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CAPE TOWN— Lions bred in captivity to be shot and killed by a pleasure-seeking tourist. Rhinos felled by bow and arrow for fun. Zebras bred with donkeys to slow their escape from hunters.

A panel of experts highlighted the darker side of South Africa's booming wildlife industry on Tuesday and recommended a total ban on "canned hunting"- the release of captive-bred animals to be killed for sport with no chance of escaping their human predators.



Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said the government would introduce legislation next year to salvage South Africa's reputation as an international haven for wildlife.

"We want to stop the approach of 'anything goes' in terms of hunting and crossbreeding," said van Schalkwyk.

The hunting of lions and other big cats bred in captivity purely to die at the barrel of a gun will be outlawed.

The Department of the Environment said the new regulations will make it illegal for anyone to kill large predators raised in an enclosed reserve to blunt their survival instincts.

It said it would also ban the shooting of lions, cheetahs and leopards in a "controlled environment," where hunters had an unfair advantage over the beasts, as well as forbidding the killing of tranquilized animals.

"The department shall never condone unacceptable hunting practices including so-called canned hunting," it said.

The proposed laws were drawn up following three years of consultations with hunting industry and conservation groups.

South Africa is famous as home to the Big Five— lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo. Its flagship Kruger National Park attracts in excess a million camera-toting visitors annually.

Some 9,000 privately owned game farms and other government-run reserves also offer visitors a taste of the wild.

South Africa has become a choice destination for those willing to pay a high price to take home a prized trophy.

The TRAFFIC wildlife trade monitoring network said that in 2004, 190 lions worth an estimated $3.3 million were hunted in 2004 by foreigners: $17,500 each. Nearly 5,500 kudu- valued at $5.3 million in all- were also taken, along with 45 leopards worth an estimated $250,000.

Hunting is an integral part of South African life because of its cultural traditions and importance to the economy.

Minister van Schalkwyk is himself an avid hunter.

But the Government panel set up to examine the law found horrific examples of abuse, including the widespread use of predators born and bred in captivity.

Labels: ban, canned hunting, hunting, lions, van schalkwyk

JOHANNESBURG- Limpopo Province's conservation department has been caught with a smoking gun in its hands.

It has advertised for sale various predators, some of which were previously rescued from breeding facilities supplying the canned hunting industry.

This means the animals could find themselves bought by the big-bucks canned hunting brigade, and returned to the very fate from which they were once spared.

Up for grabs are several lions, nine endangered African wild dogs and a young Bengal tiger.

Louise Joubert, of SanWild Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, in Gravelotte, Limpopo, was horrified to discover that the eight lions in their custody were being advertised for sale.

"In a tender document issued on November 15, under the heading Disposals, I saw various animals advertised for sale," she said. "Under lots two and three were Jespha and his pride, who we have been caring for since November 2003, with the help of international donor funding."

Joubert, however, is not prepared to leave the lions to their fate, and is ready for a battle. She is bringing a High Court application against the department to stop the sale.

An emotional Joubert said she had just received a phone call from UK donors who had already raised £10,000 (about R111,900) towards the costs of a court hearing.

"They said they will never desert their lions, never just leave them to this horrible fate."

She spoke fondly of the leader of the pride, the magnificent Jespha, and of Nikana, who had given birth to two cubs, which donors named Rongo and Aroha.

"This was the first time Nikana had had an opportunity to raise her own cubs. Previously they were always removed from her, and hand-raised, forcing her to come into season again," said Joubert, adding this was customary in breeding centres.

Breeding

Explaining how SanWild came to be home to the animals, Joubert said the lions had been the basis of a controversial court case - in which an Edwin Claasens was found guilty of setting up a breeding project for hunting purposes.

At that time an agreement was reached between the Department of Economic Development, Finance and Tourism and SanWild. SanWild Trust would raise international donor funding to construct a temporary holding facility for confiscated predators.

The department did not have such a facility, nor the funding to feed and care for the animals. Joubert said SanWild hoped not only to offer the animals a chance of a better life, but to help the authorities curb illegal breeding and hunting of lions in particular.

