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Campaign Against Canned Hunting (CACH)

Shocking failure of conservation

3/2/2015

21 Comments

 
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Shocking Failure of
  conservation: Regulatory Capture and the 2015 Hunting Notice for the Western Cape Province, South Africa.

South African 'conservation' services have completely lost their way.   So much so, they need to be abolished and replaced with a service that will protect our wildlife.

Go to the Home page of the Cape Nature website www.capenature.co.za/ and you will see some smarmy assurances about how "We care for Nature" or "We conserve the unique natural heritage resources of the Western Cape".

But if you go to the 'About Cape Nature' page the vision becomes "to establish a successful conservation economy.... to transform biodiversity into.... local economic development."
Right there you see the problem: it is now all about money.

Tax payers might naively expect their taxes to go to the preservation and protection of our wildlife heritage.  But that is not Cape Nature's vision, which is to extract maximum financial benefit from the exploitation of wildlife 'resources'.

I have written before about regulatory capture, where big business invades and occupies its own regulatory bodies.  Anyone who doubts that Big Hunting controls conservation in S.A. should read the 2015 Hunting notice:
http://www.capenature.co.za/permits/hunting-permits-2/   
( click on the sub-link that reads 'Download the Hunting notice for 2015'.)

The legal ban on bow hunting (because of its barbaric cruelty) in Sec 29 of the Ordinance is simply 'suspended' - without public input or debate.

1.       Are you mentally ill enough to want to hunt a buffalo with a bow and arrow?   No problem, so long as you use a bow with a kinetic energy of 80 Ft/lbs and an arrow weight of at least 750 grains.  Cape Nature please explain in simple terms how shooting arrows into a poor buffalo can properly be characterised as conservation - a service for which you are paid by the taxpayer.

2.       Want to shoot arrows in to wildebeest, nyala, zebra or impala?  No problem - and there are no daily bag limits.  You can kill as many animals as you like.  Cape Nature, how does this constitute conservation?

3.       Want to shoot primates, namely vervets and baboons?  No problem, you can kill two a day. (72 a year) WTF????  But both primate populations are severely compromised in the western cape. Cape Nature knows this. 
Primate groups are tightly linked families with a hierarchy and social structure.  Killing animals randomly can have serious effects on the viability of the troop.  Cape Nature knows this too. 
Now why would any true conservationist permit random slaughter of individual primates in troops that are already stressed?  And what possible conservation reason can there be to allow ethically illiterate bozos to shoot such primates?

4.       Love killing birds for fun?  No problem, kill up to 10 guinea fowl and 40 pigeons/doves a DAY - with Cape Nature's blessing.

5.       What about caracals and jackals?  No problem there either.  Kill ten a day. 
But caracals are listed on Appendix 11 of CITES as deserving special protection?  Cape Nature are you paid by the taxpayer to protect our wildlife heritage, or to subsidise the landowners' war on threatened species?
Why are our tax- funded conservation officials promoting and permitting the excessive killing of an Appendix 11 animal to which it ought to be affording special protection?

Well, it is plain to see that regulatory capture has taken place - Cape Nature has become an arm of the hunting industry, and the military wing of the landowners' war on caracals and jackals.

As for the long-suffering SA taxpayer, are you happy that your tax money for conservation has become a subsidy for the hunting industry and for some brutal landowners?





21 Comments
Jill
3/1/2015 09:17:21 pm

This is truly terrible

Reply
Carla
3/1/2015 09:26:12 pm

This is shocking, thank you for bringing this to public attention!

Reply
Mara Rennie
3/1/2015 10:05:36 pm

Words fail me!!! And this in a DA run province. I expected more from the DA.

Reply
Virginia Greenwood-Warner
3/1/2015 10:11:18 pm

I absolutely detest farmers and hunters! They are all barbaric savages. They do not evolve, do NOT care about any other creature than self. What an absolutely disgusting bunch you all are! I wish I could actually shoot that smile off your faces.

Reply
Margaret
3/2/2015 01:22:47 am

I have been aware of the failure of Cape Nature for a few years but didnt have the time to investigate. Thanks for advertising to those who are blissfully unaware! Found an stall in Kraaifontein selling trinkets covered in jackal fur. Appalling

Reply
lynn hill
3/2/2015 06:08:20 am

This is Barbaric..what the hell is going on.for heavens sake something must be done to stop this sick bloodthirst of so called conservation.Conservation does not need imput of hideous beings

Reply
Gorgi
3/3/2015 02:53:48 am

Evil farmers are getting the world up in arms dirty money makers you deserve to desapear from the map you hateful people do not deserve animals..

Reply
Rupert McNaught Davis
12/4/2015 01:20:46 pm

SPELLING GORGI,SPELLING!

