WHO BROKE THE PIG HUNTER?
Hunting behind a team of pig dogs is hard yakka and could well be described as a big, fun, semi-organised ball’s up. For those of you that have been lucky enough to give it a go, you’ll be well aware that there are plenty of opportunities for things to go very wrong. And go wrong they do, I can assure you.
In just the month following the Covid lockdown level 2 there were two serious hunting related injuries. One of which was a slip of the knife resulting in the hunter managing to stab themselves.
My own pig hunting misadventures have taken me into some of the worst situations and nastiest gullies on the planet and for some reason I manage to forget all the bad stuff and return for more punishment the very next weekend. Occasionally I’ve even ended up in the human vet clinic for a bit of a patch up and haven’t be able to return to the hills for weeks or even months. Experiences like that are actually more common than you’d think amongst pig hunters and I reckon it’s because we tend to take big risks during that adrenalin filled heat of the moment, barrelling on in to the thick of the action to help out our dogs.
The New Zealand Mountain Safety Council collated and analysed the available data from several sources including ACC injuries, SAR, fatalities and participation to produce a document called “A Hunter’s Tale” which highlights the key risks
