December 15th, 2008 - Revisiting 2008

Hi Everyone,

Another year has passed with many changes and interesting times ahead. A new president for the USA, financial problems around the world and a new political party for S.A.

As you all know Chris and I have been continuing our fight to get canned hunting banned in South Africa. It is a long and hard road and one I imagine we will fight all our lives.

Last year Chris travelled often to major centres like Jo’burg, Cape Town and Durban in order to give audiovisual presentations, but this year instead we have focused on the media. We gave interviews to a number of TV wildlife documentary film producers about canned lion hunting in SA. And these exposes of canned hunting have been screened all around the world. Recently we received an email from a friend in Germany saying that an expose on canned hunting, which included interviews with us, was screened on prime time German TV in November.
We also gave attention to the printed media, and contributed to many articles in the press. The issue of gin traps was raised again.
The Source of the Traps in South Africa: The Landmark Foundation discovered that a factory in Prince Albert, in the Western Cape, is "quietly going about its business" of manufacturing as many as 1200 gin traps each month - two hundred of these are leopard traps - and this while it is expressly illegal to use these devices on protected species! The factory owner, Mr Peter Schneekluth, boasts that he has 3000 farmers on his books. That means that between 12 000 and 15 000 of these traps enter the system each year!
Under the heading “Why has this man not been prosecuted?” we blitzed the media with the story of Schneekluth’s macabre factory, and a storm of controversy broke out, with conservationists ducking for cover. Eventually, Cape Nature were forced to declare a ban on the use of these diabolical devices, although no one believes that this will stop farmers from using them. In short, there is no such thing as a problem animal, there are only problem farmers.
So although it is hard to determine what tangible progress we are making, our campaign to expose the institutionalised cruelty to wildlife continues at least to raise public awareness.

And so to the Internet. We have a new interactive website. Chris’s son is a wiz with computers and has redesigned our website to make it a more effective campaign tool, with up to date features. Of course he had to teach me how to make the changes and that must have been a very frustrating experience for him as I struggled to understand computer language and implement what he was teaching me. He controlled his exasperation very well, only tut-tutting me once or twice for some minor inaccuracy. Computers do not like even minor inaccuracies - miss out a dot or a dash and the whole programme is useless.
Do take a look and let me know what you think.

This year, I was fortunate enough to be accepted as a volunteer on the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling ship, the ‘Steve Irwin.’ In June I flew to Melbourne in Australia to join the ship and spent a month onboard as a working ship hand. It was a memorable experience and I have great admiration for the young crew who give so much to such a worthy cause. The ship has already left port for their next encounter with the Japanese whaling fleet in December. I do suggest you visit their website for updates on Operation Musashi.
While in Australia, I was also privileged to spend time with Phil and Trixie Wollen of the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust.

It is now time for us to go back to the bush to work hands on with wildlife.
Just north-west of Port Elizabeth lies the greater Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve cluster, a rugged mountainous wilderness - see photo opposite. There is a dire need for an in situ wildlife rehabilitation centre and sanctuary there to deal with the care of orphaned and injured wild animals and birds.

We spent many days walking and driving the Baviaanskloof area. It is truly spectacular and is the largest conservation area in South Africa after Kruger Park and the Kalahari. We were fortunate to meet a serious conservationist landowner in the Kouga area who is keen for us to get started on his land. He is busy establishing a low impact eco-tourism business on his 4000 hectare (about ten thousand acres if you think in acres) private reserve, with quaint stone cottages in the mountains, wooden chalets on the Kouga River and a 1500 hectare game camp for horseback riding in the hills to view the wildlife. He is prepared to provide the house and capital infrastructure to help us establish the rehab facility. Once our own house sells we will then put our own funds into the purchase of some land adjoining his, to open up the whole into a conservancy for the animals. The more land that is formed into conservancies, the better for the survival of our wildlife. His land borders the Mega Baviaanskloof Reserve, giving us available wilderness on to which to release rehabbed birds and animals.

So we are very excited and will be moving up there in March to start the necessary permit application process, with EIAs, risk assessments, local authority approvals and all the other bureaucratic hurdles which have to be cleared before we can take in a single little bundle of feathers or fur in need of care. Enclosures have to be built to approved specifications, education and ICU facilities designed and built, old buildings restored, and a food flow set up for the various animals that will be coming into the centre: meat for the predators, fruit and veg for the primates, and meal worms for birds and small mammals.

There are worldwide volunteer programs whereby people interested in working hands on with wildlife pay to work at a wildlife rehab centre for a couple of weeks or longer. The volunteer program enables wildlife rehab centres not only to get free labour but also to earn a much-needed income, which pays for food and medical expenses.
Once we are up and running we would like to establish a volunteer program too.
Of course I will be keeping you informed of progress as we go along with regular newsletters under the UPDATES section on our new website.

There is a High Court action being argued in Bloemfontein that deserves mention. At the request of the State Attorney, we filed an affidavit in these proceedings, telling the Court that failure to ban canned hunting will inevitably lead to tourism boycotts by ethical tourists.
The captive lion breeders have brought a High Court case against the Minister, challenging the validity of the new TOPS regulations. They argue that it would be unreasonable to restrict canned hunting, thereby causing the lion breeders financial loss.
One of the restrictions which is a central issue in the High Court case is the so-called two-year wilding rule. The industry is trying, through government regulation, to foist on to a gullible public the idea that if a lion is kept in a camp for two years where it has to substantially hunt prey animals for itself, it is no longer tame and therefore hunting it can no longer be termed ‘canned’ hunting. This is obviously nonsensical: no intelligent person will swallow the argument that ‘if we pretend that the lion is wild, you can pretend that canned hunting has been abolished.’

Thank you all for all the support and emails sent out to the many causes which I have sent to you over the year. The petitions and letters bring awareness. We will have to now buy a 4x4 vehicle to be able to operate in the mountains. Although Japanese vehicles are very good and suitable, we will be informing Toyota, Nissan etc motor dealers that we cannot consider buying their vehicles while the Japanese whaling fleet continues to kill whales in the Antarctic ocean.

I hope that 2008 has been a good year for you and that 2009 is a better one, especially for the animals and animal welfare around the world. Keep up the exposure and keep fighting for their welfare.
Have a great holiday season and I wish you and your families all the very best.

Luv B