On February 28th, The Humane Society of the United States and its international arm, Humane Society International, applauded new regulations on elephant management announced by the South African government.
The new regulations will ban the capture of elephants for commercial exhibition facilities such as elephant back safari industries or circuses, prohibit the import and export of captive elephants and prevent intensive breeding of captive elephants, other than natural birth, beginning May 1, 2008.
Nearly ten years ago, in July 1998, 30 elephant calves aged 2 to 7 were violently taken from their mothers in Botswana and exported to South Africa where they were brutally beaten and deprived of food and water to prepare them for lives in captivity at zoos. The elephants were eventually taken away from the animal dealer who was, five years later, convicted of violating South Africa's Animal Protection Act. Fourteen of the elephants eventually made it to freedom in Marakele National Park in South Africa, nine went to a private South African game park in South Africa, and seven went to zoos in Germany and Switzerland. But the scandal shone a light on the cruelty involved in such trade.
"These regulations mean that South Africa has washed its hands of the cruel business of taking elephant calves from their families so that they can be exported to foreign zoos," said Dr. Andrew Rowan, HSI's chief executive officer. "South Africa is providing leadership on this matter and we hope other countries in Africa will follow their example."
In making the announcement about the new system, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, also said that minimum standards for care, maintenance and use of the approximately 120 elephants already in captivity will be drawn up within 12 months. The Minister reported that his department received complaints about the use of "cruel and unethical practices" during the training of elephants for elephant back safaris or circuses, "including the use of chains, ropes and electric prodders." He said that, as a result of the standards, "cruel and unethical practices will be rooted out."
The new regulations also address control of South Africa's elephant population through the use of range manipulation, translocation, introduction of elephants, contraception and, as a last resort, culling. A series of conditions have to be met before culling could be used. The HSUS/HSI is opposed to culling and was one of the organizations that successfully pushed for the adoption of a moratorium on culling in the mid-1990s. While culling has been touted by its protagonists as a cost-neutral approach, even a one percent drop in tourist visits to South Africa as a result of public opposition to culling would result in the loss of tens of million of dollars in tourist revenue.
The HSUS/HSI has been working with researchers and the government of South Africa for the past 12 years to study the use of immunocontraception (a birth control method that uses the body's immune response to prevent pregnancy) in elephants. The results have been excellent, with 100 percent birth control achieved without any behavioral or other side effects. The HSUS/HSI believes that immunocontraception offers a practical, humane and nonlethal solution to elephant population size concerns.
"The South African authorities have squandered valuable time in not investing enough in contraception at a time when the national elephant population is growing," said Dr. Rowan. "It is just not acceptable to propose culling when non-lethal management methods such as immunocontraception have not been aggressively pursued and applied."
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