Inherent in the agreement, she said, was that the lions would not be sold back into the captive breeding and hunting industry. The department would also work with the trust to find suitable end destinations for animals that were the subject of court cases.

However, by November 2004 relations had soured. The trust believed the department had little interest in the animals' long-term welfare, so suggested the department should contribute towards the animals' financial upkeep. The first payment was only received in June 2005.

Now Joubert believes the department intends setting up its own facility for handling confiscated animals. "But if they are going to sell them off to the canned hunters, then they are just as bad as them, and cannot call themselves a conservation body," said Joubert.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare meanwhile commissioned a private investigator - conservation and wildlife journalist Ian Michler - to look into the captive breeding of predators in this country.

Hotspots

The fund's Christina Pretorius said Michler had identified Limpopo, North West and Free State as the hotspots.

They had also proved less than co-operative. "We asked what species they were captively breeding, the number of animals, where it was taking place, and what the animals were being bred for," said Pretorius.

Conflicting information had been provided. Limpopo, for instance, had maintained there were only seven registered captive-predator holding facilities in the province. However, chairman of the Limpopo Carnivore Association, Piet Warren told Michler that at least 32 facilities had been established in the province and were holding about 400 to 500 lions.

Michler further found that at many facilities, commercially viable animals were fed, while others were left to starve. In most instances, enclosures were tiny and cramped.

Pretorius said exotic animals such as pumas, jaguars, tigers (about 60) and grey wolves were also being kept in captivity. A spokesman for the Department of Economic Development, Finance and Tourism, Tseli Moss, said, "The matter is sub judice, so we have no comment."

Labels: ban, canned hunting, hunting, lions

BERG-EN-DAL- South Africa is weighing the option of killing off its excess elephants, 10 years after the practice known as culling was banned amid pressure from animal rights activists.

"It (culling) remains an option," David Mabunda, the head of South African National Parks (SANParks), saids on Thursday on the sidelines of a three-day conference on controlling elephant populations in the Kruger National Park.

He added other options, such as contraception, were also being considered and several approaches need to be taken. South Africa imposed a moratorium on culling in 1994.

Senior park officials have conceded off the record that they were leaning towards reintroducing culling- which involves killing off entire family groups at a time as survivors could become "rogues" prone to attacking humans.

Soaring elephant populations are seen as a threat to ecosystems which can only support so many of the pachyderms.

Regarded by many in the West as highly endangered, South Africa and its neighbours in fact have healthy and growing elephant populations.

And this is proving a headache as South Africa's roughly 16,000 elephants are all in enclosed areas.

BIG PROBLEMS

South African authorities maintain problems are inevitable when the world's largest land mammal reproduces at will within enclosed areas of bush.

This is even the case in the famed Kruger National Park, which is the size of Israel.

In the decade since culling stopped, Kruger's elephant population has almost doubled to close to 12,000. Adult elephants have no natural enemies and they have long lifespans.

Scientists say Kruger's population growth is unsustainable as the huge beasts are literally eating themselves out of house and home- to the detriment of other wild creatures.

"What I've seen from the naked eye ... is the total decimation of a number of big trees in the park. You don't need a PhD degree to tell you that there's an impact in terms of trees that have been felled," Mabunda said.

"We do have a serious problem in terms of numbers of overpopulation in our parks. What is important to us is to see those numbers being reduced and we need to look at options that can reduce those numbers," he said.

Kruger has been transferring live elephants to other locations but there is only so much space in a developing country with a growing and land hungry rural population.

MORAL ISSUES

Animal welfare activists say there are ethical issues involved, not least because elephants are highly intelligent, emotional and social animals -- which makes them perfect "poster creatures" for conservationists.

"Violating the rights of elephants by culling them will evoke an outburst of anger and opposition from concerned people across the globe," said Michelle Pickover of Justice for Animals.

Pressure from animal welfare activists may have contributed to the cull moratorium in 1994 when Nelson Mandela came to power as the country's first black president.

There are some conservationists who argue that that decision was based more on politics than science.

Labels: ban, contraception, culling, elephants