Outrage over baboon killings

CAPETONIANS are, understandably, outraged by the hunting permits given and the resulting killings of baboons in the Constantia mountains.

The UCT Baboon Research Unit, Cape Nature, SAN Parks and other parts of the Baboon Tactical Team are abdicating responsibility; the City of Cape Town seems to be caught in the middle, unable to reign in rogue elements; and the SPCA denies any knowledge of the permits.

Goal 8 of the Buffer Zone Policy of The National Environmental Management of Protected Areas Act states that animals (public assets) are held in trust by the state for the benefit of present and future generations, as part of the public estate. So, even if these animals had left the Table Mountain National Park, they are protected by the state itself!

Baboons are listed in Cites Appendix II and are considered to be protected wild animals in terms of Ordinance 19 of 1975.

It’s easy to blame the wine farmers here, but they shouldn’t have been able to get permits. How can baboons’ protected status, since 1998, have quietly been lifted, with no notification to local animal interest groups? How was it determined which baboons were the damage-causing animals? What is the true tally of baboons killed? (It’s difficult, given the misdirection, secrecy and social media posts about the alarming number of shots heard, to believe that only seven were killed by a professional hunter.) How is it that six other wine farms in the area have successfully implemented baboon-friendly deterrents?

The baboons have had to endure fire, drought and vegetation loss and yet feeding stations in their own area is outright rejected as a means of diverting their attention from easy access to human food. As usual, when humans fail, it is the animals who suffer. TONI BROCKHOVEN Chairperson, Beauty Without Cruelty SA