The South African government has decided to lift the 1995 ban on culling elephants to combat the growing population in the region. It is yet another example of the greedy nature of mankind; playing God to a meagre population of 20,000 African elephants
South Africa stopped killing elephants in 1995 after an international outcry from animal rights groups and environmental activists worldwide. As a result, the elephant population has grown from 8,000 to 20,000 in the past 13 years. These large animals require hundreds of kilos of vegetation daily to survive, leading them to roam vast areas of land in search of food. The explosive rise in human population has also compounded the problem, which has resulted in encroachment of forests and loss of habitat for the elephants. Since the elephants have no ballot or bullet power - their destiny has been decided by the politicians.
According to the environment minister of South Africa, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, "Culling will only be allowed as a last option and under very strict conditions. Our simple reality is that elephant population density has risen so much in some southern African countries that there is concern about impacts on the landscape, the viability of other species and the livelihoods and safety of people living within elephant ranges."
The last option is a bullet, and the strict condition effective from May 01, constitute a rifle with a minimum calibre of .375. Dr Rob Little, Acting Chief Executive of WWF South Africa, says that, “although WWF does not advocate culling as the preferred management alternative, we recognise that it is a management option and reiterate our view that all other options should first be explored.”
"Exasperated and deeply saddened", was how an Animal Rights Africa (ARA) spokesperson Steve Smit, responded when asked how they felt about the government's announcement today that the culling of elephants has been reinstated in South Africa.
Since 2004, when SANParks attempted to overturn the moratorium on killing elephants en-masse, ARA has laboured to ensure that culling was not a so-called 'tool' allowed in the toolbox of managers of private, provincial and national conservation areas that contain populations of elephants. We were largely responsible for forcing the South African government to engage with stakeholders in the first place. We were also largely responsible for the idea of holding scientific round tables in relation to elephant management. We have opposed the option of culling from the outset, basing our stance on ethical, scientific and historical considerations, and to date, neither the Minister nor any of the pro-culling lobby has been able to produce one shred of evidence to show that there is an ethically or ecologically defensible reason to kill even one elephant in South Africa.
The fact is that the formulation of the government's policy on elephant management, specifically with regard to culling, has been driven by a chauvinistic, rampant utilization mindset that is deeply rooted in colonialism and apartheid, disregards the inherent value of each individual elephant and has commodified them into unfeeling units purely to be assessed for their recreational and economic value.
Despite the spin and the web of carefully and cleverly constructed language that the government has used to craft the new elephant policy, the real truth is that it is does not protect elephants against the threat of culling at any time that wildlife managers (who are generally pro-culling and support trophy hunting) consider that the number of elephants under their control need to be reduced in terms of their management plan and objectives. The Minister has in fact opened the door to elephant genocide in the SADC region. Only time will tell the extent to which this happens, but with economic and political pressures on managers to make elephant 'by-products' available to the market, every elephant in South Africa now has a price on its head.
Furthermore, South Africa has signed a SADC regional elephant management plan that actively promotes the killing of elephants as an income generating resource, thereby showing that in spite of public statements expressing respect for elephants and their lives, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has lumped elephants in the same trade bin as a lump of coal. So much for respecting them!
This is truly a devastating day for elephants and for the future of elephants on the African continent - BUT we are not giving up. We will work tirelessly to bring about a situation in South Africa where elephants are "managed" in a manner which respects their rights and dignity, and this simply means that the option to cull elephants is deleted from every elephant management plan. If this requires that we call for tourism and other forms of boycott, then so be it.
The South African government, environmentalists, corporations and we the people have all failed the graceful pachyderms. They have a right to live under the sky and it is our duty to find them new homes. Big corporations and wealthy individuals in the Middle East should take up this matter as their CSR initiative. Let the elephants live.