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Stephanie
3/3/2015 03:23:02 pm

See reply by Cape Nature on this on thier facebook page. CapeNature We as CapeNature are concerned about the misinformation that is being circulated through email spam and social media. The allegations made in terms of suspending hunting regulations are false.
The fact is that no hunting is allowed within any protected areas managed by CapeNature.
Hunting is a legal activity in South Africa, regulated by national norms and standards. These allow for bow-hunting on private land.
As the regulating authority in the Western Cape, CapeNature is obliged to put a legal framework in place that facilitates the sustainable utilisation of wildlife.
The framework for hunting in the Western Cape Province is put in place on an annual basis and is published in the Provincial Gazette as the "annual hunting notice". The annual hunting notice includes hunt-able species, seasons, daily bag limits and hunting methods, which includes bow-hunting. It is this notice that is being misinterpreted or misunderstood by various individuals. The fact is neither baboons, birds nor jackals are listed as hunt-able species with the use of a bow.
We encourage constructive comment from the public and use these comments to review the Hunting Notice each year. A notice requesting input from various interested and affected parties for any amendments to the hunting notice is published annually. Requests for amending the current status need to be ecologically motivated.
Opportunities to comment on the 2016 Hunting Notice will be opened later in the year.

Reply
Chris Mercer
3/3/2015 05:07:29 pm

Thanks for posting this Stephanie. In fact, I sent the link directly to the management of Cape Nature because we sit together in the Wildlife Forum that was set up by the Premier.
You can see I have merely commented on the info published by Cape Nature itself on its own website. They can disagree with my comments but cannot say that I am publishing misinformation, because the information is their own.

Reply
Elisa
3/4/2015 05:27:37 pm

hi Chris; I cannot see your comments on Cape Nature's Fbook page. They deny that hunting of baboons with bows and arrows is allowed. Have they responded to the 'daily bag' allowance? Would like to see your rebuttals of their claims. Thanks.

Harrison - White
3/6/2015 08:59:43 pm

Hi Stephanie,
I came across this correspondence by accident and your comments are very interesting. As far as I am aware Cape Nature has just introduced bow hunting into their hunting category (see Landmark Foundation facebook page) - so your comments re the same would appear to be incorrect?.
Additionally could you please provide me with scientific data to illustrate that the hunting of jackals and caracals en masse by helicopters, dogs and shooting as endorsed by Cape nature can be considered "a sustainable utilisation of wildlife"

Reply
Stephanie
3/6/2015 10:09:05 pm

Hi HW, i literally just cut and pasted what CN had said about this post on their Facebook page 4 days ago. I know they are full of shit and lies. Typical sort of response going to denial about everything.

Karin Saks
3/4/2015 07:11:28 pm

As far as primates are concerned, the initial email sent to me about this was headed: "CapeNature bow-hunting bag limits for 2015 - hunters can use bows to kill 2 baboons & 2 monkeys every day of the year!" The link to the hunting list is here:
http://www.capenature.co.za/.../Hunting-Notice-incl... . If primates are not listed as a huntable species using bow and arrow, that is a small relief. In practice however, experience has shown me over a number of years that primates are killed using a range of unacceptably, cruel methods while little if any protection or challenge to the perpetrators is offered, hence there is little to change about my original post.

Reply
Karin Saks
3/4/2015 09:50:11 pm

Chris, as you meet with CNC at the wildlife forum, would you perhaps know whether the nature conservation decision makers are hunters as well?

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Chris Mercer
3/6/2015 10:36:18 pm

Karin as for individuals I cannot say, but at the Global March in Cape Town I'm most certainly going to explain 'regulatory capture' ie how the hunting industry controls conservation in SA.

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monica steel
3/15/2015 03:00:36 am

I can't believe that there are mentally deranged people out there that actually get a thrill out of killing these beautiful animals.what would be great is to cage these imbeciles and slaughter them.yes , l would like that.

Reply
Virginia Greenwood-Warner
3/29/2015 06:42:24 pm

Fully agree Monica but most exciting would be to watch them after we use a bow as the preferred weapon. Soon see the smile vanish from their disgusting faces!!!!

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Rupert McNaught Davis
12/4/2015 01:17:18 pm

This is sensational claptrap of the worst kind.When sentiment tries to push out science, disaster will result,over population,disease and overgrazing .As for caracals " deserving special protection" ,it`s laughable,they are fast becoming the feline equivalent of the pied crow!Why they and jackals are in the proclamation I have no idea .The average stock farmer,if he is very lucky, may kill half a dozen of these animals a year,ten a day every day ? Not in their wildest dreams.Incidently nyala,wildebeest and impala are not indigenous to the Western Cape and are in fenced areas anyway.

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