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'Crocodile' Mick Pitman, who will begin Crocodile safari hunts in Papua New Guinea after the Australian government refused to allow Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory to sell spots on hunting trips for up to 25 crocs a year. |
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Crocodile Mick to host PNG safaris after Aussie knockback
Issue 95 - 08 Dec 2005
By Laine Clark
NATIONAL, Jan 18, 2006: Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin has nothing on Mick Pitman.
Bundaberg-based Mr Pitman has received permission to host a big game - and big money - safari to destroy six killer crocodiles ranging from four to five metres long in Papua New Guinea.
Dubbed Crocodile Mick, Mr Pitman is advertising for places in a "world first" hunt at a total cost of $US180,000 ($A240,000) per person.
The PNG government has granted a 12-month hunting permit from December 29. It follows a refusal by the Howard government to allow Aboriginal communities in Australia to earmark up to 25 crocs for trophy hunting during the annual cull.
Mr Pitman said two crocodiles will be killed in a hunt starting in February.
A hunter will receive a documentary from an Australian film crew that will accompany the group and have his kill stuffed and mounted by Mr Pitman who is also an experienced taxidermist.
Mr Pitman was expecting a "huge response" from around the world to hunt the crocodiles which he said had killed 13 PNG people.
"This project will go off like a packet of crackers," he said.
Mr Pitman said they would travel with a PNG environmental protection officer who will help collate an impact study and a crocodile count of areas including Ramu, Kikori, the Sepik River and their Madang base.
He said the PNG community would also benefit financially from the safari.
"The greenies who jump up and down over this have to realise the economic and human safety aspects of this," Mr Pitman said.
"Crocodiles are no longer endangered. The greenies should worry about the whales - I am."
Mr Pitman said hunters would have to pass a target shooting test.
Of the asking price, Mr Pitman said: "They are asking $200,000 to shoot an elephant in Africa and I equate that with shooting a door in the middle of a football field - there's no sport in that."
He saw no end to the safaris after claiming he received paperwork from the PNG government today to destroy another two crocodiles.
Mr Pitman has a colourful history.
He was a self-confessed poacher until 1996 and almost got into a legal "bun fight" with Mr Irwin after calling his website "The Crocodile Hunters".
Mr Pitman wrote a "little ditty" about the clash with Mr Irwin and hopes to release the song with a documentary this year which will include footage from the PNG hunts.
He also makes "everything including sheila's handbags" with crocodile skins and proudly wears his hand-made creations, including a croc-skin mobile phone case.
"I'm hard to miss," he said.
Mr Pitman hopes his PNG safaris will help change the federal government's stance on big game hunting.
Last October, federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell rejected a Northern Territory government plan to have 25 of the 600 crocodiles culled annually to be taken by trophy hunters, exporting the heads and skins.
Federal MP David Tollner today said it was "scandalous" that lucrative hunts were not happening in Australia.
The Country Liberal MP from NT also called Mr Campbell, a coalition colleague, a "dill" for previously knocking back the proposal.
Mr Tollner is urging the NT government to ignore Mr Campbell's ban and allow croc shooting safaris as a means to raise money for Aboriginal communities.
"I think the minister was a bit of a dill in making the decision that he made, particularly for the reasons that he made," Mr Tollner said.
"When we have got such third world conditions in our Aboriginal communities, that we have, we should be doing everything that we possibly can to encourage commercial development in those communities." - AAP
 
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