White hunt clubs are exterminating wildlife in Africa

[Guest guest]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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White hunt clubs and racist laws are exterminating wildlife in South

Africa at a shocking rate through institutionalized slaughter via

government support. Whole species of animals are systematically

destroyed through the violence of armed and dog-assisted white-only hunt

clubs. Authorized by a fifty-year-old piece of apartheid-era legislation

that allows any six persons who are not black to form a hunt club, these

'clubs' behave like terrorists by invading and damaging any private

property - even a wildlife sanctuary. The regional extinction of

declared species is the lawful, State-sponsored aim of this legislation

and even animals such as the caracal which is listed in CITES Appendix

II, are treated as vermin.

 

Please read the post below to fully understand the problem and what

you can do to help. The urgency is also explained.

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The Kalahari Raptor Centre (KRC) is a wildlife sanctuary in South

Africa and the only registered wildlife rehabilitation centre in the

vast Northern Cape Province. Chris Mercer and Beverly Pervan who run the

KRC and are authors of the book 'For The Love of Wildlife', which is

dedicated to the " vanishing spirit of wild Africa and its purest

essence, the magnificent predators, with whom Mankind refuses to live or

let live " , have paid the price of putting this dedication into

practice. The price they paid for saving three caracals from the

medieval Problem Animal Control Ordinance of 1957 amounted to more than

a hundred thousand rands in legal expenses, 18 months of victimization,

defamation, malicious prosecution, illegal invasion of property, threats

and intimidation, illegal confiscation of animals, abuse of authority

and further legal proceedings still to come. Their crime? Rescuing two

infant caracals and their injured mother from being shot by the farmer

who had trapped them in a gin trap.

 

Chris and Bev were convicted in the Magistrates Court in September

2001 for keeping caracals without a permit, and sentenced to heavy fines

which were suspended on certain conditions. They have appealed to the

High Court in Kimberley from which a further appeal lies to the

Constitutional Court. Herein lies the urgency for this appeal. The

Minister has the right to give his views on the constitutional validity

of this appalling old apartheid legislation, for the benefit of the High

Court judges. The appeal is expected to be heard shortly.

The KRC applied for permits to care for caracals both before and after

the rescue, but all applications were refused by the provincial nature

conservation officials on the ground that caracals are vermin, and must

therefore be killed, not cared for. The Problem Animal Control Ordinance

of 1957 is a declaration of war upon and an extermination program for

several species of wildlife including the Caracal (lynx) and the

Black-Backed Jackal. Reactionary officials have unlawfully extended

the use of this statute to harmless species such as the Cape Fox by -

quite without legal foundation - classifying them as 'potential problem

animals.' This racist apartheid-era law was framed to protect the

narrow commercial interests of a tiny white minority of livestock

farmers. The ordinance specifically excludes blacks, and twelve years

after Nelson Mandela walked to freedom, officials continue to enforce a

law which begins: " Any six persons who are not black may form a hunt club. "

 

The provisions of the Ordinance read like something out of Hitler's

" Mein Kampf. " Any attempt to harbour or care for declared enemies of

the State is strictly forbidden. Wildlife sanctuaries and eco-tourism

resorts are treated as illegal breeding grounds for vermin. Local

white-only hunt clubs are given the power to carry out an armed invasion

of any private property, killing any declared (and, in practice,

undeclared) animals on sight. No notice or permission is required by the

hunt from the occupiers of the invaded land and any attempt to resist

the invasion is unlawful. No compensation is paid for damage and losses,

instead, the hunters are paid and rewarded by the taxpayer for their

murder and destruction and may recover all of their expenses from the

owner/occupier of the land they have just raped. All methods of hunting

are condoned, whether it be poison, set-guns, gin traps, or the pouring

of diesel fuel down burrows and burning the occupants alive. Hundreds of

thousands of animals, mostly harmless non-target animals such as

bat-eared and Cape Foxes are slain in these unselective hunts. In a few

short years, the hunt club known as the Oranjejag exterminated 87,570

animals in the Free State alone. About seventy percent (60,340) were

Cape Foxes. And the Cape Fox is a protected species.

 

Chris Mercer states: " At our own expense we have launched High Court

proceedings against the department to stop the obscene slaughter of the

Cape Fox and have formally requested the Public Protector to intervene.

