoned and killed until their population is so low that they cannot do their job anymore."

Similarly, taxidermist Ken Mar says that the conservation authorities in Australia and New Zealand, where he hunts, also have specific lists of what species of animals can or cannot be hunted.

"These countries open hunting to control the environment. Until you're there, you can't appreciate the problems they have in controlling the populations of animals such as rabbits, hares and possums," says the 56-year-old, who has been on more than 10 hunting trips in the last decade, most of them solo.

As to critics who accuse them of being cruel, the hunters say that unless their accusers are pure vegans who have never eaten meat before, they are all tarred by the same brush.

"Someone had to kill the animal for you to eat the meat. If there was no hunting, our early ancestors would have died out," says Mr Mar.

Mr Hoh adds: "The stuff we hunt and eat is far healthier for you than the stuff you buy in the supermarket. It's not a battery chicken. It has led a happy life."

Mr Tan adds that many hunters also prefer to eat exclusively the meat they hunt. "It's usually very lean and you know for sure there are no antibiotics or hormones injected in it."

Mr Hoh says that it is important for critics of the sport to understand that hunting is different from poaching and that hunters are not "going out there to kill for fun".

"It's a lifestyle we believe in and want to preserve for future generations because it challenges the human spirit," he says. "It appeals to the adventurer in all of us."

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