Roast rhino row in bush meat move

Outcry as new law on wild meat includes protected animals

● SA’s move to include rhinos, elephants and giraffes and other protected animals in the list of species that can be harvested for meat could fuel the growth of pandemics like Covid-19, say environmental groups.

A proposed amendment to the Meat Safety Act aims to incorporate the so-called bush meat industry into commercial agriculture, but it faces stiff opposition from those who believe it may contradict conservation efforts and create fertile ground for future pandemics.

Although the act’s objective is to regulate the way wild meat is handled, thereby improving hygiene, some opponents believe wild animal traffic should be limited rather than formalised.

This week, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a scientific brief highlighting the dangers posed by the growing trade in wild meat and live wildlife.

It identified SA as one of the key wildlife exporters in a trade driven by high-income countries, particularly the US.

Reducing the trade in wild animals and wild meat could help prevent zoonotic diseases — which originate in wild or domestic animals before infecting humans — by reducing the opportunity for “spillover” events, said the WWF.

“To effectively limit the trade in high-risk taxa for zoonotic emerging infectious diseases … any trade ban would need to be highly targeted towards high-risk taxa … and accompanied by highly targeted behaviourchange initiatives in both import and export nations,” the WWF said.

“A plausible alternative may regulate the trade more closely, require improved biosecurity and surveillance and provide education on safe handling of wild meat/live animals to traders and consumers. However, the costs involved in a more highly regulated trade may be prohibitive.”

The WWF in SA has submitted written comments on the proposed amendment to the Meat Safety Act, which would be regulated by the agriculture department.

It said: “We are particularly concerned by the inclusion of threatened species, especially rhinoceros, which have not been typically harvested for meat; and the lack of clarity around how ‘animal products’ are covered by the act, especially in relation to conservation implications due to illegal trade in highvalue products.

“We are also concerned about the lack of separation within broader taxonomic groups in which some species may be of conservation concern; the lack of clarity relating to the addition of ‘all other species of animals not mentioned above including birds, fish and reptiles that may be slaughtered as food for human and animal consumption’; and particularly by the lack of clarity relating to overlaps and potential gaps between the mandates of the departments of agriculture and environment in relation to species that will be impacted by different pieces of legislation.”

The two government departments did not respond to Sunday Times queries this week. But the Western Cape agriculture department defended the proposed amendment, saying it aimed “to ensure the health of consumers that eat meat slaughtered in abattoirs, amongst others to prevent the transmission of zoonotic disease from both domestic and wild animals”.

Western Cape head of veterinary services Dr Gininda Msiza said the inclusion of many wild species on the list was aimed at ensuring “control over the slaughter of wild animals”.

“Unfortunately, this list has been perceived by the uninformed as ‘new’ legalisation for the slaughter of the animals listed, which includes quite a number of wild game species. The fact is that these species could always have been slaughtered in the past, but without any official risk mitigation to prevent zoonotic transmission and to ensure the general health of the meat offered for sale.”

Mariam Mayet, executive director of the African Centre for Biodiversity, said Covid-19 should raise broader concerns about industrial agriculture, including the links between meat production and zoonotic spillovers.

“We need to look at how the world has been impacted and reconfigured,” Mayet said. “If we don’t we will be visited with more pandemics and shocks.”