The scale of the inhumanity and slaughter caused by the Problem Animal

Control Ordinances and the hunt clubs are a national scandal and deserve

a judicial committee of enquiry. We believe that this monstrous

legislation far exceeds any legitimate need for livestock farmers to

protect themselves from stock predation. By contrast, the Kalahari

Raptor Centre welcomes over 1,000 schoolchildren each year, many from

disadvantaged backgrounds, to visit for environmental education in an

attempt to teach compassion. Who are the true conservationists, us or

the officials? Who are the true criminals, us or the officials " ?

" Parliament wants these animals to be protected, yet the officials

of the Northern Cape Nature Conservation Services insist in proclaiming

open hunting upon them in 18 of the 28 magisterial districts of the

Northern Cape province. Scarce and valuable animals like Brown Hyenas

are trapped in vicious gin traps and then shot - by officials of this

department. A canned rhino hunt facilitated by this same department in

Kuruman municipal game park allowed a hunter to torture a semi-tame

rhino cow to death over an 8 hour period, eventually employing a

helicopter to complete his brutal sport. The same officials intervened

with the prosecuting authority to stop a prosecution of the hunter on

cruelty charges " .

" The National Environmental Management Act of 1998 lays down intelligent

principles to be followed and the new Biodiversity Bill also has

provisions protecting animals like caracals which are listed on CITES

Appendix II. Although Parliament in Cape Town passes new democratic

laws, these laws are disregarded by reactionary provincial officials who

prefer the old apartheid laws. 'Nature Conservation' thus remains

untransformed; the last bastion of the apartheid regime in South

Africa " .

 

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How you can Help

 

Racist Laws and Brutal Hunt Clubs must be ELIMINATED and the new

democratic laws, which require often intransigent officials to heed the

views of the animal welfare community, must be enforced.

 

 

With the World Conference on Sustainable Development due to take

place in South Africa in August 2002 we need to bring this to

international attention: THAT IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO TALK CONSERVATION

BUT PRACTICE EXTERMINATION. This Biodiversity Convention to which South

Africa is also a signatory is clearly incompatible with compulsory

liquidation of whole species. Delegates to the Summit need to be made

aware of what is really going on.

 

 

We ask you to please use your voice for the wildlife while there is

still time. It will be heard and it will make a difference. For

example, thanks to vigorous protest by nearly fifty animal welfare

organizations worldwide, officials were compelled to allow the release

back to the wild of the two healthy caracals, notwithstanding a

forfeiture order by the Magistrate. Public pressure made all the

difference. The fate of the mother 'Tripod " (pictured) the three legged

caracal is still in issue.

 

 

PLEASE SEND THE FOLLOWING LETTER TO THESE CONTACTS:

Dear Sirs

We wish to express our disgust at the treatment of so-called problem

animals in South Africa, and the failure of the government to transform

the apartheid-era laws, policies and mindset of the provincial nature

conservation departments. We ask Minister Valli Moosa to take the

opportunity given to him by the forthcoming appeal by the Kalahari

Raptor Centre against its conviction for rescuing three caracals, and to

send a letter to the Registrar of the Kimberley High Court stating that

government supports the KRC's contention that the Problem Animal Control

Ordinance, 26 of 1957, is unconstitutional in the respects set out in Mr

Mercer's heads of Argument, and should be declared invalid in its entirety.

 

We ask him also to re-organise and transform the provincial departments

so that they employ staff who do not flout the new democratic laws, and

who heed the wishes of the animal welfare community, which is the

'affected community' in terms of the National Environmental Management

Act, 107 of 1998 in all matters concerning animal welfare.

Yours truly,

 

PLEASE CONTACT:

 

The ANC (Ruling party in South Africa)

info

 

Minister for the Environment - Valli Moosa - Tabane

 

The Provincial MEC for Environment and Nature Conservation, Kimberley

tmothibi

 

The Secretariat for United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)

Sandra.Paul

 

The Secretariat for Biodiversity Convention

secretariat

 

 

The Secretariat for CITES Convention

cites

 

The IUCN

sfakir

yek

biodiversity

 

Your own local media, and any person or org who you think can help.

Your own national and non-government orgs who may wish to attend the

World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

 

 

> >Contact info:

Kalahari Raptor Centre

Bev and Chris

http://www.raptor.co.za

Tel/Fax: 053 712 3576

E-mail: krc

info

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The time is always right to do what is right.

Martin Luther King Jr.

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Kind Regards

Chris and Bev

Kalahari Raptor Centre

www.raptor.co.za

Tel: 053 712 3576

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david camilleri

ghawdex40

http://www.MaltaTouristAction.org

 

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