In the latest salvo in the tahr wars, the National Council of SPCAs has accused South African National Parks (SANParks) of being ”out of control”.
”It is time to stop dodging questions and to come forward with straightforward answers — and to be held accountable,” NSPCA executive director Marcelle Meredith said in a statement on Friday.
”In our opinion, SANParks is out of control.”
However in what it called a ”standing media statement” also released on Friday, the department of environment affairs said it fully supported SANParks, and that there had in fact been consultation.
Meredith said SANParks had refused to respond to her organisation’s request for a meeting on the shooting of tahrs on Table Mountain, which began last week. Nor had the NSPCA received a reply to a letter it faxed to Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk this week, asking him to intervene.
She said the Democratic Alliance had now undertaken to investigate the matter. Earlier this week Meredith threatened an interdict to halt the killings.
On Friday she said the NSPCA believed its money would be better spent on animals than on litigation.
”The consultative route is still being actively sought but litigation cannot be ruled out,” she said.
In the department’s statement, director general Crispian Olver reiterated support for the culling.
He said the matter did not warrant intervention by Van Schalkwyk because ”due process was followed with regards to consultation”.
He said culling of the tarhs was approved by SANParks’ advisory animal ethics committee in 2001. The NSPCA was represented on a sub-committee of this body and was therefore party to the consultation process.
”We have an obligation to ensure that our country’s botanical gem, the Table Mountain, is protected from the threat caused by the tahrs,” he said.
”The culling will also ensure that SANParks re-introduces the indigenous klipspringer and grey rhebok species.”
Manager of the Cape Town Tourism organisation, Cheryl Ozinsky, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Friday that she had previously suggested that the animals be relocated to other parts of South Africa, where they could ”live out their lives in dignity and peace”.
”My view is that we need to take both points of view into consideration. I understand the national parks’ conservation ethos, but I believe we don’t need to kill an animal. Other ways need to be found.
”People in Cape Town need to think about issues like this. It’s a valuable discussion. It’s about our values and as residents of this town, it is our role to question.” – Sapa