Mixed reaction to delay of canned hunting regulations

Johannesburg, South Africa



07 May 2007 02:34

The postponement of regulations on threatened and endangered species that include a ban on "canned" predator hunts evoked mixed reaction on Monday.

North West provincial minister of agriculture, conservation and environment Mandlenkosi Mayisela -- whose province has 49 predator camps -- welcomed the postponement as "breathing room" for further discussion.

"The new implementation date for the regulations gives us breathing room as we weigh options and continue dialogue with the national minister," said Mayisela.

"Hopefully we can still achieve a more favourable compromise for our province."

Mayisela said roughly 350 lions were hunted annually in the province, possibly the country's biggest number, and that the issue needed "careful management".

Last week Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk postponed the implementation date of the regulations to February next year.

The new regulations will, among other things, outlaw the hunting of captive-bred large predators within two years of their release on a property for the purpose of hunting.

Mayisela said the province had differed on definitions of threatened species and said the national permitting system would be best left to provinces.

The hunting industry had also raised a "valid point" about the 24-month period in which predators had to be fed and enclosed but did not generate income.

"We are saying as we tighten up -- which is a good thing that we should do -- it should not then push a whole lot of people out of the industry.

"We need the regulations to allow businesses to survive while making sure people who remain in business conduct their business in an acceptable framework."

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) reacted with "disappointment and distress".

"Unless the minister declares a moratorium on hunting -- lion hunting in particular -- we are concerned that South Africa will become a killing field," said Rick Allan of the NSPCA's wildlife unit.

The postponement effectively gave "unscrupulous" lion farmers leeway to deplete stock in the interim at a profit, he said.

"Until the new regulations are brought in, canned hunting as we know and condemn it will continue."

the South African Hunters' and Game Conservation Association vice-president of conservation, Professor Gerhard Verdoorn, said the postponement "makes a lot of sense" to address a number of issues around the regulations.

An example was the lions currently in captivity for which no mitigation plans had been made, with the extra time now allowing for such plans to be made.

When it came to predator hunts, Verdoorn said the organisation was against canned hunts.

However, he did not see a problem with the hunting of bred predators that were released and "wilded" for a few months in a large area of 1 000ha or more.

"In terms of real canned hunting where guys shoot a large predator that's been released in a small enclosure from the back of a vehicle ... that's bad ... we don't even call it hunting, we call it shooting. I think no hunter would support that." -- Sapa

I was expecting something like this. Again "Ou Kortbroek" did not do his homework. You cannot impliment a law if you cannot police it.

The remarks from the different groups are interesting, the SPCA with their normal stereotype emotional reply and Gerhard Verdoorn's rational response, I have a lot of respect for him. He tackles any problem in a practical way, because he is a consevationist and a hunter.

quote:

Originally posted by 500nitro:

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) reacted with "disappointment and distress".

"Unless the minister declares a moratorium on hunting -- ....

The true objective.


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Hopefully some of the captive lion can be relocted to more "wild" environments which may have been depleted. And in any case improve genetics.