Gerry Addison
AH veteran
I know there has been other threads on this site about Juan Pace and I haven't said anything as I've been waiting to hopefully get my one animal, a Zebra back to the states. Well I'm not going to hold back any longer. In August of 2013 I contracted with Juan Pace to go on a 14 day hunt with Lloyd Yeatman in Zimbabwe. The deal that was made was I was to film a German hunter as he hunted Elephant, Hippo, and Leopard. As we were hunting if we came across Buffalo tracks we would hunt them for me. I paid my own transportation and trophy fees for any animals I shot. I was also to produce and edit a video to be used by Juan for advertising. My day fees would be my payment. I signed the contract, booked my airline tickets and waited for the date.
August finally arrives, I pack up all the camera equipment and my gun and head off the Zimbabwe. When I'm met at the airport by Juan there are two hunters, one from Germany as I expected and one from the Cape. In talking with them I learned the gentleman from Germany was going to hunt Elephant, and Hyena, and the man from the Cape was going to hunt Leopard and Hippo. I didn't think anything about this as I assumed there would be two PH's in camp, well boy was I wrong. When we arrived in camp we found out Lloyd Yeatman was acting as PH for all three of us. Juan tells us that while Lloyd is hunting with one man he will take the other two. We didn't realize he wasn't licensed in Zim. and that he was bribing the game scout to allow him to take us to the side of the concession where there were no animals other than a few Duikers which neither of us wanted to shoot. This went on with the German and myself riding with Juan while Lloyd took the man from the Cape Leopard hunting. After about 4 or 5 days of riding around and seeing nothing we began to put things together and put a stop to it. We sat in camp many mornings and evenings doing nothing while one of the men hunted.
Lloyd had a nice Leopard on bait and assumed they would kill it the first night or two and then he would hunt with the German fellow and that might have worked except he didn't plan on the man from the Cape wounding the Leopard. So now after the Leopard gets wounded he feels he can take some time for the German hunter. He takes him out a couple nights and they shoot a big bull over a water hole with a spot light on a piece of private ground. Nice 69 pound bull and the German fellow was basically done hunting even though he had been told he could hunt other animals. He wasn't happy the way in which the bull was hunted but he was told it was legal and I have no idea if it was or wasn't. By this time we didn't believe anything we were told.
Next he takes the man from the Cape to a large lake where he shoots a Hippo and I film it for the video I was to produce. We wait until dark and it never floats up so we drive the hours back to camp, get up the next morning and drive back to the lake and spend all day looking for the Hippo which we never find. Certainly not Lloyd's fault, but two days more were spent with neither the German or myself hunting at all.
Now in all this time I have yet to get on a Buffalo track because Lloyd is catering to these other two hunters. Finally after the wounded Hippo Lloyd says he is taking me Buffalo hunting the next morning. We get up and we are driving down the two-track road bordering a park. He tells me we look for the tracks coming out of the park and then drive down the road to make sure they haven't gone back in. Well, sure enough we come onto a set of tracks and they seem to be staying in our concession. To say I was excited would be an understatement. Well we tracked them for two hours and they made a circle and went back into the Park. We did the same thing one other morning with the same results and that was the extent of my Buffalo hunt. On the last day as we were driving that same boundary road we saw a Zebra and he ask me if I wanted one. I did want a Zebra so we stopped made a short stalk and I shot it. Only shot I fired on that hunt. That afternoon I paid the trophy fee of $1250 and Juan said he would take care of getting the animal back to S.A. the next week when he returned. To say that the camp was tense for the entire hunt would be an understatement. On the last day in camp Lloyd told me he had his brother a licensed PH on standby to help out and Juan refused to use him because it would cost more.
That will be three years ago in August and my Zebra still isn't here. About 8 months ago after many, many, emails to Juan and Lloyd I was finally told it was going to be delivered to a taxidermist in Zim. for processing. Well I come to find out there was no paperwork on the animal so I'm told by the taxidermist they will have to apply for a "special" permit and this can only happen if the animal is tanned there. I agree and ask how much? I'm then told over $600. I send them the money and now I'm informed that it will cost $260 more to get it from Zim. to S.A. and then $350 more to get it from S.A. to the states. And remind you this is after almost three years and only one Zebra skin! Had the permit been done when I paid for it the skin could have gone straight through the system and shipped back to the states to be tanned here at a huge savings and in about 6 months instead of 3 years.
The three of us hunting in camp were so mad on the way home Juan took us all to a ranch in S.A. where we shot a couple animals at their trophy fee. I think he knew he might not make it home alive had he not done something. All in all I hunted buffalo a total of 6 hours in two weeks. I'm posting this because I don't want to see anyone else get burned by this man. Lloyd was very nice while we were there and tried his best to hunt three men, hunting different animals, but there was no way he could do that and make everyone happy. He told me he wasn't going to take any more hunters from Juan but I know that he did because he told me when I was trying to get my Zebra skin that Juan had brought clients in to hunt Leopard when he didn't have any Leopards on quota. I would have respect for Lloyd if he had cut off all contact with Juan but that didn't happen so I now believe he was in on the entire affair. Remember all three hunters thought there were only going to be two hunters in camp and one of the two would be filming most of the time.
