South African National Parks (SANParks) is investigating allegations that a top official at the Kruger National Park recently went on a shooting frenzy, killing and wounding animals with a shotgun from a helicopter.
A giraffe bull involved in the incident apparently had both eyes shot out and stumbled around in terror while at least 10 shots were pumped into his body. Other animals, including kudus, zebras and warthogs, were wounded and some died only after their throats were slit by the helicopter cowboys.
It is unclear how many people were in the helicopter, but witnesses finger Willem Gertenbach as the main culprit. Gertenbach is head of conservation services at the Kruger park, and is a long-time employee due to retire at the end of this year.
The shooting spree has infuriated members of the animal use and care committee at SANParks, a body of independent veterinary and conservation specialists set up to monitor research and animal welfare in the national reserves.
Karen Trendler, chairperson of the committee, says the incident smacks of a pre-transformation mindset among some conservation officials. ”The national parks are not a private hunting ground for officers working there.”
The director of conservation at SANParks, Hector Magome, says the national body regrets the incident. ”It was the worst day for that animal, for Gertenbach, for the vet involved and for SANParks,” he said on Thursday.
After meeting Gertenbach and Kruger park director David Mabunda on Wednesday, Magome said disciplinary action was being investigated.
The animals were targeted because they happened to be inside a new camp near Satara built for breeding disease-free buffalo. They were left inside when the camp was fenced off.
Trendler says she is not sure whether they would have been a threat to the buffalo project, whose aims included research into bovine tuberculosis. In terms of her committee’s mandate, every detail of the research project should have been submitted to the committee for scrutiny and approval.
But neither the plans to remove the animals, nor how they were to be removed, were submitted to the committee. Though the incident, which happened three weeks ago, is well-known among conservation officials at Sku-kuza, the committee was not officially informed about it.
”If these allegations prove true, it is a case of blatant cruelty and we want those responsible suspended,” says Trendler.
The wildlife unit of the National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) is investigating laying charges of animal cruelty. The unit this week interviewed witnesses who say Gertenbach travelled in the helicopter with members of the Kruger’s game capture team to see how many animals were caught in the buffalo camp.
They say Gertenbach took the decision to shoot them. Gertenbach – normally an ”office jockey” – personally wielded the shotgun, they allege.
Magome says Gertenbach ”admits that things went particularly badly that day. The option to cull the animals was the last on their agenda.”
He says Gertenbach decided to kill the giraffe bull when it got separated from six other giraffes that were being herded into a boma for relocation. He realised the vet involved in the operation had left and decided to use the shotgun himself.
”Using the shotgun was where things went wrong. He wasn’t used to this gun. He eventually put it out with a rifle. He admits that he should have used the rifle first.”
Magome adds that SANParks has agreed with the animal use and care committee to develop a protocol for the relocation and culling of animals so that humane methods are used.
- Meanwhile the director of public prosecutions in the Northern Cape has decided not to pursue criminal charges against hunters responsible for slowly torturing to death Kuruman’s white rhino mascot in May 2000.
The M&G reported shortly after the incident that the rhino was shot 14 or 15 times in the body and was left to bleed to death because the hunters did not want to shoot her in the head and spoil their hunting trophy.
The NSPCA laid charges under the Animals Protection Act. A witness stated under oath he had received a phone call asking for help in locating the rhino. When found, she was bleeding from the shoulder and hind quarters.
”The open back of a bakkie contained eight people. From 50 or 60 metres away with his 458 Winchester rifle, [one hunter] fired at her and she set off at a run. This process was repeated. I cannot remember how many times, but it was not less than 10 times. Finally she stopped running and fell to her knees.”
The rhino and her mate had been mascots in Kuruman’s Billy Duvenhage reserve for 15 years. But the pair – an endangered species – were split up in early May 2000 and sold on auction.
Public prosecutions says it decided not to prosecute because ”all persons present during the hunt expressed the view that the animal was not exposed to unnecessary suffering. There is no evidence to gainsay this.”
”The response of the hunters is predictable,” says NSPCA executive director Marcelle Meredith. ”The decision is an indication of what we are up against when we have the firm belief – and sworn evidence – that abuse and suffering have taken place.”