OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday
SOUTH African National Parks has resumed a programme to cull exotic Himalayan mountain goats (tahrs) on Table Mountain in defiance of a direct request by the office of the public protector, Selby Baqwa.
Baqwa’s office said the parks board had acted despite a direct request that any such decision be deferred until the public protector was satisfied that the views and proposals of the Friends of the Tahr (FOTT), and more than 4_000 signatories to their petition to SANP supporting a humane solution for the goats, had received due and proper consideration.
Baqwa’s office said FOTT had complained they were unable to get a fair and unprejudiced hearing from Cape Peninsula National Park officials, who say the exotic mountain goats are causing immeasurable damage to the mountain ecology system.
Other organisations, including the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, have also objected to the cruelty associated with the use of the drug Scoline in the cull.
The public protector’s office said that after initial resistance to this move it was necessary for Baqwa to formally recommend a moratorium on the goats’ culling until an exchange of information and views on the issue had taken place.
Baqwa’s office said the alternatives proposed by FOTT appeared to be feasible, reasonable and cost-effective, and indicated there was, at least, a case for SANP to answer.
By unilaterally deciding to resume the killing, SANP have acted in breach of their constitutional obligations to the office of the public protector and in contempt of their undertakings to the office to comply with the moratorium, said Baqwas office.
The SANP’s announcement that it would resume the tahr culling programme is likely to rekindle opposition in some quarters. SANP plans to remove all the remaining tahrs, between 60 and 100 animals, within a year.
Culling was temporarily halted in July last year by an agreement between SANP and the public protector’s office. About 54 tahrs had been killed at that stage.
The use of the drug Scoline, used in the first stages of the operation when the animals were shot from a helicopter, has been discontinued.