I sent emails to the professional organizations in both countries and never got a reply or any help getting my animal back. The only reason I'm posting this now is I don't want others to waste their time, money, and dreams on this crook. The name of his company has changes at least twice in the last three years that I know about. At one point two women were named as owners of the company I can only guess why??? Hopefully this post will save some others from going through want the three of us went through.
August finally arrives, I pack up all the camera equipment and my gun and head off the Zimbabwe. When I'm met at the airport by Juan there are two hunters, one from Germany as I expected and one from the Cape. In talking with them I learned the gentleman from Germany was going to hunt Elephant, and Hyena, and the man from the Cape was going to hunt Leopard and Hippo. I didn't think anything about this as I assumed there would be two PH's in camp, well boy was I wrong. When we arrived in camp we found out Lloyd Yeatman was acting as PH for all three of us. Juan tells us that while Lloyd is hunting with one man he will take the other two. We didn't realize he wasn't licensed in Zim. and that he was bribing the game scout to allow him to take us to the side of the concession where there were no animals other than a few Duikers which neither of us wanted to shoot. This went on with the German and myself riding with Juan while Lloyd took the man from the Cape Leopard hunting. After about 4 or 5 days of riding around and seeing nothing we began to put things together and put a stop to it. We sat in camp many mornings and evenings doing nothing while one of the men hunted.
Lloyd had a nice Leopard on bait and assumed they would kill it the first night or two and then he would hunt with the German fellow and that might have worked except he didn't plan on the man from the Cape wounding the Leopard. So now after the Leopard gets wounded he feels he can take some time for the German hunter. He takes him out a couple nights and they shoot a big bull over a water hole with a spot light on a piece of private ground. Nice 69 pound bull and the German fellow was basically done hunting even though he had been told he could hunt other animals. He wasn't happy the way in which the bull was hunted but he was told it was legal and I have no idea if it was or wasn't. By this time we didn't believe anything we were told.
Next he takes the man from the Cape to a large lake where he shoots a Hippo and I film it for the video I was to produce. We wait until dark and it never floats up so we drive the hours back to camp, get up the next morning and drive back to the lake and spend all day looking for the Hippo which we never find. Certainly not Lloyd's fault, but two days more were spent with neither the German or myself hunting at all.
Now in all this time I have yet to get on a Buffalo track because Lloyd is catering to these other two hunters. Finally after the wounded Hippo Lloyd says he is taking me Buffalo hunting the next morning. We get up and we are driving down the two-track road bordering a park. He tells me we look for the tracks coming out of the park and then drive down the road to make sure they haven't gone back in. Well, sure enough we come onto a set of tracks and they seem to be staying in our concession. To say I was excited would be an understatement. Well we tracked them for two hours and they made a circle and went back into the Park. We did the same thing one other morning with the same results and that was the extent of my Buffalo hunt. On the last day as we were driving that same boundary road we saw a Zebra and he ask me if I wanted one. I did want a Zebra so we stopped made a short stalk and I shot it. Only shot I fired on that hunt. That afternoon I paid the trophy fee of $1250 and Juan said he would take care of getting the animal back to S.A. the next week when he returned. To say that the camp was tense for the entire hunt would be an understatement. On the last day in camp Lloyd told me he had his brother a licensed PH on standby to help out and Juan refused to use him because it would cost more.
That will be three years ago in August and my Zebra still isn't here. About 8 months ago after many, many, emails to Juan and Lloyd I was finally told it was going to be delivered to a taxidermist in Zim. for processing. Well I come to find out there was no paperwork on the animal so I'm told by the taxidermist they will have to apply for a "special" permit and this can only happen if the animal is tanned there. I agree and ask how much? I'm then told over $600. I send them the money and now I'm informed that it will cost $260 more to get it from Zim. to S.A. and then $350 more to get it from S.A. to the states. And remind you this is after almost three years and only one Zebra skin! Had the permit been done when I paid for it the skin could have gone straight through the system and shipped back to the states to be tanned here at a huge savings and in about 6 months instead of 3 years.
The three of us hunting in camp were so mad on the way home Juan took us all to a ranch in S.A. where we shot a couple animals at their trophy fee. I think he knew he might not make it home alive had he not done something. All in all I hunted buffalo a total of 6 hours in two weeks. I'm posting this because I don't want to see anyone else get burned by this man. Lloyd was very nice while we were there and tried his best to hunt three men, hunting different animals, but there was no way he could do that and make everyone happy. He told me he wasn't going to take any more hunters from Juan but I know that he did because he told me when I was trying to get my Zebra skin that Juan had brought clients in to hunt Leopard when he didn't have any Leopards on quota. I would have respect for Lloyd if he had cut off all contact with Juan but that didn't happen so I now believe he was in on the entire affair. Remember all three hunters thought there were only going to be two hunters in camp and one of the two would be filming most of the time.
I sent emails to the professional organizations in both countries and never got a reply or any help getting my animal back. The only reason I'm posting this now is I don't want others to waste their time, money, and dreams on this crook. The name of his company has changes at least twice in the last three years that I know about. At one point two women were named as owners of the company I can only guess why??? Hopefully this post will save some others from going through want the three of us went through.