Ghoulish Primate Experiment in South Africa

Warning! This is just horrible and sick, sick, sick. It's at a vomit level with me. From news24.com...

Johannesburg - A Bloemfontein man received a criminal record on Friday for a "backyard experiment" on a pregnant monkey, the NSPCA said.

The NSPCA in November 2008 charged Jordaan for his "merciless treatment" of a heavily pregnant vervet monkey. He had severed her spinal cord to paralyse her for a "backyard experiment.

"She had been captured from the wild... in the opinion of the NSPCA because she had been pregnant and therefore 'of use' for the pitiless treatment."

She said the monkey's infant was removed by Caesarean section on October 31. The procedure to sever her spinal cord had been performed the same day.

This paralysed the monkey from the waist down and made her incontinent. Her cage was “cleaned” with a hosepipe....

Kotze said Jordaan had apparently doing "stem cell research" to help people walk again after a friend of his had been paralysed in an accident.

Jordaan allegedly submitted a research application to the University of the Free State, but its animal ethics committee rejected it. He was told to rewrite and resubmit it. He was not prepared to do so and said he would continue the research on his own, Kotze said.

South African Caught Smuggling Live Crocodiles

He was caught at an airport with about 70 live animals, including at least three different endangered species and eight inch-long Caiman crocodiles.

The article says most are okay, but in varying stages of health. I don't know how these poor animals survive stuffed in luggage. Very cruel.

Controversial Project to "Rewild" Chinese Tigers

Here is another great example of the frequent conflict between wildlife conservation and animal rights. In this particular case, while I understand and relate to the animal welfare position espoused by some groups, I think that the overall survival of an endangered species must take precedence. I'm not saying the program in this article will succeed, but sometimes the survival of the many calls for the sacrifice of the few (sorry, I think I'm channeling Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan).

The project, run by the charity Save China’s Tigers and set on a 33,000-hectare ranch in South Africa’s Free State Province, basically tries to “teach” the big cats to hunt for themselves and other survival skills. It is the brainchild of an energetic Chinese woman named Li Quan.

The hope is that the adult tigers will impart their acquired skills to their offspring which can then be released into the wild in China. Estimates and data are scanty but there are only believed to be around 10 to 30 individuals left in the wild of the Chinese sub-species of the tiger family, also known as the South China tiger.

The problem in the eyes of some animal welfare groups is that the tigers are being trained to hunt through the use of live animals such blesbok, a kind of antelope, which are released into a 40-hectare camp.

South Africa’s SPCA claims in a statement on its website that “Life Feeding - It Happens Here” and has taken the issue to the courts.

“It is a spurious argument that carnivores need to be fed animals, live. Not in captivity they don’t!,” the SPCA, which regards the practice as cruel, says.

Photo by wAlanb.

South Africa to Allow Killing of Elephants

I'm not really happy about this, but I will say South Africa does a much better job in controlling the ivory trade then many countries in Africa.

South Africa will allow elephants to be killed in an attempt to control a burgeoning population, the government said, ending a 13-year ban and setting a trend that could embolden other southern African nations confronting the same dilemma.

As outraged animal rights activists threaten to promote tourist boycotts, Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said Monday the government was left with no choice but to reintroduce culling "as a last option and under very strict conditions."

There would be no "wholesale slaughter," he promised.

"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," he said.

Photo by Angela7dreams

Leopards Rescued from Monaco Zoo

This is a great story about one woman's perseverance in obtaining the release of two lifelong captive leopard siblings. They will spend the rest of their days in the Shamwari game reserve where Born Free has two fenced-off sanctuaries.

The British actress and wildlife conservationist {Virginia McKenna} had spent 10 years trying to rescue Pitou and Sirius from Monaco Zoo, campaigning for them to be re-homed by Born Free, the animal welfare organisation she founded 25 years ago with her late husband, the actor Bill Travers. (Before the leopards were moved to the zoo, they were with a French travelling circus.)

McKenna went to Monaco nine times and begged courtiers to be allowed to ask the late Prince Rainier to grant these predators freedom. They wouldn't even let her see him.

But Rainier's heir Prince Albert, upon assuming the throne, was moved and gave his permission for their removal.

Shamwari, which means friend in Shona dialect, is a managed, enclosed 30,000-acre reserve teeming with wild lions, leopards, giraffes, rhinos, hippos and cheetahs as well as kudus, antelopes, zebras and eagles.

...Born Free has been given two fenced-off sanctuaries where it has re-homed big cats, most of whom had been cruelly treated. Even here, they must be restricted. They have not learnt to hunt for themselves and would perish if allowed to roam.

The Born Free sanctuary where Pitou (the name means little donkey) and Sirius (little star) now have their home...is a conservation centre for students.

Photo by Mara 1.

SPCA Action over South African Puppy Sale

The SPCA staff in South Africa is not kidding about illegal breeding and puppy sales. No incident is too small.

Three men have been released from police custody with a warning after selling puppies packed into a shoebox in Tokai. The incident comes after the SPCA called for harsh penalties to be imposed on people caught breeding dogs without a permit.

SPCA trainee inspector Moyo Mqabuko said he had been alerted on Sunday night by a member of the public and had responded immediately. He found the men trying to sell a litter of seven puppies in a shoebox, outside a restaurant.

Mqabuko said the puppies were shivering and had no water or food. He demanded that the men give up the puppies in accordance with the Animal Protection Act. "They refused, which is when I contacted the police," he said.

Photo by animalrescueblog.

Pachyderms on the Pill

In this case, we are talking about female elephants in South Africa that are on contraception. And to be fair to the ladies, males are also getting vasectomies.

{The irony is that we recently posted a story about the controversy over breeding zoo elephants so they WILL reproduce and here's an article about managing wild elephants so they WON'T reproduce. Gaaah!}

It is part of a national research effort to answer pressing questions about South Africa's elephant population: In short, given the animals' humongous appetites and destructive habits, is the 20,000-strong population threatening the habitat of other species? If so, how do you control population growth?

There are only four known solutions to too many elephants: birth control, relocation, so-called transfrontier parks that span borders and the one that people do not really like to talk about, shooting the animals from helicopters. The South African government's draft policy on elephant population control, released this year, includes all four options.

Some South African conservationists believe a cull (mass elephant kill) is inevitable in hugely popular Kruger National Park, which is nearly twice the size of Los Angeles County and had 12,500 elephants at last count in 2006.

Wanda Mkutshulwa, a spokeswoman for the government's parks agency, SANParks, refused to comment on the likelihood of a cull. "We made our recommendations in 2005," was her only comment, referring to SANParks' controversial call on the government to allow culling.

But shooting elephants would surely cause a storm of international protest, given human sentiments about the animals and the widespread perception that they are an endangered species (correct in other parts of the continent but not in southern Africa). There is talk among animal rights organizations of organizing a tourist boycott of South Africa should culling take place, threatening one of the country's most important industries.

Culls do not involve selectively shooting the oldest or weakest. They mean shooting whole herds, including youngsters, because the animals' social structures are so complex and interdependent.

Photo by Andrei_S.

Lion Hunting Industry Flourishes

It amazes me how I hear about species whose very existence is being endangered, but at the same time, individual members are being held in captivity and their live are basically "throw-aways." Examples include the chimpanzees being used for experimentation, elephants in circuses, and, now, lions for trophy hunters.

Trophy hunters are the worst to me. They don't need the kill, they don't eat it, they don't respect it and, most of the time, they don't even really hunt it. These "trophys" are often just the result of the "hunter" having the kill when the animal has already been tracked and caught by a professional. Or they are in a small enclosure, aka the "canned" hunt.

A trophy for cowardice I say. Or to boost some low testosterone levels.

But the industry heads believe they are protecting the lions from African farmers killing them and helping the economy at the same time. See what's happening in South Africa.

South African breeding operations...provided more than 300 lions for trophy hunters to stalk and kill last year, and are part of an industry that brought 1 billion rand ($146 million) into the economy. The farms have also sparked outrage from animal rights groups who say they permit ``canned hunting,'' where marksmen kill lions in small enclosures with no chance to escape.

Starting Feb. 1, South Africa will require that lions roam free for two years before they are hunted. Breeders say the rules will destroy the industry and force them to slaughter many of the 5,000 captive-bred cats. Game farms can't afford to have the lions hunting their other animals for such a long period, and there isn't enough room for them in the wild.

``The moment we can't hunt them they'll have no value,'' says Wouter Pienaar, owner of Bloemfontein-based Shot Productions Ltd., which films hunts for tourists. The farmers ``are just going to start killing them.''

Advocates of the new law say it will let lions adapt to the wild before they are killed, allowing for a fair chase.

``We are putting an end, once and for all, to the reprehensible practice of canned hunting,'' Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South Africa's environment minister, said in a February statement. ``We will not allow our achievements to be undermined by unethical and rogue practices.''


Photo by joriepollak.