Last week cult New Zealand outdoor clothing brand, Swazi Apparel pledged their support to the New Zealand Tahr Foundation, raising $10,000NZD in a bid to fight the government’s plans to cull many thousands of Himalayan tahr in the country’s national parks.
Owner of Swazi, Davey Hughes, a devout conservationist and passionate hunter, believes the plans will have hugely detrimental effects on people’s livelihoods and recreational pursuits, so is supporting the cause to prevent the cull and in the hope to start a consultation process that isn’t pre-determined.
Demonstrating his support, Swazi started their own raffle, by donating eight of their high performance Tahr Anoraks – four Tahr XPs and four Tahr Ultralites – with all funds raised going directly to the NZ Tahr Foundation.
Each raffle was limited to 250 tickets and open to buyers across the world, with tickets costing $5 NZD each. The first 1,500 raffle tickets sold in a couple of hours. After which, Swazi added an extra two raffles, which again sold out the following hour. All the winners were from New Zealand, except one from Australia.
Davey Hughes, founder and creative director of Swazi, commented: “We are seeing a worldwide trend in anti-hunting groups and governments taking away hunter’s privileges. The latest move by the New Zealand Minister of Conservation to drastically cull tahr in New Zealand, without due consultation, was not control work but indeed more akin to overt eradication. We knew we needed to fight back, so along with Swazi customers, we believed the best way to do that was to support The New Zealand Tahr Foundation, a key organisation ensuring that hunters voices will be heard by using these funds to fight such an undemocratic, immoral and unjust policy in the New Zealand High Court. We were blown away by the support and thrilled to see how passionate the Swazi Clan were in supporting this important cause.”
For those who missed out in participating in the raffle, Swazi is encouraging supporters to donate and sign the petition. To sign the Change.org petition visit: bit.ly/NZTahrPetition or to donate, visit: givealittle.co.nz/cause/nztf
For more information, visit www.swazi.co.nz.
