FALSE BAY
X1W9UFU5-QK180820
TUESDAY 18 August 2020 | Tel: 021 910 6500 | Email: post@peoplespost.co.za | Website: www.peoplespost.co.za
@ThePeoplesPost
People’s Post
Brydes whale washes up on Longbeach On Monday 10 August, a Brydes whale carcass washed up on shore at Longbeach. According to residents and bystanders, the whale looked like he had been snacked on quite a bit and sharks had been seen circling in the waters close by. While the cause of the whale’s death is unknown, the whale does not seem to have suffered the fate of several others recently who died after becoming entangled in fishing gear. The carcass was removed from the beach the following day, Tuesday 11 August. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
WILDLIFE
City slams ‘kill list’ claim RACINE EDWARDES RACINE.EDWARDES@MEDIA24.COM @RAEEDWARDES
“P
lease can you engage with the residents of Kommetjie about the baboons, as the majority of residents do not want you to kill any of the baboons,” a Kommetjie resident wrote in an email to the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape government and animal welfare groups. The pro-life activists of the southern peninsula have long butted heads with the City’s service provider, Human Wildlife Solutions (HWS), on the way baboons are managed. The City’s manager for biodiversity management, Julia Wood, says the appointed baboon management service provider’s duties are to employ approximately 60 rangers to endeavour to keep baboon troops out of Cape Town’s baboon-affected suburbs. “This is not always possible as baboons are opportunistic and exploit any gap if the reward outweighs the risk. A baboon management service provider has to keep a baboon troop out of suburbs for at least 90% of the time to fulfil its contractual obligations. Human Wildlife Solutions has achieved this
for the past eight years,” she adds. There have been 17 management euthanasia cases due to raiding guidelines from June 2017 to June 2020, with five euthanasia cases on account of the raiding protocols from June 2019 to June 2020. But residents are not convinced these were all necessary. According to the resident and the Baboon Matters Trust, dedicated to conservation, HWS has a “kill list” of baboons who it deems as particular threats to humans. The City believes this claim is aimed at garnering financial support. “An ‘execution list’ or ‘kill list’ – as claimed by residents – does not exist. Suggesting that there is an execution list is presumably designed to foment outrage. When such statements are followed by a request for donations, then it is the duty of the public to ask difficult questions of those who seek to peddle false information,” says Wood. The resident, however, says the proof of the treatment of the animals is evident. “The baboon monitors are shooting these baboons constantly. They (the baboons) are always covered in paint. Do these monitors get any training? Do they have permits for the paintball guns and bearbangers? Again, baboons being shot at while foraging behind
our house on the mountain ... This chased a baboon right into our neighbour’s garden where a minute before he was minding his own business in nature,” she wrote. Pro-life activists implore the City and HWS to educate those residents who have not taken measures to prevent baboons from coming onto their properties by securing bins and closing windows among other things. “The baboons seem to frequent the same houses and streets constantly, so before you start killing them one by one, why not visit those properties, speak to complainants and visit their homes to see how they can make a difference to deter the baboons from visiting in the first place.” Wood says applications to euthanise a raiding baboon who is leading the troop into town and teaching others to do the same, are made to the Baboon Technical Team (BTT) according to the Guidelines for Baboon Management. She adds: “All applications go through a process of evaluation through committee processes. Representatives from the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, University of Cape Town primate specialists, SanParks, CapeNature and City of Cape Town baboon management serve in the committee.”
Before it gets to that point, however, residents say other measures of alerting residents of troops moving through the area should be explored. “We asked for some type of warning signal when they are in town, almost like the shark siren, but we have now reverted to a WhatsApp group that is currently too full to add anyone else. But even if the monitors just had some type of warning sound, that would help a lot of people to close up in time. Don’t kill an innocent animal because someone couldn’t secure their bin or close their window in time,” she concludes. Wood says it is recognised internationally that the philosophy of animal rights is in conflict with science-based conservation and management of wildlife. “This difference of opinion is the key to the microcosm of social conflict that the City of Cape Town faces with a small, but vocal group of animal rights activists,” she says. Woods assures residents the chosen action is in line with animal welfare specialists; the NSPCA and the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, animal rights activists and wildlife conservation scientists who agree that individual baboons should be treated ethically, humanely and with dignity at all times.