Environmentalists say the export of primates contravenes an international treaty, reports Eddie Koch
South African baboons are being exported to the French military so that they can be exposed to radio-activity in experiments designed to test the safety of nuclear plants in France.
Earthlife Africa this week released official documents to show the French Ministry of Defence has applied to South African authorities for at least 20 baboons captured in the wild to be exported to France so that they can be used in tests to “evaluate the subclinical effects of irradiation doses experienced by people during an accident in a nuclear power plant”.
The documents show the baboons will be exported by the Centre Africain de Primatologie (Cape), a research unit in the Hazyview area of Mpumalanga that has previously been implicated in cruel treatment of animals.
The export application states the research will be conducted in conjunction with the University of California Los Angeles, at a laboratory in Gren-oble owned by the French army’s health services. The application says the “general conditions of experimentation” have been approved by the Ethics Committee of the French Medical Service Research Centre.
But a local animal rights organisation, South Africans for the Abolition of Vivisection (Saav), says it has evidence that animals used in military laboratories are often subjected to experiments involving tests on chemical weapons and explosions. The organisation also questions why research regarding civilian nuclear power stations is being conducted by the military.
“Although the stated goals of the experiments are to try to develop ways to protect soldiers/people from radiation effects or to improve treatments, the programmes mainly demonstrate in animals what has already been known from human exposures. Furthermore, such experiments are not carried out to advance the treatment of human injuries but to test the efficiency of weapons of war — in this case nuclear weapons,” says Michelle Pickover from Saav’s research committee.
Earthlife Africa’s Johannesburg branch has written letters to Environment Minister Pallo Jordan and Colin Cameron, director general of the Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism, demanding that South Africa’s involvement in the international trade in primates be banned.
Warwick Humphries, co-ordinator of the Johannesburg Earthlife branch, says baboons are protected by the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), of which South Africa is a member.
“One of the provisions of Cites is that the capture and trade in primates not be permitted if the population of wild primates is not known. As this population has not been determined, the permitting of the exportation of baboons is a flagrant violation of Cites,” he said.
Cameron was not available to comment, while Jordan said he would consider action after a report-back by his department.
Cape was the subject of controversy in 1990 when investigators from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) discovered 122 wild baboons and two vervet monkeys in cages on its premises. The premises appeared to be abandoned and the animals were starving. Some had been kept in cramped cages for more than a year and could no longer extend their limbs. The baboons had to be killed.
Documentation in the possession of the Mail & Guardian refers to the export of “six large male baboons” to French army research laboratories already in 1993, and to visits to Cape by French military personnel — as well as members of South Africa’s Roodeplaat covert chemical warfare laboratory — in 1992.
Controversy around the capture and translocation of wild animals is set to escalate in conservation circles as SABC-TV news this week uncovered evidence of high mortality rates involved in the capture and transport of rare suni antelope and zebra herds in the Kruger National Park.
Kruger’s chief warden, Harold Braak, told the M&G a large number of zebras had died during a recent capture operation in the park because sedatives given to the animals were incorrectly mixed. A number of suni antelope which had been rounded up so that they could be moved to the northern parts of the park also died because their feed had been watered and a toxic weed grew in it.
Braak rejected accusations that these incidents were the result of “callous” behaviour on the part of parks officials. He said translocation was necessary to manage game effectively and to ensure that rare or endangered species could be reintroduced to wilderness areas where they had vanished. In the case of elephants, capture and transport of herds has become an alternative to culling.
“These operations are warranted, but it does happen that there are losses. I have strong feelings about the way animals are treated, and we have veterinary officers monitoring operations to ensure that problems are minimised. We have nothing to hide.”
He added that outside organisations — including Earthlife, Saav and the SPCA — would be welcome to monitor game-capture operations in the park.
Braak also confirmed reports that trainee game rangers at Kruger were required to shoot a charging elephant as part of the course.
“The elephants are chosen and then chased with a helicopter towards the aspirant ranger. The stress on the elephants is immense,” says an anonymous letter from a Kruger Park official. “Some wounded elephants are chased for kilometres by the chopper before they are put out of their misery.”
Braak said only rogue elephants which break out of the park and harass surrounding farmers are chosen for this purpose. He noted that the practice had been terminated earlier this year — apparently after the SPCA had contacted the park authorities to query evidence of undue animal mortality in Kruger.
Neil Fraser, manager of the Wildlife Division of the National SPCA, said his organisation was already monitoring game-capture operations in KwaZulu-Natal, the North-West and the Free State, and would now extend these activities to the Kruger National Park.
South Africa has a huge game-transport industry because of the large number of new state and private reserves that are growing in various parts of the country — and is probably a world leader in this field.
Andrew McKenzie, chairman of the Wildlife Translocation Association of South Africa, says the National Parks Board generally has a good record with capture and transport of game, mainly because properly trained vets are involved in the operations.
He says the greatest problems and mortality — usually caused by a condition called “capture myopathy” that sends animals into severe shock — take place when private companies get involved in unregulated capture.
The SPCA and the Wildlife Translocation Association are serving on a committee, along with a number of other agencies, to devise a code of conduct to regulate the industry.