A Saudi Arabian prince has caused outrage after reportedly killing up to 2000 near-extinct houbara bustard birds in three-week hunting safari holiday in Pakistan, IB Times reported.
While Prince Fahd bin Sultan allegedly killed the birds in Chagai, Balochistan, his party aide's hunted another 123 over 21 days, Pakistan's English-language daily newspaper Dawn reported.
Dawn broke the story this week based on a forest service report, "Visit of Prince Fahad bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud regarding hunting of houbara bustard," which detailed a report submitted by the forest officer revealing the Saudi Prince's hunting safari trip from January 11 to January 31, 2014.
Although the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species protects the bustards internationally, the Arab prince was issued a special permit by Pakistan's federal government which granted permission for up to 100 houbara bustards to be killed in 10 days, except in reserved and protected areas.
However, the protected areas were allegedly entered by the prince as he violated the permit by hunting and killing the birds over there as well.
"Houbara bustards usually migrate from Central Asia to Pakistan and India during the winter. India banned the hunting of the bustards in 1979," IBT Times reported. "Pakistan has already issued 33 houbara bustards hunting permits this year while the global count of the birds is decreasing by 30 percent every year, the Daily Mail reported."
Since the Arab sheikhs bring about large quantities of money into the financially crunched country, Pakistan's hunting laws have historically been made more flexible for them by the government.
But Pakistan's environmental activists have been enraged by the merciless killing of the bustards, IB Times reported.
"Is there any more ridiculous reason to kill an animal? If it's illegal for Pakistanis to kill these birds why should the Arab sheikhs be allowed to do it?" an activist who appealed the Lahore high court to ban the hunting of the near-extinct bird, told The Guardian.
