SOUTH AFRICA: Outrage as South African environment minister gives licence to shoot elephants

Record ID: 185149

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: Outrage as South African environment minister gives licence to shoot elephants
  • Date: 2nd March 2008
  • Summary: (W3) UNKNOWN LOCATION (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ELEPHANTS AT MAPUNGUBWE NATIONAL PARK
  • Embargoed: 17th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World
  • Reuters ID: LVA7BMQA1T6V3852W8MGHXW6QCC2
  • Story Text: A moratorium on elephant culling has been lifted from May 1 this year under certain conditions, South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced on Monday (February 25).
    In terms of the Norms and Standards for the Management of Elephants in South Africa, which will be gazetted on February 29, culling can only be done subject to other population management options and in terms of a management plan that sets out the conditions and manner of the culling.
    Animal welfare organisations are outraged at the decision after a 14-year moratorium.
    Christina Pretorius of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) made the position clear.

    "Well IFAW is entirely against culling. I mean, they have listed it as an absolute last option. In our opinion, culling is not an option for population management. We believe there are a number of other ways to manage elephants, however, the government has placed it as a last option. They have put a number of very stringent conditions in place that will govern whether or not a reserve or the managers of an elephant population may be able to cull," said Pretorius.
    According to the management plan an elephant may not be culled if it is part of a cow-calf unit unless the entire cow-calf unit, including the matriarch and juvenile bulls, is culled, or if it is part of a group comprising only juvenile elephants, unless the entire group is to be culled.
    The person doing so must do so without remuneration -- direct or indirect. It must be done quickly and humanely, using a rifle with a minimum calibre of .375 inches and a bullet of full metal jacket and not soft-nosed bullets.

    "There are many, many opportunities for government to explore to manage elephants better. There are those options are in the list. They include trans-boundaries, parks. They include range manipulation, they include contraception and other options as well, so really, we would urge the South African government only to look at culling as an absolute last option and preferably not at all," added Pretorius.
    For national parks the minister will have the final say and for local parks, provincial MECs will have the last word on permission to cull.
    Negotiations concerning the tusks and carcasses of culled elephants are to take place with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
    Previously communities living around the parks received the elephant meat after culling but this would be discussed. Culling would not become a money-making issue, so hunting for the purposes of culling would not be allowed, the Minister said.
    On the streets of Cape Town people seemed cautious about the idea.
    British Tourist, Adam Jones didn't want it to go too far.

    "It depends where you move them, doesn't it. Obviously a suitable area for them to go then fair enough, but if not then I suppose the wisest thing to do is kill a few but not too many otherwise they become extinct," he said.
    Nomonde Siyongwana didn't want them touched at all.

    "I just love animals, I don't like them to be disturbed and, No," she said.
    But Aubrey Isaacs thought there might be some merit in the idea.

    "It can be a good and a bad idea. It actually depends on what they're trying to achieve with that. If it is to save the plantation then yes, or if there's another option really. It's very difficult to say because I don't know what they're going to do with them," he said.
    Van Schalkwyk said that from May 1 there would also be a ban on the capture of wild elephants for elephant-back safaris or circuses. The department of Environmental Affairs has received numerous complaints about cruel practices during elephant training, safaris and circuses, including the use of chains, ropes and electric prodders.
    After consultation with the agriculture ministry it was agreed that the policing and enforcement of elephant welfare will be dealt with under the Animals Protection Act and the Performance Animals Protection Act which falls under that department's jurisdiction.
    About 120 elephants are currently in captivity in South Africa and the department will in the next year develop minimum standards for their management and permissible uses. South Africa's elephant population is currently about 18,000, with 14,000 of the elephants living in the Kruger National Park.
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