Dr. Dame Daphne appeals India not to follow South African culling example

[Guest guest]

Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick`s reactions to the proposed South African

culling of elephants and an appeal to Indians to not follow the

example for India. It may be noted that very recently a veteran

elephant expert from India Dr. Dhirtikanta Lahiri Choudhuri suggested

'Commercial Culling of Asian Elephants in India' as the ultimate

solution to the rising human-elephant conflicts in the country.

 

Azam Siddiqui

--

 

Dear Azam,

 

 

Thank you for your Email of 27th February. The international public,

who now understand the nature of elephants, and the fact that they are

very human in emotion, age progression and longevity are unanimously

against the brutal culling, which leaves elephant society in tatters.

 

Elephants have a superior memory to humans (scientifically proven

through a study of the brain by Dr. Gay Bradshaw), and if it is

unacceptable for humans to cull their own over-population for obvious

reasons, then it should never be countenanced for elephants.

 

There are other means of dealing with an over population in small

Protected Areas, i.e. contraception, moving family units (which has

been done successfully in Kenya) or allowing Nature to enact its

own way of culling, whereby sub adult females throughout the entire

population are targeted during times of privation, and die quietly,

peacefully and en masse near permanent water (the myth of the

elephants'Graveyard).

 

By removing sub-adult females from an elephant population, gaps are

created in breeding, putting the population into decline until times

are better.

 

The brutal culling of elephants by humans is usually financially

driven by greed and corruption.

Nature does a better job of it by targeting the females, the sick and

the maimed, so that a healthier and stronger population emerges

through natural selection, which is Nature's most powerful tool.

 

 

South Africa is a pariah when it comes to Animal Welfare, and the

corruption, greed, and mal-practices there are well documented and

well known, examples being the Tuli Debacle, the infamous Canned Lion

Hunting, the Sport Hunting of endangered species taken from Protected

Areas and offered up to Hunters in exchange for money, etc., etc.

 

Theirs is no example for India to follow, for India is seen as always

having had a far more humane and compassionate approach to wild

animals, animals generally, and especially elephants. Evil practices

like culling for financial gain should never be allowed, and only

public and international pressure can be used to dissuade those in

power against it.

 

 

Best wishes.

 

 

Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick.