South Africa: 'Eco-Xenophobia' for Island's Deer


Cape Argus (Cape Town)

8 June 2008
Posted to the web 9 June 2008

Eve Vosloo
Cape Town

The management of Robben Island has given Searl Derman, owner of the Aquila private game reserve, the go-ahead to capture and remove the island's starving antelope so that the degraded grazing can recover.

He has also received the backing of the SPCA.


There are about 150 fallow deer on the island, two bontebok, about 20 springbok and more than 5 000 rabbits.

However, some no-kill animal welfare groups believe a spirit of "eco-xenophobia" at CapeNature, which issues permits for alien animals, might prevent Derman from saving th eanimals without having to see them culled or moved to places where they might be hunted.

Robben Island's grazing can no longer support the antelope and fallow deer because of the proliferation of rabbits, which occurred when feral cats were removed.

On Saturday Derman, who estimates that it will cost him at least R600 000 to rescue the deer, said he believed he could remove enough animals in six months for the veld to start recovering.

He plans to feed the animals for another three weeks to build up their strength. Then he wants to capture them, move them to holding camps in the old walled part of the prison, where they could be vaccinated, fed intensively and sterilised then take them off the island.

Derman said the rabbits will not be allowed to leave the island. "Our plan is to manufacture five to 10 portable traps designed to capture between 10 and 50 rabbits at a time."

Derman said vet Douw Grobbelaar had agreed to oversee the capture and sterilisation process.

However, as much as they laud Derman's efforts, some no-kill animal welfare organisations believe the current policies of CapeNature almost guarantee that the fallow deer will eventually be killed.

Kas Hamman, CapeNature's director of bio-diversity, "strongly advised" culling the deer and rabbits on site or to arrange for the removal of the deer according to its stringent guidelines. He said they would not allow the rabbits off the island.

The guidelines are that the deer may only go to places which already have "resident and legally acquired fallow deer", that the new habitat may not be in an area targeted by CapeNature for a stewardship conservation agreement and that a habitat assessment must demonstrate that "little or no environmental degradation would be caused by the introduction of the island's fallow deer".

Cicely Blumberg, co-founder of the Domestic Animal Welfare Group (Darg) and a former director of Friends of the Tahr, and Clifton Roux, convenor of the City-Wide Forum's animal welfare section, say these guidelines represent a type of "eco-xenophobia", which they claimed "was determined to wipe out any animal not regarded as acceptable".

Blumberg said the guidelines contained what an official himself referred to in a telephone conversation with her as two "death clauses".

She said people were being misled that the deer will be taken to safe havens.

This was because CapeNature had also stated that the fallow deer at these establishment might be hunted "at the discretion of the owners of the properties".

An animal rights activist, who declined to be named, said some of the places CapeNature had allowed fallow deer to be placed were hunting establishments.

"This is tantamount to the worst kind of canned hunting. The deer were so tame that they ate carrots and bread out of people's hands when they were on the mountain near Rhodes Memorial."

Blumberg and Roux said that in 2006 they had sent a proposed rescue plan to SanParks and CapeNature, offering sanctuaries for fallow deer both from Groote Schuur Estate and Robben Island. They received no response.

Blumberg said that since news of the deer's plight had become known, many people had had offered to house large numbers of sterilised animals from Robben Island in areas bound by approved fencing. But she feared that if the past was any indication, the offers would be ignored.


"Precedents already exist around SA for sanctuaries for alien animals," said Blumberg. "There is a wolf sanctuary, a tiger sanctuary, monkey sanctuaries. Alpacas have been imported for commercial purposes.

"Alien animals have allegedly been imported for trophy hunting, so why not a fallow deer and rabbit sanctuary? If the animals are sterilised and adequately enclosed, where is the problem?

"Robben Island is renowned internationally as a place of peace and reconciliation. Any form of bloodshed should be avoided at all costs."